|| *Comments on the 1973 Daytona 500:* View the most recent comment <#33> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. MegaRacer posted: 02.18.2007 - 10:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The King's first Daytona 500 win with STP sponsorship 2. RaceFanX posted: 12.31.2007 - 9:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Racing is a strange business, just 3 years after scoring his unlikely victory in the 1970 Daytona 500, Pete Hamiliton comes home last in his final start in the event that gave him his place in NASCAR history. 3. Matt posted: 10.11.2008 - 3:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Earl Ross' first career start 4. 18fan posted: 03.10.2009 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Typical Buddy Baker Daytona 500 heartbreak. The only two cars that could run with him were Cale and Richard until Cale blew his engine trying to keep up with Buddy. Petty and Baker had to pit for gas late in the race and Petty had a faster pit stop, and Baker blew his engine with six laps left trying to catch Petty. It's impossible to know if Baker could have caught Petty, but Richard was probably fine not finding out. 5. J Louis Frey posted: 09.22.2009 - 2:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was first Daytona 500 for Darrell Waltrip and Larry Smith. Waltrip had a great career, winning the race in 1989. Smith was the Cup Rookie of the Year in 1972, but was killed later in the year at Talladega. 6. rateus posted: 03.08.2010 - 8:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver change from qualifying race: Walter Ballard replaced Roy Mayne in the 30 (after missing out in the 35) 7. Schroeder51 posted: 12.27.2010 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Country music star Marty Robbins competed in his first of 2 Daytona 500s. He crashed out of both of them early, though. 8. cjs3872 posted: 05.14.2011 - 9:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Of note, no two drivers that finished in the top 10 that were running at the finish, finshed on a common lap. Also, Baker's 156 laps led are the fourth-most in a single Daytona 500 in race history. Oddly enough, three of the five highest single-race laps led totals for a driver came in non-victorious performances. (Fireball Roberts-170 laps led in 1961, Baker-156 laps led in 1973, and Dale Earnhardt, Sr.-155 laps led in 1990.) The only two vicotrious performances in the five most dominant in terms of laps led were Richard Petty (184 laps led in 1964) and A.J. Foyt (167 laps led in 1972). Also, Bobby Isaac's second-place finish was car owner Bud Moore's third such finish, incredible considering that it came in a mini-motor Ford that was one of several car to suffer a broken windshield during the race. (Ramo Stott, who finished eighth was another driver that suffered the same fate.) Moore finally won the race in 1978 with Bobby Allison, and both men are being inducted into the NASCAR HOF on Monday, May 23, 2011. Also, Dick Brooks' third-place finish came in the next-to-last race for car owner Cotton Owens. Owens' cars always seemed to finish up front at the Daytona 500, but he never had a winner. (Aside from Brooks' third-place finish in 1973, Owens also finished second twice with Charlie Glotzbach in 1969 and 1972, and finished fourth in 1968 with a young upstart named Al Unser, who would go on to arguably become the greatest driver in the history of the Indianapolis 500.) This was Richard Petty's fourth victory in the Daytona 500, and he would win it again the next year, becoming the first back-to-back winner with his fifth 500 triumph. It wasn't until 1977 (Cale Yarborough) that any driver join Richard Petty as a multiple winner of the Daytona 500. 9. Sebastien posted: 12.27.2011 - 2:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #42 Robbins sponsor was "Marty Robbins". 10. Schroeder51 posted: 07.12.2012 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQs: #19 Henley Gray, #64 Elmo Langley, #0 Eddie Bond, #10 Bill Champion, #76 Ben Arnold, #53 David Ray Boggs, #62 Tom Usry, #83 Paul Tyler, #84 Sammy Sessions, #36 H. B. Bailey, #01 Earle Canavan, #86 Bob Tullius, #86 Bob Greeley, #03 Tommy Gale, #80 Phil Finney, #54 Lennie Pond, #47 Raymond Williams, #77 Charlie Roberts, #7 Dean Dalton, #44 Larry Dickson, #89 Johnny Barnes, #61 Clarence Lovell, #07 Jerry Cook, #1 Slick Gardner, #96 Richard Childress, #87 Les Covey, #20 Rick Newsom, #81 Steve Armst, #00 Andy Hampton, #69 Gerald Thompson, #59 Donnie Allison, #38 Tony Bettenhausen, Jr., #65 Dick Poling. 11. Dozierthegreat posted: 07.13.2012 - 12:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dick Brooks sponsor was John Naughton Insurance 12. Schroeder51 posted: 07.17.2012 - 1:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) For the DNQs I posted, #81 Steve Armst is actually Steve Arndt. And Jerry Cook is the legendary modified driver, not Terry Cook's brother. If you need a page for Jerry Cook, I can provide the information: Born: July 31, 1945 Hometown: Lockport, New York 13. Anonymous posted: 08.07.2012 - 7:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) LeeRoy Yarbrough DNQ'd for this in an unknown car. 14. CBASS posted: 12.07.2012 - 9:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsors #9 Housby Mack Inc. (car had some cool "American flag" numbers) #15 Sta-Power Engine Conditioners Highlights http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsdRV6OTaWM 15. Anonymous posted: 09.11.2013 - 4:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rain plagued the start of this race and before the cars could get onto the race track NASCAR sent Buddy Baker on a 5 lap run to test the track. It's interesting to think if Baker's engine would have lasted had he not run those 5 laps. 16. cjs3872 posted: 12.27.2013 - 12:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anonymous (#15), Baker would still not have won because after the final pit stop, he was about seven or eight seconds behind Richard Petty, and even though he was gaining on Petty, he would not have had enough time left to catch him. He was about four or five seconds behind Petty when his engine blew. Another forgotten fact about the end of the race was that Petty proved he could pass Baker by passing him on the 185th lap to take the lead shortly before those final pit stops. And also, a major reason Baker fell so far behind was, on the final pit stop, Petty took on fuel, while Baker not only took on fuel, but also they wiped the windshield, and that took over nine seconds, while Petty's final pit stop was 4.6 seconds, which along with a faster pit entry, gave Petty about a seven second lead over Baker with only 11 laps remaining, which Baker never would have made up. It was interesting that this race, run on February 18, was plagued by rain exactly was the race exactly six years to the day later was. @15 mentioned that they sent Baker out as a rabbit to test out the track. They did the same thing with Darrell Waltrip in 1979, and Waltrip's engine never was right in that race, fouling up a sparkplug practically on the drop of the green flag, and many blame the fact that NASCAR sent him out as a rabbit on a wet track for his minor engine problem. Also, there were 13 laps of caution to start this race. The first 15 laps of the 1979 race were run under caution, so this race had a number of similarities with the 1979 Daytona 500. And of course, the Daytona 500 in both 1973 and '79 had the same winner, Richard Petty. Also, there was a problem with broken windshields in this race, as a number of cars, including the Fords of Bobby Isaac and Ramo Stott, suffered broken windshields, though it didn't seem to affect their finish, as Isaac was second (with a 351 C.I. engine, compared to 429 for the others) and Stott finished eighth. 17. DozierTheGreat posted: 01.25.2014 - 5:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some Sponsors: #31-Bradford Enterprises #60-Nagle Ford #18-Krager Motor Homes #04-KD Pauley #45-JetWay Products 18. DYL101 posted: 03.27.2014 - 8:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 54 DNQ's? jesus christ 19. Steve posted: 02.26.2015 - 1:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Daytona 500 without a pair of brothers competing. Ever since, the Allisons, the Parsons, the Waltrips, the Labontes, the Buschs, and now the Dillons (among several others) have carried on the brother act. 20. Aaron posted: 05.20.2015 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Only career sprint cup attempt for 2015 NASCAR HOF inductee, Jerry Cook 21. Premium Doesn't Suck 62 66 94 98 posted: 09.24.2015 - 7:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsor updates: #77 Sunny King Ford #72 Textile Motor Freight #17 Emrick Chevrolet 22. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.12.2016 - 5:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 1-13: green/yellow start Caution 2: Lap 56-60: #55 rear end backstretch Caution 3: Lap 70-74: #42,95,97 accident tri-oval Caution 4: Lap 154-158: #49 engine 23. RaceFanX posted: 02.23.2017 - 8:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Darrell Waltrip's first Daytona 500 sees him come home with a solid top-15 in his self-owned #95 Mercury. 24. KW posted: 03.17.2017 - 2:05 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Additional Stock Car races from Speedweeks included ARCA's Royal Triton 300 won by Charlie Blanton in a Camaro followed by Red Farmer, Kenny Reiter, Jim Tobin and Ralph Young. This may have been the only ARCA superspeedway race won by a "pony car" as I think they stop running them in 1975. The Late Model Sportsman series ran the Permatex 300 and it was won by Bill Dennis in a Junie Donlavey Mercury. Second was Red Farmer followed by Denis Giroux, Sam Ard and Alton Jones. Jack Ingram was 15th, Richie Evans 34th, Darrell Waltrip 35th, Tiny Lind 36th and Neil Bonnett 37th. 25. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 06.02.2018 - 2:21 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) First Daytona 500 starts for Hershel McGriff, Darrell Waltrip, Ed Negre, John Utsman, Marty Robbins, and Earl Ross. Only Daytona 500 starts for Vic Parsons and Larry Smith. Last Daytona 500 starts for Jabe Thomas, Ray Elder, Ron Keselowski, Maynard Troyer, John Sears, Red Farmer, Tiny Lund, Neil Castles, Gordon Johncock, and Pete Hamilton. 26. RaceFanX posted: 04.23.2019 - 11:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) A.J. Foyt won the Daytona 500 in 1972 racing for the Wood Brothers but struck out on his own for 1973 at the wheel of a golden #50 Chevrolet celebrating the 50th anniversary of his sponsor Purolator oil filters. Foyt had a solid run and brought his Chevy home with a top-5 finish. 27. JollyMeanGiant posted: 07.30.2019 - 3:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew: Bill Hollar (#29 Mercury) Paul Jett (unknown number Ford) Both drivers participated in qualifying and were supposed to start in the 125s (Hollar was supposed to start 38th in race 1 and Jett was supposed to start 26th in race 2), but for whatever reason neither driver ended up participating. Also, for the DNQs, Bob Tullius' number was actually #66, not #86. 28. Anonymous posted: 12.13.2019 - 10:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve Arndt's car was a Chevrolet, as reported in the second qualifying race. 29. MSportRev posted: 12.13.2019 - 12:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some updates for the DNQs: Richard Childress' car was a Chevrolet owned by Tom Garn. Jerry Cook's car was a Chevrolet owned by Gil Cramer. Clarence Lovell's car was a Chevrolet owned by Don Bierschwale. Johnny Barnes' car was a Mercury owned by J.C. Crews. Larry Dickson's car was a Ford owned by Richard Giachetti. Dean Dalton's car was a Mercury owned by Dean Dalton. Charlie Roberts' car was a Ford owned by Charlie Roberts. Lennie Pond's car was a Chevrolet owned by Ronnie Elder. Tom Gale's car was a Mercury owned by Frank Vasko. Earle Canavan's car was a Plymouth owned by Earle Canavan. H.B. Bailey's car was a Pontiac owned by H.B. Bailey. Ben Arnold's car was a Ford owned by Ben Arnold. Bill Champion's car was a Ford owned by Bill Champion. Elmo Langley's car was a Ford owned by Elmo Langley. Bob Greeley's car was a Plymouth. Dick Poling, Andy Hampton, Steve Arndt, Les Covey, cars were Chevrolets. Slick Gardner cars was a Mercury. Tom Usry's car was a Ford. Source: Ultimate Racing History. 30. MSportRev posted: 12.13.2019 - 12:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Bob Tullius' car was a Pontiac owned by Vernon Blank. 31. ScottB posted: 12.13.2019 - 3:42 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Although they are listed under different owners, the #66 and #69 Pontiacs driven by Bob Tullius and Gerry Thompson were likely a close "alliance" in today's terms, if just short of full-fledged teammates. Both drivers were road racing crossovers who ran a lot of SCCA Trans-Am events, and Herb Adams (listed as Thompson's owner) was the suspension tuning wizard who was a frequent collaborator in that series. 32. rateus posted: 05.30.2020 - 11:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver Change - Roy Mayne raced the #30 into the field but turned the seat over to Walter Ballard, who missed the field in the #35. Ballard should also be added to the DNQs. 33. Rich posted: 01.01.2021 - 7:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jim McKay and Sir Jackie Stewart were the commentators. Chris Economaki was the sole pit road reporter. McKay was the studio host. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: