|| *Comments on the 1978 Firecracker 400:* View the most recent comment <#22> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. nascarman posted: 05.15.2006 - 11:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt's first top 10. 2. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 4:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Didn't Pearson sling-shot Cale on the last lap to win this one? 3. Destiny posted: 06.20.2007 - 7:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, That's Pearson's 102nd win. 4. SK posted: 11.11.2007 - 1:48 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale's very first start at Daytona. 5. Clayton posted: 07.21.2008 - 5:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The car Dale drove in this race was original slatted to be driven by Willie T. Ribbs, an African American driver. Ribbs was suppose to drive the car in the World 600 in May. However, Ribbs failed to show up to two practice sessions and got arrested for wreckless driving and The owner Will Cronkite fired Ribbs. Cronkite then hired a little known short tracker named Dale Earnhardt. 6. Greg Maness posted: 09.04.2008 - 11:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Clayton has ALMOST all of the facts here correct ... except the race scheduled for Willy T. Ribbs in the #96 Will Cronkite car was at the World 600 a few weeks earlier ... where Dale Earnhardt was named to replace him. The Firecracker 400 was Earnhardt's second start in the #96. 7. Willy on Wheels posted: 01.16.2009 - 10:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) But it was this race that got the attention of Rod Osterlund who signed him to drive full time in 1979. 8. myself posted: 08.20.2009 - 1:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I didn't realize Ribbs was born in African & immigrated to the U.S. & became a citizen here. 9. Steve posted: 01.12.2010 - 4:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ribbs is from California. He is African-AMERICAN, not native African. Clayton, are you sure Ribbs was charged with a DUI? I read an article in Car and Driver which said that Ribbs turned down the offer from Will Cronkite (and Humpy Wheeler) because they constantly offered superstar racers from other disciplines a car to drive, only to retire for ridiculous failures (the late Al Holbert, in his Winston Cup debut, experienced engine failure when the CYLINDER WALL fell out of the side of the engine!) in tired backup or showroom cars. Wlly T. wasn't buying that. 10. Ryan posted: 02.25.2010 - 2:22 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) A 7th place finish for the Greatest ever! 11. myself posted: 05.14.2010 - 11:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) What is an "African-American?" Looks like the "greatest" finished 1st & 2nd to me. 12. Ryan posted: 08.01.2011 - 5:17 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) A combined 24 championships in the top 10 13. toomuchcountry posted: 08.03.2013 - 8:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Woody Fisher qualified the #19 Chevy fielded by Henley Gray. But Dick May took the wheel on race day. Starting line-up published in Spartanburg's paper: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=e04sAAAAIBAJ&sjid=os0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=3526%2C916772 14. Mike posted: 08.07.2015 - 11:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the 150th race at Daytona across all series. It was also Pearson's 10th Daytona victory, making him (at the time) the winningest driver ever at Daytona. He had been tied with Fireball Roberts and Cale Yarborough at nine career Daytona wins. 15. myself posted: 02.26.2016 - 9:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Who was that lap car that interfered with Cale's attempted sling shot pass on the final lap? 16. MattJ posted: 03.10.2017 - 7:04 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Going into the back straightaway on the last lap, Cale was running behind Pearson. Cale tried the sling shot as they neared the end of the straightaway into turn three. The front of Cale's car was just up to Pearson's left rear tire when they came on the slow car of Baxter Price. Cale had to hit the brakes to avoid slamming into the back of Price and was able to gather the car up, but he didn't have enough time to run Pearson back down again before they got to the checkers. 17. R posted: 12.04.2017 - 8:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sounds like Baxter Price was the Rich Bickle or Johnny Sauter of his era 18. RaceFanX posted: 11.13.2018 - 8:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the late, great David Pearson's eighth and final points-paying Cup win at Daytona. While he only won the Daytona 500 once in 1976 he won the July race a NASCAR record five times between 1961 and 1978. That record will likely stand for a while, at the time of this post in 2018 no other active NASCAR racer had won Daytona's summer spectacular more than once. 19. myself posted: 01.21.2020 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) Something doesn't add up. You said "eighth & final points-paying Cup win at Daytona," but then you went on to say he won the 500 once & the Firecracker 5 times. Well 5+1=6. 20. TTaylor944 posted: 01.21.2020 - 1:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) He won two qualifying races when those were points paying events. 21. rateus posted: 05.18.2020 - 6:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A rough week for Buddy Baker didn't get any better when his engine failed early on. His 21 year old half-sister was killed in an auto accident on the Saturday before the race (on Tuesday) and he raced knowing he had her funeral to go to the following day. 22. RaceFanX posted: 01.07.2021 - 10:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The #96 Cardinal Tractor Ford Dale Earnhardt drove for Will Cronkrite in this race was a fast car. I read online that the white Torino may have been the ex-Bud Moore race car that Buddy Baker won three races with at Talladega in 1975-76 before Cronkrite got it. Earnhardt's top-10 here really put him on the NASCAR Cup radar and helped him land several rides later on, putting him on the road to NASCAR superstardom. Cronkrite noted that his team had some surprisingly fast pit stops for a small effort to stay in contention. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: