|| *Comments on the 1984 Firecracker 400:* View the most recent comment <#60> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. HomeDepotKid posted: 11.16.2004 - 10:06 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race here is historic here for multiple reasons. First, it marked "The King" Richard Petty's 200th (and last) NASCAR win. Second, President Ronald Reagan attended the race. It marked the first time a sitting president attended a NASCAR race. Now, Harry Gant finished 2nd, but in all actualities, he finished 2nd due to a mental screw-up on Cale Yarborough's part. Cale finished 2nd to Petty by about a few inches to the caution. Thinking the race was over, he headed to the pits, and seeing he was the only driver headed down the pits, he quickly headed back on the track, but he lost 2nd. 2. Joe Laracuente posted: 05.26.2005 - 3:38 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) i think that richard petty had a illegal engine isn't a little fushy that he won his 200th race with ronald reagan there? 3. Joe Laracuente posted: 05.26.2005 - 3:39 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) *fishy 4. JC posted: 07.30.2005 - 8:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) So did Cale have one too? 5. SPENCER posted: 01.10.2006 - 11:34 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) Ya Richard Petty was the second greatest driver of all time but this race was flat out Fixed. 6. MOST posted: 05.07.2006 - 5:58 am Rate this comment: (2) (1) Richard is second to none, Dale never won 200 races. 7. nascarman posted: 05.13.2006 - 8:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) doug heveron just about fliped over with three to go. 8. Miller4Prez64 posted: 06.14.2006 - 3:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ya Dale never even won 100 races 9. DTroppens posted: 07.16.2006 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Petty was outstanding but let's not forget a great deal of his wins came when there were about 51 races a year, during a time when only a few true cars had a chance to win every race and in many events some of the top drivers didn't bother to attend. I argue that with the advantages Petty had for the early portion of his career (look at the 1960s and early 1970s) you could probably take an independent driver like James Hylton and flip flop the two and the results would be pretty similar. Maybe Hylton "only" wins 180, but he's probably going to win that many. Maybe Petty wins 10 instead of just 2 like Hylton did in his situation. But really Petty was tremendously fortunate as well as lucky. That said it's hard to say Petty is anything but one of the top 2 drivers. Still, it needs to be put into a proper context as well. And let's not forget David Pearson. He spent very few years actually running full seasons and the guy won 105 races - about 1 in 5 he entered. He needs to be involved in any discussion for the top driver of all time. 10. DTroppens posted: 07.16.2006 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Again, I should warn though Pearson had many of the edges Petty had early in his career as well. 11. Steve posted: 07.28.2006 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Highlights: Dale Jarrett's first superspeedway start Richard Petty's 200th win!!! Dean Roper's last start I doubt Greg Sacks had any idea how big this race would be for him the following year. According to the results Ron Bouchard fell out of the race due to "crab". Is that supposed to be "carb" for carburetor, or did a crab crawl in and pinch one of the fuel lines off or something? 12. Fenway posted: 10.11.2006 - 3:45 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Everytime I hear about "the call" and this race, I just laugh. There is no doubt in my mind that Richard Petty is one of the greatest to ever live; so good, though, that he could stage a photo finish and win a tough as nails door slamming duel with Cale Yarborough to the caution flag? If NASCAR really had put out "the call", King Richard would've been on a lap by himself pacing the field unchallenged. I say this is right behind '79 in Daytona as our sport's greatest finishes. 13. most posted: 01.06.2007 - 7:35 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) By the way, when Richard was in his prime it was before you could take a car to the wind tunnel or buy a computer to do the work for you. Dale Earnhardt is from the generation of cars, Richard is from the generation of drivers. Not saying Dale can't drive the absolute hell out of a car but Richard was from an era where the cars were all crap really, not a multi million dollar team like Childress has. I just Richard came from nothing and built his team versus Dale who ran for some bad teams but he never had to run his own team and worry about winning. Not a knock on DEI but DEI is what they are because of money, Dale Jr., where he is from money, Gordon, same story, since the 1980's it has not been the driver but rather the money that makes a champion, I can't see Dale winning title after title in his own car in the 1960's but Richard did. I also agree that David Pearson should be in that list also, I know some people won't agree but Pearson might very well be better than Dale for the same reasons. Pearson won 3 titles and only attempted the FULL SEASON 4 times, that means that Dale would have had to win about 16 titles to hold up against those numbers (22 full seasons Dale ran so 16 is about 75%). Not to mention Dale didn't win 105 races in 22 Full seasons but Pearson probably didn't even run 22 half seasons. Dale and David both ran 27 years in cup however Dale ran over 100 more races than David but still fell short, any more arguments???? 14. myself posted: 02.12.2007 - 6:55 pm Rate this comment: (1) (2) Race was fixed. Petty had an illegal motor. Its common knowledge. Heck, over half of Pettys wins from the 80s had some illegal parts! Nascar, in no way, was gonna penalize slick Richard for this win! 15. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 8:30 pm Rate this comment: (2) (3) I was there! This race represents nascar's greatest "overlook" of all time! The 2nd greatest, in case any of you are curious, was in this very same race some 17 years later. An illegal car won that one too! 16. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 8:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I love Cale's comments on MRN during his postrace interview...."He beat me for 200. Maybe he'll try to beat me for his 300th!" 17. Chris posted: 01.04.2008 - 1:13 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Is there evidence to support the contention that Dale Jr had an illegal car? Please present the evidence or shut up. 18. myself posted: 02.21.2008 - 12:42 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The evidence was destroyed, Chris, just like the video evidence of the Patriots cheating was destroyed. 19. WillG_46 posted: 03.26.2008 - 3:10 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Gee, I thought we were trying to keep all the ignorant kids off this site. 20. b4il3y posted: 07.20.2008 - 9:18 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) *sigh* If we started pointing fingers at people who have cheated over the history of stock car racing, I'd say around 60% of all drivers that have ever competed would have some explaining to do. *:)* 21. RaceFanX posted: 11.20.2008 - 10:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ronald Reagan not only attends the race, but also sponsors the #73 car of Steve Moore with his re-election campaign. Looks like Moore dropped out before he arrived though. Anyone know if that was legit or if that was just a promo with someone else footing the bill like the 1991 Armed Forces cars were? Is this the first time a car ran with a Presidential campaign for a sponsor? Petty's #43 Pontiac from this race was in the Smithsonian's Museum of American History for many years after this race. 22. Ryan posted: 01.08.2009 - 3:38 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) To most: Dale wasn't able to run 50 races a season like Pearson and Petty did during that time period... If there would have been 50 races a season from '85-'95 during Dale's dominance then he would have won a lot more races than he actually did. From that time period during those eleven seasons his average finish in the championship standings was 3rd. He won six titles and finished 2nd twice and 3rd once. He won six titles in a period of nine years ('86-94). From the last race in Atlanta in 1984 to the finish of the first one in 1996 Dale won 60 races in 329 starts... That's about 30 races a season over eleven seasons... He won over 18 percent of the races during that time... Just think if he would have been average during the '92 season where Nascar finally slowed him down by giving Ford just about everything that year and taking everything away from the Chevrolets... Ok, so lets add on 20 races a season during that time period to make 50 races a season like Petty and Pearson got during their hay day... 11 seasons time 20 more races would be 220... 18% of 220 is roughly 40... So, add Dale's already 60 wins to the 40 he would have projectedly won if there had been more races then he would have around 100 wins... Add the 16 remaining if his wins from 1979-1984, and from 1997-2001 then he would have at least 116 wins rather than 76... I'm not saying Dale is a better driver than Pearson or Petty... It's very hard to compare time periods to say who is better... It would be very had to say who is better between Montana and Brady... Dale is the only driver to win in four different decades(70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s)... He is also the only driver to win in two different types of cars... The old heavyweight cars and the aero cars... And he is also the only driver to win titles with and without power steering and he is the only driver to win rookie of the year and the championship in consecutive years Pearson does have the best winning percentage of all time... but he also raced for the best teams (Holman Moody and Wood Bros.) and Petty's team always had the best stuff... Just think if Dale would have raced for Hendrick? He would have won at least 100 races... Earnhardt made Childress My point is Dale is one of the best ever, if not the best... 23. Ryan posted: 01.08.2009 - 3:46 pm Rate this comment: (2) (2) Could someone please smack Mr. myself... DEI just had the best restrictor plate cars during that time period... I mean look at their record from the last race at Talladega in 2000 to the last race in Talladega in 2004... Dale Jr. got second at the Daytona 500 in 2001 and at Talladega in 2000 he had the lead for a while until his dad took him over and Jr. won at Talladega four straight times during that time period... Put your Earnhardt hate away myself!... So glad you went to the 1998 Daytona 500! Bet you thought it was going to end bad for Dale again didnt you? haha 24. Ryan posted: 01.08.2009 - 3:52 pm Rate this comment: (3) (4) I mean really, Petty won a race on a 3/8 track and it is actually counted toward his 200 win total! puhleaseeee! How pathetic! 25. Spen posted: 01.10.2009 - 2:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) A small correction for Ryan; mathamatically speaking, 2000 was the last year of the ninties. 26. jp posted: 02.20.2009 - 6:40 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) his last win was in this race. his last top five was in '88 27. jp posted: 03.19.2009 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Besides,Moore was the only one, I think And this race wasnt rigged. It's not like they paid Heveron to flip at a certain time in the race. And, I saw this race on a CMT finishes show, and it shown Heveron flipping a LOT of times on the front end on the Backstrech. 28. Ben posted: 04.14.2009 - 9:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Im glad he won, who would like to hear Richard Petty discussed as the winningest driver ever with 199? 29. myself posted: 08.24.2009 - 1:55 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I would, Ben. 30. Anonymous posted: 08.02.2010 - 7:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Wow, some of you are truly idiotic beyond belief. Those of you bashing Petty and Earnhardt, what have you done with your lives? Anything other than message board trolling? Didn't think so. 31. Walleyewacker posted: 05.26.2011 - 4:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Ryan posted: >Just think if he would have been average during the '92 season where Nascar >finally slowed him down by giving Ford just about everything that year and >taking everything away from the Chevrolets... Balogna! GM teams were blowing engines or snapping axles at the start of the 1992 season because they couldn't sort out their valve train problems on their new NASCAR approved 18 degree cylinder heads. Ford didn't have the same valve problems on their NASCAR approved Yates heads. Most of the GM teams had it fiqured out mid-season when they ran off 9 wins in a row during the summer of 1992. Kyle Petty, Harry Gant, Ernie Irvan and DW didn't have any problems winning multiple races by the fall of 1992. In fact Kyle had way more points in the last 10 races than any of the Ford teams and would have easily won The Chase in 1992 if there had been such an animal back then. It's Childress and Earnhardt that had the off year. I could respond to your anti-Ford feelings by saying that in 1995 the Monte Carlo was widened over 6 inches at the rear end and bore little resemblance to the streat version. How about the headlight covers NASCAR gave the 1988 Monte Carlos to start the 1989 season before the Lumina arrived? I didn't see any headlight covers on the 1986-88 Monte Carlos or any street version. You don't think that was a give away? 32. Anonymous posted: 05.27.2011 - 9:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) FYI Dale Jarrets FIRST CUP start came at Martinsville in 1984 Daytona was his second start 33. Nick posted: 06.30.2011 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That was a great race and technically it had a photo finish between Cale and the King. Just awesome to have Regan there too. 34. Ryan posted: 08.13.2011 - 4:51 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) "I could respond to your anti-Ford feelings by saying that in 1995 the Monte Carlo was widened over 6 inches at the rear end and bore little resemblance to the streat version. How about the headlight covers NASCAR gave the 1988 Monte Carlos to start the 1989 season before the Lumina arrived? I didn't see any headlight covers on the 1986-88 Monte Carlos or any street version. You don't think that was a give away? " Ford's were also allowed to have more camber in their tires in '92. Considering Bill Elliott was supposedly running a 7/8 scale car in the mid 80's and the Chevy's were at a major disadvantage because of the way his Ford was made, I'd say it was the least Nascar could do. 35. jC... posted: 02.27.2012 - 7:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ran on a Wednesday. 36. Chris posted: 10.11.2012 - 8:23 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Richard Petty himself admits that they cheated every chance they got back then. His words, "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." 37. myself posted: 05.24.2013 - 11:30 am Rate this comment: (2) (3) Some "King," huh? 38. Mike Daly posted: 05.31.2013 - 12:54 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) To those who espouse the conspiracy theory about Petty's win - it falls apart for several reasons - 1 - The engine in question was a DiGard engine that Robert Yates and Buddy Parrott (Petty's crew chief) squabbled over on race morning; Petty said he'd pay for whatever Curb hadn't covered. 2 - DiGard ended their engine lease deal with Curb after this race; they were tired of seeing a customer team beat Allison. 3 - The driver celebrity of the time was NOT Petty - on the contrary it was Cale; he'd won two Daytona 500s with CBS incar cameras and would later appear on their series The Dukes Of Hazzard (it was his second appearence, the first was in 1979). Cale was the driver who was best representing NASCAR at that time; even with the prospect of a 200th win Petty was considered yesterday's news. 4 - Petty didn't win by horsepower; he won on the draft and handling. 5 - NASCAR had already gone through the Charlotte fiasco months before and didn't want it again. 39. Mike Daly posted: 05.31.2013 - 1:04 am Rate this comment: (2) (1) One more point - 6 - Petty was on the Frances' It List since the 1960 600 when Lee blew up over being DQed for spinning through the trioval infield and then pitting; the Talladega boycott that Petty led made him something of a permanent enemy to the Frances. Certain other teams/drivers were on the It List - Harry Hyde, Hoss Ellington, the Raniers, Melling, DiGard; it's curious that Junior Johnson despite famous run-ins with NASCAR seemed to get the benefit of the doubt a lot more than the others (Waltrip's engine in the '83 National 500 and then The Winston; Bodine's fuel line in 1991, to name a few off the top of my head). "If you ain't cheating you ain't trying" is a clever catchphrase but it's only partly true; some teams did try to break the rules, but for the most part they stayed within them. 40. Last Place Watcher posted: 07.25.2013 - 7:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Just added a few days ago to MRN Classic Races Podcast on Itunes 41. b4il3y posted: 11.13.2013 - 2:03 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) Guess what. Even if Richard did win this with illegal stuff, to hell with it. No one has ever done more for the sport. 42. AutoRockinRacing94 posted: 02.02.2014 - 5:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To this day, in a Fox Sports 1 interview on Race Hub, Barney Hall considered the call of the finish as his biggest regret because he didn't knew who won as it happened until Mike Joy brought it up. 43. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.02.2014 - 12:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 5-8: #21 engine failure Caution 2: Lap 41-49: #8 accident backstretch Caution 3: Lap 159-160: #01 accident turn 1 44. Thomas posted: 06.11.2016 - 10:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) To sum up Mark Martin's reaction to the end of this race after the Busch race at Bristol in 1994 after it was mentioned that Cale had come down pit road before taking the checkered flag: "I can't believe anybody else would be that stupid." 45. Bullet posted: 08.11.2016 - 2:33 am Rate this comment: (1) (2) One of the worse days in my life That race still gets me pissed 46. gary24fan posted: 04.05.2017 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) I laugh reading some of the comments here. I don't know if the motor in Petty's car was illegal or not, but do any of you have absolute proof of this? Were you sitting in the head office in Daytona Beach when the alleged "call" went out, or were any of you on the crews of the race teams running at that time and knew about it somehow? Or are some of you just upset that #3 never got that eighth title? Or an even more intriguing question, are any of the multi-syllable words I'm using here confusing you? 47. cjs3872 posted: 04.05.2017 - 10:58 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Those that think that Richard Petty won this race because he had an oversized engine should look at the first half of that year's (1984) Daytona 500, because it could be argued that he had the best car in that race until his camshaft broke (which also happened to the DiGard car driven by Bobby Allison, which also had a Robert Yates engine in it). In that race, Petty drove from 34th into the lead in just 50 laps without hardly any help from the caution flag, and by lap 60, Richard was breaking away from the field when the caution flew for Bobby Hillin's blown engine. And then after a series of pit stops dropped him back, Richard passed Cale handily, which virtually no other car on the track at that point in the race could do, and was leading when his camshaft broke on the 93rd lap. So Richard Petty's car was every bit the match of Cale's car in that Daytona 500, just like it was a few months later in the Firecracker 400, and that includes the engine. Waddell Wilson and Robert Yates are two of the great engine builders the sport has ever seen, and their products were on display for everyone to see. Cale could have passed Richard any time he wanted to, but he wanted to stay in second and draft by on the final lap, just as he had done to win the previous two Daytona 500s. But when the caution came out for Doug Heveron's crash in the infield in turn one with three laps to go, Cale had to make the move, and he didn't have quite enough to get a big enough lead after drafting by Richard that would get him to the caution flag first, because Richard dove under Cale, just as he had dove under David Pearson at the end of the 1976 Daytona 500 (when Pearson passed him on the final lap), but on this occasion, he and Cale were side-by-side, and the margin of Richard's beating Cale was the simple fact that he had the inside going into the dogleg, and he beat Cale by about a yard, if that much. 48. RaceFanX posted: 07.07.2018 - 12:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Air Force One, with Ronald Reagan aboard, arrived at the track and landed at the neighboring Daytona Beach International Airport on Lap 86. It was an iconic sight resulting in some interesting photos, most famously one of Petty's #43 STP Pontiac racing down the backstretch alone as the Presidential plane came in to land behind it. The plane that served as Air Force to bring Reagan to Daytona was SAM 26000, a specially-modified Boeing 707. The plane is one of the most historic ever to serve as Air Force One, in 1963 it was the plane that flew President John F. Kennedy to Dallas and after his tragic assassination Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as his replacement aboard the plane after being flown to Dallas. President Richard Nixon used this plane to fly to China in 1972 for his historic visit. It remained in Presidential service, although long since relegated to a backup role, through 1998. Once its days of Presidential use were over this plane was put on permanent display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. 49. RaceFanX posted: 07.07.2018 - 12:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR posted a 30-minute version of this race's broadcast to its YouTube channel in the lead up to the 2018 Coke Zero Sugar 400. 50. Aaron posted: 07.05.2019 - 4:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jarrett just mentioned driving Jimmy Means #52 during this race while broadcasting Xfinity Qualifying. Interesting, I knew he drove for Hoss Ellington later on in his career but I never noticed Dale's Jane on the results here until he mentioned it 51. Chase9Fan posted: 07.08.2019 - 4:37 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Richard still won like 60 or so races in the "modern" era so it's not like he couldn't drive in any era. His age and technology finally caught up to him, but he's no doubt one of the top 3 ever. 52. Chase9Fan posted: 08.03.2019 - 10:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 36 of of course they were. But everyone else was cheating too, so yeah! 53. acerogers58 posted: 10.29.2019 - 7:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Apparently Heveron actually ended up rolling over, after getting airborne but coming back down without rolling, he slid onto the turn 1 banking and the car rolled twice before coming back on its wheels 54. dennyfan11 posted: 12.25.2019 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anyone know what happened to Darrell Waltrip in this race? 55. Canadianfan posted: 12.25.2019 - 2:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @54 Probably some intermittent engine problem which was very common at the time. You could also tweet and ask him. 56. myself posted: 01.21.2020 - 1:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) I'll tell you what happened to Waltrip this race.......they were racing @ Daytona, & he absolutely sucked there. 57. ARD posted: 05.20.2020 - 7:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I am pretty sure this has stood as the last Wednesday race for the Cup series all the way until tonight at Darlington. 58. dennyfan11 posted: 05.27.2020 - 7:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Replying to my older question, I found out why he finished so far back, it was an ignition problem. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/222265053/ 59. rateus posted: 02.07.2021 - 3:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver Changes - DK Ulrich and Jimmy Means both qualified their own entries before handing over to Connie Saylor and Dale Jarrett respectively. 60. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 04.26.2021 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution Corrections Caution 1: Lap 6-9 Caution 2: Lap 43-51 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: