r/NASCAR_History

The reason why Petty went to Ford was because Petty had wanted to drive one of the new 1969 Dodge Charger 500s due to the superior aerodynamics, but Chrysler wanted to keep him in a Plymouth, which was at the time considerably less slippery. So Petty went over to Ford for a year, but ultimately went back to Plymouth for the 1970 season.

Smokey was asked to run Fords in 1969 by Bunkie Knudsen, who was hired on as President of Ford Motor Company in February of 1968. After butting heads with the likes of Lee Iacocca and Henry Ford II, Bunkie was fired from Ford in September of 1969, and after that Smokey had no reason to keep running Fords. After 1969, he never entered a car in NASCAR again.

Of the 10 races Petty won during the 1969 season, 9 of them were won in Ford Torinos, as the season had started in late 1968 when he was still running Plymouths. He finished 2nd in the final standings to David Pearson, who tied Lee Petty for the most Grand National Championships at 3.

Smokey only fielded a car in 5 races in '69, including the 2nd Daytona 500 qualifying race. Bobby Unser, Swede Savage, Joe Leonard and Charlie Glotzbach were the drivers.

Elliott averaged 186.288mph in the '85 Winston 500, a record that wouldn't be surpassed until Mark Martin averaged 188.354mph in the 1997 running of the very same race. Martin still holds the record today.

However, Yarborough's pace in the 1970 125 still stands as NASCAR's fastest race at Daytona.

In the 500, Yarborough started on the pole and was leading over David Pearson when his engine gave out, relegating him to a 37th place finish. Pete Hamilton went on to win the race.

Mark led 82 of the 267 laps. His teammate Jeff Burton would finish 2nd behind him. IMAGE SOURCE. ALBUM SOURCE.

McDuffie won the pole for the 1978 Delaware 500 and led 10 laps with the McCrearys, but the tires' performance fell off very quickly. After completing 80 laps, McDuffie's engine blew a piston, relegating him to a 33rd place finish. Bobby Allison went on to win the race.

Scoring the pole here also qualified McDuffie for the first ever Busch Clash in 1979, where he started 5th but unfortunately he had engine troubles after completing 17/20 laps. Buddy Baker took the checkered flag that day.

McDuffie's pole was recently highlighted by u/DarthVader1701A in a post 4 months ago, so credit where credit is due, he beat me to it lol. I just found it interesting that McDuffie wasn't running Goodyears and was hoping to highlight that.

NASCAR driver, from Salem, Indiana.  Jacobi made his first Cup start in 1975.  It would come at Daytona in the 500.  Bruce would start 39th; have a great run and finish 12th in the race.  A very promising start for the rookie.  He ran 15 of the 30 races is that season.  He posted three top 10 finishes with a best of eighth at Talladega.  He only ran three races in 1976; and only attempted one race in 1977 (a race in which he did not qualify).  1979 saw him once again qualify to race in the Daytona 500; but he gave up his ride so that Gary Balough could run the race.  In 1980 and 1981 Bruce only attempted one race and finished outside the top 20 in both events.  He took off the 1982 season but came back to Daytona the following year.  Jacobi came to the 1983 Daytona Speedweeks without a ride but picked one up with a smaller independent teams in time for the Twin 125 Qualifiers.  During the first Twin 125 qualifying race, he lost control of his car at the exit of Turn 2 and flipped upon entering the grass infield, eventually coming to a stop near the inside dirt bank.  The car flipped end over end and it is speculated that his roll 

cage failed during the crash.  Jacobi suffered extensive head injuries from the crash and was in a coma for almost four years before passing away at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.  In 1987, he died at age 51 because of the head injuries from that crash in 1983.  

On lap 30 in turn 6, Michael McDowell would get into the back of Brian Scott, causing Scott to spin out in front of traffic. This would cause a major  accident since this was in front of traffic. Drivers involved would be Stanton Barrett, Kyle Kelley, Mike Bliss, Colin Braun, Tony Raines, Robb Brent, Alex Kennedy, and Jason Leffler. With Brent getting under Raines at some point during the crash. Carl Edwards would go on to win the race.