|| *Comments on the 1973 Winston 500:* View the most recent comment <#61> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Andy Sinatra posted: 02.23.2004 - 11:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cheese, 60 cars and only 17 running at the end! Anybody know of a video or film of this baby? 2. CapCanuck posted: 04.25.2004 - 6:36 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) EPISODE GUIDE SHOW TITLE: Car & Track EPISODE: 1973 WINSTON 500 CATEGORY: Info SYNOPSIS: NASCAR's worst accident occurs. CHANNEL: SPEED CHANNEL DATE / TIME: April 25: 12:30AM LENGTH: 30 Minutes NOTES: English Check your "Car & Track" info on the net (everything is on the net!) and you may find when this episode airs again in your region 3. Jim posted: 02.23.2005 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) A driver named Gordon in a car #24 finishing in the top five. Hmmm sounds familiar. 4. Matt posted: 01.02.2006 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) Clarence Lovell who survived the craziness of the race to finish fourth was killed less than a week later in a highway crash in his native Texas. 5. je24go posted: 08.08.2006 - 2:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Allison said in an interview that two cars sailed completely over his car while he was driving through the crash. He also said that he had made it through the crash when out of nowhere, James Hylton's wrecked car crashed into him and took him out of the race. 6. Potato posted: 10.30.2006 - 7:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Indy stalwart Dick Simon's best career finish in 7th. 7. Dan posted: 03.26.2007 - 9:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wendell Scott crashed the only car he had left in his shop in this race, ultimately forcing him to retire. 8. Dan posted: 03.26.2007 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Butch Hawkersmith didn't bring tires to this race for Alton Jones. Jones ran over the debris from the huge crash and blew his tires. He rode around for a few laps under yellow until he finally had to pull into the garage and retire from the race. 9. Destiny posted: 06.20.2007 - 7:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) Look Jim, his name is Cecil, not Jeff. 18 of 21 drivers crashed in talladega. 10. bduddy posted: 07.16.2007 - 8:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race is on an episode of "Back in the Day" on Speed Channel. 11. Anonymous posted: 07.17.2007 - 6:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Benny Parsons on the big crash: "The backstretch was so full of debris that it looked as if an airliner had crashed." 12. Andy S posted: 07.20.2007 - 9:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah, I caught it on 07/17/07. This series was REALLy cut when it was on in the AM on SPEEDTV, but it is more stinted on "Back in the Day" Must be a sponsorship thing, ha ha. 13. JR posted: 04.06.2008 - 6:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How do you not bring tires????? 14. b4il3y posted: 10.30.2008 - 12:03 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) How do you not bring tires????? JR | 04.06.08 - 6:11 pm $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ - the lack of it. 15. scook120 posted: 01.11.2009 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Larry Smith I think was killed in that big one... I dunno. 16. Spen posted: 01.12.2009 - 4:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Close. Larry died in the summer race. 17. 18fan posted: 09.21.2009 - 6:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I thought Scott suffered severe injuries in the wreck. Pearson was the only competitive car left after the wreck except DW, but his pit crew got schooled by the Wood Brothers and then Darrell blew up. 18. Eric posted: 10.15.2009 - 7:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember listening to the race on AM radio because back in those days NASCAR just didn't get much TV attention. I remember how the moments leading up to the great crash and the comments afterward. If I recall the crash was before lap 15. I still remember my excitement when I heard, "Like an angry pack of ten steel wolves they come thundering down the back straight!". Sounds sort of funny now doesn't it. It wasn't too much latter that they stopped thundering because of the crash. 19. JSSIE HENRY posted: 10.25.2009 - 1:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) bad crash nascar 1973 20. Sebastien posted: 02.16.2010 - 4:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Marcis #2 was sponsored by Attalla Speedway. 21. William E. posted: 03.10.2010 - 4:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) My dad took me and my girlfriend to the race that day. We were there watching from the Grand Stands when the crash happened. I don't remember a lot except that many of the popular racers were involved ruining the race for us. 22. AutoRockinRacing94 posted: 06.09.2010 - 7:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It was deemed as the first ever Big One at Talladega, never knew IndyCar legend Dick Simon ran in NASCAR. 23. Ed posted: 10.26.2010 - 6:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Didn't someone go over in this? 24. Schroeder51 posted: 04.04.2011 - 1:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Only career top 10 for Charlie Barrett. 25. JeffGordonMegaFan posted: 10.21.2011 - 6:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) how did Vic Parsons crash and still finish in the top 10? 26. Hotdogger posted: 11.30.2011 - 8:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) France Sr. was warned that starting 60 cars would be a disaster but he didn't listen. Also, it's too bad Wendell chose Dega to run his expensive new car at. Somewhere less prone to pile-ups like Charlotte or Atlanta might have been a better choice in hindsight. He had a fine 12th place result at his final Cup start at the Charlotte fall race in the Faustina 1973 Dodge, which shows he might have run top-5 in that fast Mercury that got totalled at Dega. 27. rob posted: 11.30.2011 - 10:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) vic parson's situation was pretty commonplace back in the day. with laps separating cars instead of seconds, drivers would sometimes get a high finish based on the number of laps completed before a DNF. prime example was bobby allison's third place finish at darlington a couple of races earlier. allison blew an engine with 19 laps to go and still got a podium finish. 28. Anonymous posted: 02.19.2012 - 10:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wendell Scott suffered injures in the accident that helped force his retirement, along with the destruction of his main car 29. Dega77 posted: 05.03.2012 - 10:23 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) One story has it that one driver made it through the crash only to get caught up in it the next lap. Probably not true, but a good story nonetheless. 30. Jim posted: 08.01.2012 - 4:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best career finishes for Driver Lovell and his owner Don Bierschwale. 31. rob posted: 05.16.2013 - 11:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) comment number 29 is correct. i chatted with an eyewitness to the pileup and he stated that the crashing originated behind the leaders just out of turn two. the leaders took the caution at the start finish line just before turn one . the leaders were still running probably 150 when they came upon the crash scene. a small segment of the remaining cars virtually stopped short of the carnage and those were the cars that survived without damage. 32. StenhouseFan17 posted: 11.26.2013 - 4:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Stumbled across this video showing the resultant carnage from the early wreck: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeMh55NpX-Y 33. VoteGillilandNotDanica2014 posted: 12.11.2013 - 5:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ben Arnold's last career race, no doubt due to the crash. 34. DozierTheGreat posted: 01.26.2014 - 1:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsors: #5-TraveLodge #98-LC Newton #24-RW Hill & Sons #31-Moss Thornton #48-Pugmire Lincoln/Mercury 35. Anonymous posted: 07.10.2015 - 10:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) http://racing-reference.info/showblog?id=2267 36. RaceFanX posted: 11.15.2015 - 6:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) David Pearson's win was the fifth in a row at Talladega for a Mercury driver. 37. Ed posted: 12.29.2015 - 12:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Buddy Baker was ahead of the crash and then was caught up in it coming back around, ending his day. He had led all ten laps up to that point 38. Ivan Balakhonov posted: 12.10.2016 - 1:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Reasons for cautions (according to Southern Motorsports Journal): L10-48 (19-car pileup on backstretch) L80-89 (#40 engine) L161-168 (#35 engine) L186-188 (#45 crash) 39. Eric posted: 05.12.2017 - 12:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Looking at car's damage from the video, car #85, Ronnie Daniel, flipped over in the crash. Some drivers said he was about 20 feet in the air at one point. 40. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 05.12.2017 - 11:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) There were actually at least 21 cars involved in the backstretch pileup. These are the cars I know for sure were involved and could be listed in the caution section: #2 Dave Marcis, #11 Cale Yarborough, #12 Bobby Allison, #18 Joe Frasson, #26 Earl Brooks, #30 Walter Ballard, #34 Wendell Scott, #43 Richard Petty, #48 James Hylton, #53 Bobby Mausgrover, #54 Lennie Pond, #67 Buddy Arrington, #71 Buddy Baker, #75 Slick Gardner, #76 Ben Arnold, #77 Charlie Roberts, #82 Bill Ward, #85 Ronnie Daniel, #88 Ron Keselowski, #90 Ramo Stott, #92 Larry Smith. It's doubtless there were even more cars involved and damaged (I wouldn't be surprised if the number was closer to 30) but we'll never know for sure. Definitely one of the wildest and craziest crashes in NASCAR history. 41. Anthony posted: 05.12.2017 - 11:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 39 laps of caution, didn't anyone think of a red flag? 42. Mr.Victory posted: 04.24.2018 - 11:38 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) This is in my opinion, the worst non-fatal racing accident in history. Drivers who couldn't see tried to slow down, but every time they slowed, someone would run into the back of them. Because Ramo Stott's blown engine caused chaos with all the smoke and dust, drivers slowed down. Actually, if there was rain, and the dust was cleaned away, we may have not seen such a disastrous wreck. Because of the dust, Wendell Scott slowed down, only to get run into, and drivers started slide into each other at over 150 mph. After the first big incident in this wreck, drivers started crashing into the wrecked cars, damaging them even more. Cars came off the turn at over 180 mph, and with NASCAR's different rules with cautions, they would just go around the track at fast speeds until they catch the pace car. Drivers flipped, spun, and crashed into safety vehicles, wrecked cars and the embankment on the backstretch. Somehow, only a few drivers received minor injury, and if this happened 5 years ago, we wouldn't see many of these famous drivers today. After this race, NASCAR made some big changes to how they race at super speedways. One, less cars two, more safety, and three, slow the cars down(just a bit). 43. Scott B posted: 04.24.2018 - 12:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The 10th place finish by Charles Barrett was the first Cup top-10 for car owner George Elliott, father of Bill and grandfather of Chase. 44. RaceFanX posted: 04.26.2018 - 9:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eddie Bond, an Indiana racer driving his self-owned #0, survives this chaotic race to come home 12th and record his best career Cup finish. 45. Eric posted: 04.30.2018 - 2:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Did anybody go upside-down in the pileup? 46. Seibaru posted: 04.30.2018 - 2:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @45 Not that I can identify. 47. Scott B posted: 04.30.2018 - 3:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A couple of drivers launched and caught some big air, but came back down right side up. 48. nascarman posted: 04.30.2018 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) There were some incredible descriptions of the wreck from guys involved. After Buddy Baker wrecked, he and Cale Yarborough climbed on to of the dirt bank on the inside of the track and watched cars flying through the air. "I promise you, a minute later they were still crashing," Baker said. "I guess a minute and a half passed and I got down off the wall, figuring the wrecking was over. Then I heard something coming. It was Joe Frasson, doing about 180 mph backward in the grass. He barely missed me. I got back on the wall and stayed there. About that time another car came by upside down in the air higher than a telephone pole." 49. _Pale_Writer_ posted: 04.30.2018 - 6:04 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I used to have this radio broadcast on audio tape. I can remember one of the announcers calling out each car number as it came by after the crash. "21 is by. 72 is by. 12 has not come by." There was quite a somber tone to the broadcast until it was all sorted out. 50. Rob posted: 09.17.2018 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The fact that so many of the cars involved recorded tenm laps and so many ran eight makes me wonder if cars ran two laps under caution and still crashed in some cases. 51. Mr.Victory posted: 09.17.2018 - 10:02 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @50 Some were already a lap down at this point(the speed difference in qualifying from 1st to 60th was 40mph), so, cars that were slow were involved in the wreck, too. 52. Corey posted: 09.17.2018 - 11:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @50 I believe at the time, the cars were allowed to race to the pace car. So some were able to avoid the wreck, the first time around but got caught in coming through a second time. I believe it was at this time that NASCAR put in the rule that you raced back to the line. Something that was safer at the time, but would be more dangerous nowadays. 53. JSPorts posted: 09.18.2018 - 12:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) So they raced to the pace car? Was that wherever the pace car came out on the track, so near turn 1? 54. Anthony posted: 10.15.2018 - 1:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This is the lowest number of lead changes in a Cup race at Talladega, albeit as a result of that massive crash. Today's race had 2 more than this one, without a big one until the end. 55. RaceFanX posted: 10.19.2018 - 12:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eddie Yarboro fell out of this race with a mechanical issue in the opening laps BEFORE the "Big One." This was Yarboro's only Cup start of the season and his last in the series overall, the self-owned independent had largely switched over to racing in NASCAR's more short-track focused Grand National East series for 1973 and made a few more starts there later in the summer before dropping off the national stage. 56. Seibaru posted: 11.29.2018 - 7:46 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) This race actually led to the cancellation of a Grand National East race at Middle Georgia that was supposed to have been held a week after. Many of the GN East competitors were privateers in the Grand National ranks, and since many of them had lost their cars in the big one, Middle Georgia's promoter didn't think he'd get enough entries for a profitable race. 57. Anonymous posted: 01.31.2019 - 7:39 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) Unless DNQ data gets found from an earlier race to prove otherwise, first Grand National attempt for Neil Bonnett. 58. m331m89 posted: 01.10.2020 - 11:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This Is The Only Cup Race In Modern Era (Since 1972) Would Feature 60 Cars. 59. anon posted: 06.17.2020 - 8:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why the hell did they run 60 cars for this race? 60. Jimmie4life posted: 06.17.2020 - 8:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @59 I assume that France Sr. wanted to have a larger field that'd attract more fans to watch the races, and that a larger field with a bigger purse would catch the eyes of more teams. Of course, he was warned that starting 60 cars would be a strain at the track, and might be potentially hazardous for drivers(even more so than drivers now), but the Big Man himself ignored it, and, it resulted in this infamous race. 61. rateus posted: 02.20.2021 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Roy Mayne qualified for Jabe Thomas and Ted Ballard qualified for Dick May. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: