Source: Motor Racing Programme Covers |
Hamilton started sixth and comfortably won over pole-winner Bobby Isaac. Richard Petty qualified eighth - 2 spots worse than Pete - and finished seventh as the checkers fell.
As the laps wound down and Pete cruised along in the lead, Buddy Baker tried his best to pursue Hamilton. Driving for NASCAR Hall of Famer Cotton Owens, Baker's #6 winged Dodge Daytona blew a tire with about 13 laps to go. Shrapnel from the tire ripped off the oil cooler, and the hot fluid immediately caught fire. Here is MRN's call of Baker's fire by Ken Squire and Marvin Panch.
Another driver with a memorable day was NASCAR Hall of Fame member, Cale Yarborough. He ran with no windshield for eleven laps but still finished 5th. Let me repeat that race challenge for the Timmonsville, SC driver: NO WINDSHIELD ... at Talladega ... for 11 laps. (Greg Fielden writes in Forty Years of Stock Car Racing: Volume 3 that Cale only ran five laps without a windshield. But either way...wow.)
Source: Spartanburg Herald-Journal via Google News Archive (p. 39) |
Though Pete's win is obviously known today, apparently ABC's live TV coverage at the time left a bit to be desired in clearly describing who won the race. Bernard Kahn of the Daytona Beach Morning Journal lit into ABC's coverage of the finish - while also tagging Ken Squier and his Motor Racing Network team (referring to them as "radio hacks"). Kahn's criticism of the broadcast coverage of the race was a bit of a forerunner to the contemporary job done today by John Daly in his blog, The Daly Planet.
Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire |
Source: Daytona Beach Morning Journal via Google News Archive |
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