The 28-car wreck at Talladega Superspeedway close to the tip of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 broke the Cup Sequence report for the biggest crash, including one other catastrophic chapter to inventory automobile racing’s lengthy historical past. Nonetheless, the huge crash was 9 vehicles in need of NASCAR’s general report 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 vehicles 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 may very well be hid underneath a inventory physique. The Sportsman Division was a center floor between the highest division’s inventory vehicles 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 struggle over a $26,475 purse. This was a large area, contemplating there’s a 40-car restrict for Cup Sequence races at this time.
Over half the sector 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, making an attempt 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 performed, 37 vehicles have been collected. There was a lot wreckage on the grass inside Flip 4 that it regarded 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 fireplace regardless of a number of cracked gasoline tanks inside the automobile graveyard. It was most likely a reduction for at the very least one tv govt, contemplating that CBS supplied protection of NASCAR’s races at Daytona for the primary time, permitting viewers throughout the nation to look at the mayhem.
The wreck featured just a few names that fashionable followers are possible acquainted with. 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 received shut off. My automobile 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 at this time.”
After a 40-minute delay, the race resumed with 38 unique starters joined by six vehicles 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 underneath warning within the rain.
Consider it or not, Daytona Worldwide Speedway had a spotless security report earlier than 1960. A weekend report in the Greensboro Document was titled “Daytona’s Status As Protected Observe Spoiled With Crack-Ups.” The two.5-mile high-banked oval was solely a 12 months outdated 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 at this time’s superspeedway races.
