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Daytona 500 Still The Pinnacle Of The Deal

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 17, 2008

DAYTONA BEACH - It was 1959 when a bunch of hard chargers, some of whom once roared down back roads in moonshine cars, rode through the tunnel into the new racetrack "Big Bill" France had paved with asphalt and dreams down in Florida.

"There was one building in the infield," said Richard Petty, who came to run with his daddy, Lee. "They had enough grandstands for maybe 20, 25,000 people. And that was it. It looked like forever down into the first and second turn ..."

Today they'll run the 50th Daytona 500, before a couple of hundred thousand at the high banks and millions more on television. It's a world away from 1959, when you could buy a family car for $2,200 and a gallon of gas for a quarter. Doing 140 mph at Daytona was rocket stuff. "Today, the pace car does that warming up," Richard Petty said.

It was a different kind of show. "But we had ceremonies the first time," said Marvin Panch, 81, the oldest living 500 winner, who ran in the inaugural race before winning in 1961. "We even had a jet flyover like today. I remember driver Tim Flock, he had this monkey, always carrying it around, even in his car. He talks a crew member into taking the monkey up in the flyover. Well, they hit those burners ..."

And that monkey, in every conceivable way, emptied its monkey breakfast and lunch on the pilot.

Marvin Panch laughed.

"Don't think there's been a monkey flyover since."

A Controversial Start

They knew right off it would be something. Lee Petty won the inaugural 500. He beat Johnny Beauchamp to the line by a few feet, though you could hardly tell at the time. Beauchamp was declared the winner and stayed the winner for a few days, that is, until Big Bill got hold of some newsreel from New York that proved Petty had won. The Great American Race was on.

The 500 was something in 1960, the year Junior Johnson won. Junior came down from North Carolina after years of outrunning lawmen chasing his moonshine haul. The stock-car boys were tougher, Junior said.

"A lot of them were bootleggers, so if you beat them, you beat a whole lot more capable people."

This is the race where The Fight broke out - the Allison brothers, Bobby and Donnie, trading blows with Cale Yarborough after Donnie and Cale crashed on the final lap. NASCAR, down to the bone.

"Cale hit me in the face with his helmet," three-time 500 winner Bobby Allison said. "I got out of my car and he started beating my fist with his nose. That's my story and I'm sticking to it."

This is the race Cale Yarborough, who came up from nothing, won four times. This is the race Richard Petty won seven times. This is the race that almost did The King in as his car disintegrated. This is the race where Petty and David Pearson spun each other out. Pearson chugged to the checkers and legend.

This is the race Fireball Roberts won. It's the race Derrike Cope won, too. It's the race of Jeff Gordon. It's the race of A.J. Foyt and Mario Andretti. And it's the race of Tiny Lund.

In 1963, Tiny (he weighed 270 pounds) came to Daytona looking for work, driver, pit crew, anything. But a month before the 500, Tiny helped save Marvin Panch by pulling him from a burning wreck. Panch's racing bosses were so proud of Tiny they gave him a car for the 500. Naturally, Tiny won.

This is the race Dale Earnhardt finally beat in 1998. This is the race that took his life three years later. This is the race his boy won three years after that.

Things change. But nothing truly changes at the 500.

Two-time champ Bill Elliott smiled.

"It's the pinnacle of the deal."

It's As Real As It Gets

Junior Johnson will drive the pace car today. In other full-circle news, Junior appeared at a Daytona Beach liquor store this week to promote his new and legal alcohol brand, Midnight Moon.

This is the race, folks, as great and as American as it gets, as real as it gets, too.

Marvin Panch won $21,050 for winning the 1961 Daytona 500. Tony Stewart earned $334,931 for finishing last in 2007. Twelve years after he saved Marvin Panch's life and won the 500, Tiny Lund died in a fiery crash at Talladega.

Marvin Panch drives his motor home all across the country. He hardly ever gets recognized. But he won himself a Daytona 500, just like Tiny, and that's enough.

They'll run the 50th today.

"Should be a hell of a race," Panch said.

It's the pinnacle of the deal.

That's our story and we're sticking to it.

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