|| *Comments on the 1968 Daytona 500:* View the most recent comment <#44> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Chicago posted: 12.02.2005 - 10:42 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) If I remember correctly, didn't Richard Petty's car run a vinyl roof, thinking it was a major competitive edge, only to have it come loose mid-race and lose two laps pitting for repairs? 2. Dalejrfan14 posted: 04.04.2006 - 6:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) yes 3. James W. McLaughlin posted: 01.14.2007 - 2:38 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) No qualifying races this year because of rain. 4. Mike posted: 01.23.2007 - 1:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dave Marcis's first Grand National start. 5. Patrick posted: 09.04.2008 - 1:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ASA Legend Bob Senneker's Nascar debut. 6. RaceFanX posted: 10.22.2008 - 11:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was also Bob "The Sneaker" Senneker's best career NASCAR finish, 13th. It was also the only time he ran his signature #84 in NASCAR and his sole Daytona 500 appearence. 7. Anonymous posted: 11.29.2008 - 7:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) unser finished 4th, surprisingly 8. Steve posted: 12.01.2008 - 12:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why is that a surprise? He's a 4 time Indy 500 Champion. 9. hyltonfan08 posted: 01.05.2009 - 4:28 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Probably because he's not well known as a stock car driver. A lot of great open wheel drivers have flopped in NASCAR (Wally Dallenbach Jr., Dario Franchitti, etc.), so when one does do well, it is a surprise. 10. hyltonfan08 posted: 01.23.2009 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: 5-Butch Hartman: Hartman Autocar 26-LeeRoy Yarbrough: Winebarger Motor Co. 11. Ryan posted: 01.29.2009 - 5:32 pm Rate this comment: (7) (1) Wow! Someone just compared Wally Dallenbach and Franchitti to Al Unser... Glad it was you and not me. 12. hyltonfan60 posted: 02.11.2009 - 2:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Who are you to doubt Wally Dallenbach? 13. Anonymous posted: 02.23.2009 - 11:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In other open-wheeler news: Mario Andretti, great as he was, had a tendency for crashing out of NASCAR races, and this was no exception. 14. Sébastien posted: 07.27.2009 - 12:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Andretti #11 sponsor was Bunnell Motor Co. Pearson #17 sponsor was East Tenn. Motor Co. Petty #43 sponsor was Unity Raceway Earl Brooks #75 sponsor was "Hot Shot Cafe" of Asheville, NC 15. myself posted: 02.09.2010 - 11:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Given how dominant Cale & the Woods were during these speed weeks, its fair to assume he likely would've won the triple crown had their been qualifying races. 16. WillG_46 posted: 08.13.2010 - 10:46 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Cale had them covered that day. Had he not had to come in for overheating and tire issues, he very well could have won by 2 laps or more. 17. b4il3y posted: 08.16.2010 - 11:35 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) #11...wow...Al Unser to Wally Dallenabach...lol... 18. RaceFanX posted: 04.07.2011 - 12:48 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) This was the 10th running of the Daytona 500. Cale Yarborough qualified his Mercury Cyclone on the pole at over eight miles faster than the previous year. With the qualifiers rained out there was a lot of nervousness as to just how the race would go down. Yarborough led early but ignition problems slowed him. He'd get back into contention around halfway. Richard Petty and his "mysterious" black vinyl roof actually ran pretty good and led the race until James Hylton blew a tire and ended up in the turn 1 wall. A piece of debris from Hylton's car hit Petty's and knocked the roof loose starting a day of troubles for Richard's team because of their experiment. The King actually got out of his car to hammer away at the roof trying to fix to no avail. The #43 only got the car back running regularly once they secured the roof with a buttload of "the handyman's secret weapon," duct tape. With Petty and Cale having their issues Buddy Baker and LeeRoy Yarbrough dueled for the lead before pit stops allowed defending Daytona 500 winner Mario Andretti to spend some time on the point. Andretti's bid for a second consecutive 500 wasn't to be and it ended in a crash with Baker and John Sears just passed halfway. His Hulman-Moody #11 Ford ended up backwards against the outside wall in the trioval with heavy damage but Baker got the worse of it as Ray Fox's white #3 Dodge got the back tires off the ground after impacting that infamous little outcroping at the end of pit road that is thankfully long gone today. With Baker and Andretti gone Cale and LeeRoy proceded to have a nice fight for the win in their Mercurys. Both still had troubles though. Cale's car overheated after getting trash stuck on the grill (a lot had been blowning around the track that day) and LeeRoy pitted for a regular stop then stopped again two laps later thinking something was wrong with the car when nothing was. Cale eventually got the lead back when Bobby Allison pitted but lost it again when he pitted during a caution for Sam McQuagg's blown engine. Cale ran down LeeRoy after the restart and passed him with four to go to win the race, his first victory in the Daytona 500. Al Unser's great run probably was VERY surprising to those of the day. Unser may be a 4-time Indy 500 winner now but back then he was only an Champ Car outsider in just his second NASCAR Cup start that only had one Champ Car win to his credit and that was the 1965 Pikes Peak Hill Climb, not even a real Indy-style race. The finish is his best in NASCAR although he'd match it at Riverside the next year. 19. cjs3872 posted: 05.09.2011 - 4:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Of note, because the qualifying races were rained out and cancelled, 1968 was the only year in which the speed of the second-fastest qualifier (who was Richard Petty, who qualified on the front row for a record fourth consecutive time) is not known (the second-place starter's speed is also the official pole speed of record for the second qualifying race). Also, the qualifying races in 1968 were scheduled for 125 mile for the first time, but because they were washed out, they were run at that distance for the first time in 1969, and were the distance for those races until 2004. In 1978, they were rained out on Thursday, February 16, but were run the following morning. Also, Dub Simpson earned a dubious distinction by becoming the only driver ever to fail to complete a lap in the race. Also, in response to post #16, you were probably accurate, since Cale DID lap the field TWICE in the Firecracker 400 later that year. Cale's win from the pole was the third from that position, but the last for 12 years, a record that was tied later. (Bill Elliott's 1987 win from the pole was also the last for 12 years and Dale Jarrett's 2000 win from the pole is now guaranteed to be the last for at least 12 years.) 20. VoteGillilandNotDanica2014 posted: 08.13.2013 - 4:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: Darel Dieringer: Plymouth http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/1968+Daytona+500+ride+for+Darel+Dieringer___.jpg.html?g2_GALLERYSID=28a703874a63a1bf544fa3e7f1951507 James Hylton: Dodge http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/James+Hylton+awaits+help+after+hitting+the+wall+-+_68+Daytona+500___.jpg.html?g2_GALLERYSID=28a703874a63a1bf544fa3e7f1951507 Tiny Lund: Mercury http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/David+Pearson+and+Tiny+Lund+racing+in+the+1968+Daytona+500.jpg.html?g2_GALLERYSID=28a703874a63a1bf544fa3e7f1951507 21. VoteGillilandNotDanica2014 posted: 08.13.2013 - 7:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) John Sears' sponsor was Carolina 500 http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/Big+John+Sears+-+1968+Daytona+500___.jpg.html 22. VoteGillilandNotDanica2014 posted: 08.14.2013 - 5:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Donnie Allison's sponsor was Don Wagner Ford Sales http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/Donnie+Allison+limps+down+pit+road+after+tagging+the+wall+during+the+1968+Daytona+500___.jpg.html Buddy Baker's sponsor was Dodge http://www.floridastockcars.com/gallery3/v/Daytona/Buddy+Baker+with+the+Ray+Fox+Dodge+-+1968+Daytona+500___.jpg.html Darel Dieringer's car was a Plymouth, not a Dodge. 23. RaceFanX posted: 07.11.2014 - 1:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Al Unser's only Daytona 500 start, in fact it was his only NASCAR start on an oval. 24. Paul posted: 08.07.2014 - 12:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: #02 Bob Cooper - Dri-Slide Special (http://hostingbytes.us/images/3/7024519.jpg) #25 Jabe Thomas - Star City Body Shop (http://hostingbytes.us/images/3/971273.jpg) #29 Bobby Allison - Long-Lewis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Fx5MoJrpo - @2:48) #64 Elmo Langley - Woodfield Ford (http://hostingbytes.us/images/3/8932811.png) 25. Paul posted: 08.19.2014 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #27 A.J Foyt - Dick Brannan Ford (https://revslib.stanford.edu/catalog/js677zs9096) #56 Jim Hurtubise - Thorne-Pistone (https://revslib.stanford.edu/catalog/fv213km6594) #99 Paul Goldsmith - Valleydale Meats (https://revslib.stanford.edu/catalog/bc329rb6236) 26. Zach posted: 01.21.2015 - 10:10 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) My father was working for Petty Enterprises at the time and came up with the vinyl roof experiment. They took physics from aviation and applied them to their car. I have been told that a race car is a wing that you make unable to fly. The vinyl roof had small sags or dips that created natural downforce against the top of the car which actually made it much faster. Why didn't the vinyl roof work? The paint for the roof that was requested wasn't shipped to the track. The crew had to buy paint that you would use for a spray in truck bed liner and it was too heavy for the vinyl roof to support. The crew knew this would be a problem but they didn't have time to weld in additional supports to the roll cage before the race. They ended up using every foot of duck tape that they could get their hands on just to finish 2 laps down. Since the 125's were rained out they had very little track time to test the durability of the roof. Bill France politely asked Petty Enterprises not to bring that car back to the race track. 27. Andy S posted: 02.22.2015 - 4:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) My first race that I knew was NASCAR, having been to Old Bridge at age 8. I didn't get to another until the June 1996 Pocono race. 28. Maverick11 posted: 05.22.2016 - 1:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The guy who compared Wally Dallenbach, Jr. and Al Unser seriously made my day. 29. Sean posted: 05.22.2016 - 1:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wally certainly wasn't a great open wheel driver. He was a great Trans-Am driver in an era when Trans-Am was still highly competitive, and that is too overlooked these days. He should have only ever been a road course ringer in NASCAR though. Never really understood the whole road course ringers running the entire schedule thing that you can argue happened with Wally, Robby, and Marcos... I think he gets dissed too much for his NASCAR failures but then so does Scott Pruett and his career is much more impressive than Dallenbach's all around. And he REALLY deserved that Watkins Glen win in '95. No, Dario isn't comparable to Al Unser either and he'll be a couple tiers lower on my list... 30. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.07.2016 - 10:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 3-6: #1,14 accident Caution 2: Lap 10-12: debris Caution 3: Lap 14-18: oil on track Caution 4: Lap 26-32: #48 accident turn 1 Caution 5: Lap 47-51: #66 accident Caution 6: Lap 76-83: #43 brushed wall Caution 7: Lap 93-96: #15 engine Caution 8: Lap 107-114: #3,4,11 accident tri-oval Caution 9: Lap 117-120: #56 spun backstretch Caution 10: Lap 125-131: #5,56 accident tri-oval Caution 11: Lap 176-180: #37 engine 31. Siple posted: 03.03.2017 - 2:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: 6 Al Unser - Dodge 20 Clyde Lynn - Mercury Cyclone 97 Red Farmer - Long-Lewis Ford 32. Amanda K posted: 06.04.2017 - 8:45 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) Pretty sure this is the race in which Junior Johnson cost his own team the race. Cale ran out of gas at some point in the race and overshot his pit as the crew wasn't expecting him. Junior Johnson was standing out waiting for Leeroy to come and he managed to put just enough gas to get Cale back around to his put. Per Junior, Cale and Leonard Wood, after putting gas in Cale's car, one of the NASCAR officials told Junior he couldn't fill up someone else's car. Junior responded with "that wasn't my car?!" 33. RaceFanX posted: 06.04.2017 - 4:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The single lap Al Unser led in this one was the only time he led a NASCAR race in his career. 34. Jim posted: 03.27.2018 - 9:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) On Butch Hartman's wiki it says he was the 1st rookie to lead the Daytona 5oo. 35. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 06.02.2018 - 1:58 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) First Daytona 500 starts for Andy Hampton, Buddy Arrington, Bill Seifert, Dave Marcis, Earl Brooks, Dick Johnson, Dr. Don Tarr, and Dub Simpson. Only Daytona 500 starts for Al Unser, Bob Senneker, Butch Hartman, Larry Manning, Rod Eulenfeld, Charles Burnett, Don Biederman, Stan Meserve, and Bud Moore. Last Daytona 500 starts for Darel Dieringer, Clyde Lynn, Sam McQuagg, Mario Andretti, Sonny Hutchins, Bob Cooper, Jerry Grant, Paul Lewis, Roy Tyner, and H. B. Bailey. 36. Other Anthony posted: 10.03.2018 - 1:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The lap leaders list on this race is all messed up...Andretti couldn't possibly have led from laps 167-171, considering he crashed out some 60 laps earlier... 37. Spen posted: 10.03.2018 - 3:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) From the lap data, it looks like Bobby Allison is missing those five laps. Driver change: Buddy Arrington qualified the #67. 38. Spen posted: 10.03.2018 - 3:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ...And it looks like according to you guys, he raced it too. Ultimateracinghistory says Bob Pronger drove it in the race. 39. JSPorts posted: 10.03.2018 - 6:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pronger didn't compete in this race, or at least didn't start it. 40. TannerBragg posted: 03.25.2019 - 7:31 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Dave Marcis car built by Don Biederman. 41. Yeet posted: 03.25.2019 - 1:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ironic a guy named "Dub" finishes dead last without completing a lap 42. Ryan posted: 09.14.2019 - 3:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @32 It's possible that happened where both were driving a Mercury and their cars were white except the roof was red on Cale's car. Junior may not have been paying any attention. 43. RaceFanX posted: 09.08.2020 - 10:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #43 Richard Petty - Unity Raceway / Plymouth by Petty 44. Rich posted: 01.01.2021 - 7:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Flemming and Chris Economaki were the commentators. Flemming was the sole pit road reporter as well as the studio host. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: