|| *Comments on the 1979 Daytona ARCA 200:* View the most recent comment <#17> | Post a comment <#post> 1. RaceFanX posted: 03.18.2020 - 2:33 pm Rate this comment: (2) (1) Kyle Petty makes his racing debut driving a cast off Dodge Magnum from his dad Richard Petty's Cup team and pulls off a headlining grabbing victory here at Daytona in the series' annual ARCA race during Speedweeks. Emphasis on "racing" debut, Kyle Petty had never run a race on any level before coming to Daytona as a rookie and pulling off this win. 2. RaceFanX posted: 03.18.2020 - 2:42 pm Rate this comment: (2) (1) Sponsor: #44- Valvoline (Petty Enterprises was the owner) Despite the Petty family's long association with STP the brand was dialing back its involvement with Petty Enterprises for 1979 after Richard Petty's winless 1978 NASCAR Cup series season. The team picked up a new sponsorship from Valvoline here for Kyle while Richard got an associate sponsor for the Cup team. After both Pettys scored wins during Speedweeks STP signed on to sponsor both of them on a bigger level. This was Kyle's first race at any level but he did get some testing before hand. The Petty team came to Daytona with two NASCAR Cup cars and had Richard do laps at speed with Kyle following him and being instructed to do as he did. At the time the King justified having Kyle's first race at Daytona by noting essentially he'd have to learn to race the big tracks sometime to race in NASCAR so he may as well start out there. It worked out with a trip to victory lane but in retrospect both Richard and Kyle have admitted that was probably a crazy thing to do. Experience requirements are in place to prevent drivers trying this in the modern day. 3. Jeff posted: 03.18.2020 - 8:09 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Believe Bobby Jacks rolled over in a big wreck off Turn 2 after several cars got together. I have an old issue of NSSN that has photos of the incident. 4. zuel660 posted: 03.19.2020 - 9:08 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Always thought it was cool that Kyle managed to do something that Richard never did, & that was win a race in the Dodge Magnum! Perhaps due to his inexperience, the supposed ill-handling Dodge seemed just fine to Kyle here. 5. Jordan posted: 03.19.2020 - 3:26 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) I think Kyle's win has more to do with the Magnum being an ex Cup car vs Arca cars than Kyle not knowing any better. Kyle spoke with Dale Jr. about this race recently on his podcast. @#2 RaceFanX - Kyle says on Jr's podcast that he rode in the car with Richard driving, sitting on a car cover and hanging onto the roll bar at 190+ mph. Talk about something that would NEVER happen today. He did not mention following The King around at any point. 6. RaceFanX posted: 03.19.2020 - 5:14 pm Rate this comment: (2) (1) @5 IIRC that story about Kyle driving behind Richard is from the book "He Crashed Me So I Crashed Him Back," which recounts the 1979 NASCAR Cup series season. Either way I'd recommend the book to any stock car racing fan. 7. MegaRacer posted: 03.20.2020 - 12:35 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) 1979-84 ARCA results?! Score! Thanks Charles and Racing-Reference! 8. rm posted: 03.20.2020 - 4:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) While not quite the same as Daytona, Alan Pruitt made his racing debut in one of the ARCA races at Pocono in 1990. Once again, you would think that somebody somewhere along the line would have made the suggestion to start somewhere, anywhere that wasn't a 2.5 mile superspeedway in something as fast as a stock car. That's about where the similarities end. Pruitt had almost the exact opposite outcome of Petty, he finished second-to-last, citing engine failure as his reason for departure 15 laps in. Pruitt's career spanned just 11 ARCA races, all at superspeedways, with a best effort of 11th. 9. RaceFanX posted: 03.22.2020 - 2:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #91 Bobby Davis- Poplar Level Auto Parts / Finish Line Engineering 10. rw posted: 03.22.2020 - 4:01 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I have been waiting for these results for this exact race, until now. Thank you! 11. Canadianfan posted: 03.26.2020 - 3:47 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Kyle Petty talked about this race on a recent Dale Jr. Download. He said they were 5-6 cars that were the class of the field. They ran in a small group the whole race trading the lead. He said in the drivers meeting that John Markham said they were to put on a show for the fans who came to watch the Cup guys qualify afterwards. They had a limited time to get in the race and if they stunk up the show by someone getting too big of a lead they would throw the caution flag. He had his dad's pit crew and because they worked so quickly he got a big lead of around 18 seconds and they ended up throwing caution flag. He said that Phil Finney should've won the race but late in the race he hit a seagull in the middle of the backstretch and it caved in his windshield. He also had to fight John Rezek for the win as he got to his outside on the last lap in turn 3. 12. rm posted: 06.06.2020 - 10:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The #1 of Marvin Smith had its usual Riverside Auto Parts sponsorship This was the worst finish of Smith's second championship season, coming on the heels of another DNF in the first race of "1979" from the fall prior. A 9th in the season finale at Flat Rock would be his only finish off the podium the rest of the year That definitely sounds like it's right in Marcum's wheelhouse, I think Darrell Waltrip has some similar tales from ARCA or Marcum-promoted races where he was issued the same warnings! 13. MSportRev posted: 08.21.2020 - 11:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pole Speed: 191.416 MPH 14. rm posted: 01.20.2021 - 5:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) According to the recent post announcing the passing of Bobby Jacks, the 73's car owner was indeed longtime collaborator Mike Redfern. 15. Danish_Pie posted: 02.22.2021 - 7:20 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Joy Fair's sponsor was K & M Engineering https://www.facebook.com/groups/264837893605979/permalink/729995513756879 16. RaceFanX posted: 02.23.2021 - 11:21 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Sponsor: #8 Ramo Stott- Buick (The stock car featured a giant rendition of Buick's then-current logo with "Happy the Hawk" on the hood) Owner: #8- Sap Parker (according to a newspaper article from Sap's hometown) Ex-Cup racer Ramo Stott had the #8 Buick up in the top-5 late in the race when a blown tire resulted in a crash and retirement. High attrition meant Stott still brought home a top-10 in his only start of the season. 17. Tigerman posted: 04.27.2021 - 1:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sandy Satullo drove a self-owned Buick. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: