The 28-car wreck at Talladega Superspeedway close to the top of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 broke the Cup Sequence document for the most important crash, including one other catastrophic chapter to inventory automotive racing’s lengthy historical past. Nonetheless, the huge crash was 9 automobiles wanting NASCAR’s total document set in 1960 throughout the opening lap of a Modified-Sportsman race at Daytona.
NASCAR was solely an 11-year-old group in 1960. The automobiles within the highest division have been nonetheless so inventory that they have been raced with the home windows rolled down and headlights taped to forestall a pointy bathe of glass throughout crashes. The principles have been looser in NASCAR’s decrease divisions. The Modified Division allowed a plethora of modifications so long as they might be hid beneath a inventory physique. The Sportsman Division was a center floor between the highest division’s inventory automobiles and the modifieds.
Each decrease divisions typically competed in mixed races on the NASCAR undercard, therefore the compound time period “Modified-Sportsman.” This was the case for a 250-mile race held the day earlier than the 1960 Daytona 500, the place 68 drivers lined as much as battle over a $26,475 purse. This was a large area, contemplating there’s a 40-car restrict for Cup Sequence races in the present day.
Over half the sphere failed to finish the primary lap after a Chevrolet hit the apron on the backside of Flip 4 and spun out. A number of different drivers misplaced management, attempting to keep away from the spinning Chevy. Drivers additional again had nowhere to go and easily piled into the incident. When it was all mentioned and carried out, 37 automobiles have been collected. There was a lot wreckage on the grass inside Flip 4 that it seemed like a junkyard.
Miraculously, nobody was killed. Solely 5 drivers have been transported to close by Halifax Medical Middle with minor accidents. There was additionally no hearth regardless of a number of cracked gas tanks throughout the automotive graveyard. It was in all probability a aid for no less than one tv govt, contemplating that CBS offered protection of NASCAR’s races at Daytona for the primary time, permitting viewers throughout the nation to look at the mayhem.
The wreck featured a couple of names that fashionable followers are doubtless conversant in. Wendell Scott, NASCAR’s first Black race-winner, and Ralph Earnhardt, the daddy of Dale Earnhardt Sr., each crashed out on the primary lap. Earnhardt instructed the Charlotte Observer:
“We have been popping out of the final flip, and bought shut off. My automotive was knocked finish over finish. I assumed this was it. I’ve been working modifieds a very long time, however I’ve by no means seen something like this one in the present day.”
After a 40-minute delay, the race resumed with 38 unique starters joined by six automobiles that did not qualify to bolster the depleted area. Bubba Farr would win the 100-lap race in a Ford fitted with a Lincoln engine. There wasn’t a lot room for extra chaos, with 34 laps run beneath warning within the rain.
Imagine it or not, Daytona Worldwide Speedway had a spotless security document earlier than 1960. A weekend report in the Greensboro File was titled “Daytona’s Popularity As Secure Observe Spoiled With Crack-Ups.” The two.5-mile high-banked oval was solely a yr previous at this level. The races held throughout its inaugural season featured no crashes. It was a far cry from crashes being a promoting level for in the present day’s superspeedway races.
