|| *Comments on the 1977 Daytona 500:* View the most recent comment <#26> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Bill posted: 03.11.2006 - 4:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Wawak bails out of his car while its still moving and on fire!!!!! Moments later the car slams the inside wall by the enterance to pit road. Wawak had burns on 50% of his body. 2. Steve posted: 05.04.2006 - 7:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First Top 10 for Jimmy Means, the final Top 10 for Bob Burcham, and the last Top 5 finish for the late Coo Coo Marlin, who was Sterling's father. 3. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 3:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale becomes just the 2nd driver to notch multiple 500 wins! 4. Brock posted: 10.29.2007 - 7:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for the Daytona 500 and finished a very respectable 12th! 5. RaceFanX posted: 08.21.2008 - 7:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First race for the iconic Hoss Ellington team's #1 Hawaiian Tropic car. Donnie started it from the pole and led 6 laps before crashing out and finishing 30th 6. RaceFanX posted: 08.19.2009 - 10:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ...and the last race for Jim Vandiver's in his well-known #31 Dodge. 7. Clayton posted: 12.12.2009 - 10:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe this is the first race for Valvoline as a sponsor! 8. rateus posted: 03.08.2010 - 8:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver changes after qualifying races: Bobby Wawak replaced Henley Gray in the 32 (he qualified the 36) Walter Ballard replaced Terry Bivins in the 03 9. RaceFanX posted: 01.13.2012 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Richard Petty's hopes for a fifth Daytona 500 win took a hit before the green flag even flew as he had to pit with the #43 STP Dodge Charger smoking due to his team putting too much oil in the car. The King did start the race but 7/8ths of a lap behind in last place. He caught a break with the caution for Wawak's fire then proceeded to work his way through the field back into contention only to later blow the engine and drop out. Defending Daytona 500 David Pearson also had mechanical issues. The Silver Fox led two laps but like Petty his #21 Purolater Mercury was sidelined with a blown engine before the 3/4ths mark. USAC Champ Car racer Salt Walther's last NASCAR Cup start ends in a backstretch crash. A gust of wind caught Walther's self-owned #4 Chevrolet and caused him to lose it triggering a three-car incident that also included Buddy Baker and Dave Marcis. Buddy recovered to finish third but Salt was done for the day. Once Petty and Pearson were gone the race came down to a battle to battle between Cale Yarborough and Benny Parsons that saw Cale eventually prevail. The win was a nice bit of redemption for Yarborough, although he was the defending Cup champion at the time a blown engine on the second lap had meant he'd finished last in the previous year's Daytona 500. Yarborough's gap of nine years between this win and his previous Daytona 500 win in 1968 remains a race record for the longest gap between triumphs in the Great American Race. This was Cale's third victory of Speedweeks as he had earlier won both his 125 qualifier and the Daytona IROC race. This was the only time during his 1976-78 dynasty that he won the 500. 10. RaceFanX posted: 01.13.2012 - 8:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) *correction, potential sixth Daytona 500 win for Richard- he already had five by this point. 11. 18fan posted: 02.05.2012 - 5:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The top 3 finishers in this race finished in the exact same order in their 125 mile qualifier. 12. Schroeder51 posted: 07.12.2012 - 9:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQs: #03 Terry Bivins (replaced by Walter Ballard), #61 Joe Mihalic, #59 Charlie Blanton, #57 Dick May, #78 Dr. Dick Skillen, #80 Phil Finney, #98 Ralph Jones, #49 G. C. Spencer, #76 A. J. Reno, #18 Joe Frasson, #39 Blackie Wangerin, #19 Bob Burcham, #91 Billy McGinnis, #64 Tommy Gale, #9 Bill Elliott, #16 David Sisco, #45 Joe Booher, #84 Morgan Shepherd, #44 Robin Schildnecht, #10 Johnny Barnes, #75 Butch Hartman, #23 Jim Raptis, #25 Jabe Thomas, #33 Earl Brooks, #90 Hershel McGriff. 13. Schroeder51 posted: 07.17.2012 - 2:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Scratch Terry Bivins from that list. Don't think he should be counted as a DNQ because he was replaced by another driver. 14. cjs3872 posted: 01.03.2014 - 12:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually RaceFanX (#5), Donnie Allison did not crash in this race. What happened was that he blew, or cut a tire at the S/F line on lap 88, and was forced to limp into the pits, where his team discovered too much damage had been done, so they pulled the car out of the race. His tire failure happened at the exact same place on the track where his brakes locked up late in the 1971 race and where he ran over debris from Bob Burcham's engine late in the 1974 race. In both cases, he was leading the race under caution late when those things happened. Also, I believe both Bobby Wawak and Henley Gray qualified for this race in cars owned by John Gwinn. What likely happened was, since Gwinn had only one pit crew, he decided that whatever car had a better starting position would be the one to run in the race, so Wawak's car was the one chosen to run in the race, while the car Gray qualified was withdrawn. (Incidentally, the car Henley Gray owned finished ninth with Bob Burcham driving.) As a result, Johnny Rutherford was added into the field and given the 40th starting position, while everyone else between where Gray would have started and the last starting position based on speed, which was Janet Guthrie, was moved up one place in the starting grid. A similar thing happened in 1984 when Junior Johnson withdrew the car qualified by Jack Ingram after Ingram put it in the race. Everyone behind Ingram's #92 car was moved up, and Sterling Marlin was given the 40th starting position. 15. Jeff posted: 02.11.2014 - 1:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Rudd's 1st Daytona 500. 16. mkl62 posted: 03.15.2015 - 4:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm sure that Bill Elliot had to be disappointed in not qualifying for the 1977 race. He had set that as his goal a year earlier. 17. Schroeder51 posted: 12.17.2015 - 2:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew: Terry Bivins-#03 Scotty's Fashions Chevrolet (Owned by Walter Ballard) Henley Gray-#32 Encyclopedia Britannica Chevrolet (Owned by John Gwinn) Both these drivers competed in the qualifying races and raced their way into the 500, but were replaced in the race itself by Walter Ballard and Bobby Wawak, respectively. 18. KW posted: 03.10.2016 - 10:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Stock Car portion of speedweeks started with the ARCA 200, won by Woody Fisher in a Dodge straight from the Pettys, Jim Sauter was second followed by Bobby Wawak, Alton Jones and Johnny Halford. Next up were the modifieds this year on the oval instead of the road course. Harry Gant won in stock appearing Pontiac Firebird, Bay Darnell was 2nd in his USAC Camaro followed by Clayton Peterson, Jerry Cook in a Chevy Monza that looked like it should be in IMSA and Butch Hartman. Geoff Bodine was 6th, Richie Evans 19th and Darrell Waltrip was 21st. Finally the Sportsman "Permatex 300" was won by Donnie Allison in a 72 style Chevy Monte Carlo, Darrell Waltrip was second followed by Sam Sommers, Joe Millikan and Ray Hendrick. 19. Sebastien posted: 06.18.2016 - 2:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ever saw a picture of the #87 Robinson as it was numbered 81 before the race ? 20. Allen Vick posted: 06.24.2016 - 4:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some video of Driver intros...the Wawak fire and Cale in victory lane is posted.... 21. Rob posted: 03.03.2017 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe the last lap slingshot by Donnie Allison past Darrell Waltrip in the Permatex 300 was used in the Wide World of Sports intro for a short period of time. 22. Rob posted: 03.03.2017 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe the last lap slingshot by Donnie Allison past Darrell Waltrip in the Permatex 300 was used in the Wide World of Sports intro for a short period of time. 23. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 06.02.2018 - 2:33 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) First Daytona 500 starts for Janet Guthrie, Ricky Rudd, Ron Hutcherson, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Bobby Wawak. Only Daytona 500 start for Sam Sommers. Last Daytona 500 starts for Bob Burcham, Terry Ryan, Walter Ballard, Salt Walther, Ramo Stott, Ed Negre, and Jim Hurtubise. 24. rateus posted: 05.23.2020 - 9:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Robin Schildknecht's name and owner name are both misspelled - latter is also true for his DNQ at Michigan later this year. 25. RaceFanX posted: 10.01.2020 - 7:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Reigning Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford doesn't have as much luck at the Daytona 500 as his #77 Chevrolet was an early retirement due to a vibration. Remarkably, it appears the Johnny Ray-owned car he ran in this race was a rebuilt version of the Chevy that Dale Earnhardt flipped at Atlanta the prior year. 26. 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: