page_title: Daytona 500
section_title: History highlights
hierarchical_section_title: Daytona 500 / History highlights
caption_attribution_description: English: Trevor Bayne prior to the 2011 Daytona 500, which became his first victory in the Sprint Cup Series. Italiano: Trevor Bayne prima della Daytona 500 del 2011, sua prima vitttoria nelle Sprint Cup Series.
context_page_description: The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile-long NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero 400, and one of three held in Florida, with the annual spring showdown Dixie Vodka 400 being held at Homestead south of Miami. From 1988-2019, it was one of the four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule. The inaugural Daytona 500 was held in 1959 coinciding with the opening of the speedway and since 1982, it has been the season-opening race of the Cup series.
  The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse. Championship points awarded are equal to that of any other NASCAR Cup Series race. It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start.
context_section_description: 1959: Lee Petty, patriarch of the racing family, won the inaugural Daytona 500 on February 22, 1959, defeating Johnny Beauchamp.
  1960: Junior Johnson made use of the draft, then a little-understood phenomenon, to win while running a slower, year-old car in a field of 68 cars, most in Daytona 500 history through the present day.
  1965: The first rain-shortened Daytona 500 was the 1965 event. Fred Lorenzen was in the lead when the race was called on lap 133 of 200.
  1966: Richard Petty becomes the first two-time winner, having previously won the 1964 race. Through 2020, only 12 drivers have won 2 or more Daytona 500s.
  1967: Mario Andretti led 112 of the 200 laps including the last 33 to capture his first and only win in the Cup Series.
  1968: For much of this race, both Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough traded the lead. With 5 laps to go, Cale made a successful slingshot pass on the third turn to take the lead from LeeRoy and never looked back as he won his first Daytona 500 by 1.3 seconds.
  1969: Having learned from his unrelated surname-mate the previous year, LeeRoy Yarbrough would use the same sling-shot treatment out of turn 3 on Charlie Glotzbach, to score the victory on the final lap.
  1971: Richard Petty becomes the first three-time winner, including the 1964 and 1966 races. Through 2015, only 5 drivers have won 3 or more Daytona 500s.
  1972:  A. J. Foyt cruised into the lead on lap 80 and stayed there through the 200 lap race, lapping the entire field. Foyt beat second-place Charlie Glotzbach by nearly two laps, with Jim Vandiver finishing 6 laps down in third.
  1973: Richard Petty becomes the first four-time winner, including the 1964, 1966 and 1971 races . Through 2015, only Petty (7 total) and Cale Yarborough have won 4 Daytona 500s.
  1974: During the start of the 1974 NASCAR season, many races had their distance cut ten percent in response to the 1973 oil crisis. As a result, the 1974 Daytona 500 was shortened to 180 laps (450 miles), as symbolically, the race "started" on lap 21.  Richard Petty became the first of only 3 drivers (through 2015) to win consecutive Daytona 500s, while also setting a mark of 5 total wins.
  1976: In the 1976 race, Richard Petty was leading on the last lap when he was passed on the backstretch by David Pearson. Petty tried to turn under Pearson coming off the final corner but didn't clear Pearson. The contact caused the drivers to spin into the grass in the infield just short of the finish line. Petty's car didn't start, but Pearson was able to keep his car running and limp over the finish line for the win. Many fans consider this finish to be the greatest in the history of NASCAR.
  1979: The 1979 race was the first Daytona 500 to be broadcast live on national television, airing on CBS, whose audience was increased in much of the Eastern and Midwestern USA due to a blizzard. (The Indianapolis 500 was only broadcast on tape delay that evening in this era; most races were broadcast only through the final quarter to half of the race, as was the procedure for ABC's Championship Auto Racing broadcasts; with the new CBS contract, the network and NASCAR agreed to a full live broadcast.) That telecast introduced in-car and low-level track-side cameras, which has now become standard in all sorts of automotive racing broadcasts. A final lap crash and subsequent fight between leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison (along with Donnie's brother Bobby) brought national (if unwelcome) publicity to NASCAR, with the added emphasis of a snowstorm that bogged down much of the northeastern part of the United States. Donnie Allison was leading the race on the final lap with Yarborough drafting him tightly. As Yarborough attempted a slingshot pass at the end of the backstretch, Allison attempted to block him. Yarborough refused to give ground and as he pulled alongside Allison, his left side tires left the pavement and went into the wet and muddy infield grass. Yarborough lost control of his car and contacted Allison's car halfway down the backstretch. As both drivers tried to regain control, their cars ma
caption: Trevor Bayne, driving the No. 21 Ford for Wood Brothers Racing, won the 2011 Daytona 500.
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