50th Running of the Daytona 500 Champion Quotes

1980 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION BUDDY BAKER

“Some of my fondest memories are that I’ve raced with three generations of drivers. Quite frankly, my father’s era Buck Baker, Fireball Roberts, Junior Johnson as a driver ­those kind of people were the heroes of the sport. We came along at a time when engineering started and Junior started building race cars. Anybody who’s ever watched Junior’s cars run when Cale Yarborough or Darrell Waltrip or some of the other guys who raced for him. He was probably the benchmark. He was the Hendrick of the early eras. If you beat him, you pretty much had the race won. Then there’s the Pearson guy who came along in the Wood Brothers car. That shared the limelight. In my opinion, if David Pearson had ever hooked up with Junior Johnson, we’d be writing about them forever and ever, because they were the best two in the sport, and the Wood Brothers were phenomenal, also. I was lucky enough to race with the early generation. Back, there was nothing that you could buy that would work on a race car. They made their own wheels, they made this and that by trial and error, so they were our heroes. As I went along, the engineers started coming into the sport, and the laptops. The conversations changed totally. We used to tell them the back end was out so far. Then it was, how much yaw do you have, how much negative camber to you want.

“I do like the new car. It’s as close to what we used to race. If you watch them go into a corner, they don¹t just aim it, sit there, and wait on it to come out the other side. You¹ve got to drive the new car. We had to stay up on the wheel with the cars of my era. I raced up until 1990, and quite frankly, I never had the luxury of a car doing everything I wanted it to.

“There was no such thing as a perfect car. There were better cars than others, but I never had the luxury of the car doing the work. I had to work with it. The better car you had, the faster you¹d run, but you had to stay on top of the wheel. I’m glad to see that again. We got into an era where if a perfect car was running a perfect line, you couldn’t pass. It was a big parade. With this new car, if you’d watched Junior (Dale Earnhardt Jr.) come from the back in two races, he’s learned a lot from listening to his dad in the past, and in my opinion, he¹s the best out there in getting the car to the front. I like that. I like the driver to have at least 40 percent of what goes on, instead of the car doing 90 percent.

I was fortunate enough after a short time ­ 18 years ­ I finally won the Daytona 500. I had the record for the fastest 500 that¹s ever been run.

 

TWO-TIME DAYTONA 500 WINNER STERLING MARLIN

“It was a deal where I knew fenders were on the tire pretty hard. I told (Tony) Glover. He’s like, ‘can you see it.’ I said, ‘no I can’t see it.’ He asked me, ‘do you think you can out and go look at it.’ I said, ‘Yeah what do you want me to do?’ He said, ‘Well if you can pull the fender off, pull the fender off.’ The hard part was getting the window net back up. I never got it back up. We were going to blow the tire out anyway. That time, there had been a bunch of wrecks all day. I didn’t know it was going to be that big of a deal but I guess it was leading the thing three or four to go.

“The first one was a deal to come down to drive the Morgan McClure car. They had been successful winning races. I had run second to them in Junior (Johnson’s) car two or three times on speedways. I felt like I knew if I could get that car I could win the race. We came down here fourth or fifth and run good all week. We didn’t have the best car the first half of the race but we kept working on it and making it better. When it came show time, we could hold it wide open and run around the bottom. Tony made a good call in the pits and got us up toward the front where we needed to be.”

 

SEVEN-TIME DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION RICHARD PETTY

“In 1959, they didn¹t have testing and that kind of stuff. When we came through the tunnel, I was a 21-year-old kid who probably ran

10-12 races in my lifetime. To come down here to run the biggest race there was, there was one building in the infield, they had enough grandstands for probably 20-25,000 people. And that was it. And it looked like it was forever down into the first and second corner, because there was nothing to tell you how far it was. Then, Johnny Bruner was the flagman at the time.

Nobody had been on the race track with any stock cars. He said, ‘OK, everybody go out and run around on the flat for four or five laps before you even ever go up on the bank, because we want you to get used to the surroundings because it’s so big.’ So, I go out in my convertible, and I ran through the first and second corner, and through the third and fourth corner, and said, OK, so I went up on the bank. When I came around again, he’s got the black flag out. So, officially, I’m the first black-flagged guy at this place. We went out in our convertible. Nobody even thought about aero numbers. Daddy had the hardtop and I had the convertible. I went out and ran 130 mph. Today the pace car warms up faster than that. Anyhow, that was just flat flying, guys. I think the hard tops were running 143-145, something like that. We wound up third in the 100-mile race. Then, when the main race started, I started something like sixth. After they throw the green flag, the inside line takes off. I pulled over to get in the inside line. After four or five laps, the motor came out of it, because we had geared to run 130 mph, and all of a sudden, we were running 145, and it didn’t quite work. Then I went down and messed around in daddy’s pit crew. I think all we did when we stopped was get gas. He wound up, we thought, winning the race, and two-three days after that they wound up giving the race to him. That¹s my recollection of the first race we run here.”

 

1986 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION GEOFF BODINE

“My biggest accomplishment here is to still be alive after that 2000 wreck. I had a lot of help in that race, that¹s why I’m still here. God was definitely protecting me in that. My first race here (1979), I led the race and the engine blew up in the Race Hill Farms No. 47. That was pretty cool, first time here to lead the Daytona 500, under the green, also.

“But my second race, I hit a media car when I came off turn four and went over the bank. Bill Elliott won, and I got more headlines than the winner. I went from leading to being in a pretty embarrassing situation.

“When I won in ‘86, I started the Hendrick Dynasty. I won the first Daytona 500 for Rick Hendrick, so I feel a little responsible for what’s happened since those days. It was Rick’s first win, and Gary Nelson was my crew chief that day. That was one of the most memorable moments in a guy’s career.

“Daytona doesn’t compare with anything. For NASCAR, it’s out biggest race.

It’s our biggest race. As winners, we feel that way ­ it’s the biggest race you can win in NASCAR. That’s all that matters. It’s a huge event, world-wide. I was fortunate enough to win it with a TV camera in my car. I’m sitting up here with legends. When I came here to run my first race, I was not intimidated by the track. I started next to Richard Petty in the 125-mile race. He was my here, and Bobby Allison was my hero. So I’m racing against my heroes, and I was more nervous about that than about this big old race track. I think I ran into Richard that race (Petty: “If you was in the race, you run into me.”) I’ll never remember what he called me, ‘That cat Bodine ran into me.’ He could have called me a bulldog or something. Bobby lost his bumper, I hit it and I hit Richard. Isn’t it neat, all the memories we have? To win is great, but the other memories are what’s really great to us.”

 

2004 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION DALE EARNHARDT JR.

“You do anything in the world just to get in the Daytona 500. Once you’re in the race, there’s no feeling like it. You’re sitting on the starting grid. Daddy ran here 20 times, and the first one I saw was the first race I was in. It’s real intimidating. It’s just a crazy feeling to be in that field, let alone win the race. Winning it is just pot luck, mainly.

“You’ve got to have a fast car, but circumstances and variables throughout the race dictate who¹s going to be around at the end with a shot to win. I just had an amazing race car that day. It’s an incredible feeling. There’s no way to describe it. It’s impossible to answer the question on what it¹s like to win the Daytona 500.²

 

2002 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION WARD BURTON

“I think the biggest thing is being part of the history. We all have watched legends in the sport like Cale Yarborough and others who have made the sport what it is, and to be working all those years and making it to what at that point was Winston Cup racing, and just being able to have your name over there at the Daytona 500 Experience. That’s a special claim that nobody can ever take away from you. It’s certainly not winning the championship, but it’s something that you get labled former Daytona 500 winner. I think the other thing is the emotions. With me, it was my team, but also my little boy Jeb and my wife, Tabitha. The other thing as time passes, it becomes bigger. And what makes it bigger is the media, that makes it a bigger deal than when you won it. As Ernie Irvan said, it’s another race. Back then, it was Rockingham. After two days of the whirlwind of going to New York and all that, it’s getting back to focus. As time goes on, the sport makes the day more special, more meaningful, than it actually it really was. It was certainly a fun day, a successful day for everybody involved.”

 

FOUR-TIME DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION CALE YARBOROUGH

“The biggest memory has got to be the first one. Any time you go after something that means a lot, and you do it a lot of times, nothing beats that first time. It would have to be the first one. Of course, I have some memories of that ‘79 race, too, that I should have won that day.”

“My dad, who got killed at an early age, used to take me to races when I was a little boy. I had to milk a cow in the morning before I went to school and plow with a mule in the afternoon. Before I got home, I went to football practice. But I never forgot going to the races with my dad when I was a little boy, hanging on the fence at the old dirt tracks, and it never got out of my blood. I had to start from scratch. I built my first little race car when I was 15 years old and went to Sumter Speedway and started out on quarter-mile dirt. The car wasn’t very good. Then another car came along that was a little bit better. Every time somebody was looking for a driver, I held my hand up. It just went from there. Instead of doing a lot of socializing and a lot of dating, I went to the race tracks on Saturday night, whether I had a ride or not, in case one became available. I had to climb the ladder the hard way.

“In 1979, I remember it had been raining the night before. Originally, they didn¹t think they would get the race in, but they finally got the track dried enough that they turned us loose. Of course, there wasn’t much traction early in the race. I got plowed down in the mud down in turn one and stayed there for about three laps. I came back during the race and made all three of them up. Then it came to the last lap, and that’s history. You’ve seen it a thousand times!

(How hard was it to win three straight Sprint Cup championships, and does he want to see Jimmie Johnson do it this year)
“Evidently, it’s pretty hard to do, because nobody had done it before, and I’m surprised nobody’s done it since. Jimmie is running good, he has a good team and he’s a good race car driver. Eventually, somebody will do it, and if Jimmie does it, it will suit me fine. For me, it was hard to do, to put three championship years in a row. You’d think that somewhere along the line, you’d have some misfortune. But Junior had an excellent team, and we wanted to win. And we did.”

 

1989 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION DARRELL WALTRIP

“First of all, it took me 17 years to win the Daytona 500. I always had a real battle with Earnhardt. I was hoping to win it before he did, so I could kind of hold it over his head for a little while. So I had the advantage there for awhile. We used to kid each other, I’ve done this and I¹ve done that, and by the way, you’ve never won the Daytona 500. When he won the ’98 race, I was excited for him, but I also said, there goes my advantage. It was great to win the Daytona 500. This is such a big race to all of us in the sport. Even those of us who’ve come from the outside in, we all know how important it is to win down here If you’re going to be worth your salt. There are 24 guys down here today, and I think every one of them would say there’s nothing like winning the Daytona 500. It’s very special.

“It’s funny how things work out. Every one of the Daytona 500 winners, to a T, has some circumstances that led to him winning the race. Whether it was Marvin Panch getting into Smokey Yunick¹s year-old Pontiac, or a year later getting Tiny Lund in the Wood Brothers car, there’s always a story. Our story was we had Goodyear tires on our car, and we had to switch to Hoosier tires for the qualifying race. Goodyear had withdrawn its tires. When we put the Hoosiers on, it screwed it up. The tires were smaller in circumference and the car handled differently, it didn’t drive right. We worked on it all the way up to Sunday. Then all day Sunday in the race, we kept pitting, jacking on it, changing wedge, whatever we could think of to get the car where I could keep up with Dale and Kenny Schrader, because they were dominating the race. I could hang with them for a few laps, and then they would get away from me. That turned out to be to our advantage, because when everybody else had track position, when Dale and everybody else stayed out, I had to come down pit road one more time to make one more adjustment, hoping it would be the right one. In the process of doing that, we topped it up with fuel, and that gave us just that little bit of advantage we needed to run the last 50 laps without stopping.

“I was young, and A.J. Foyt was the old veteran. I went to A.J. and said every time I get behind Buddy Baker, he shakes his fist at me. I’m not sure what he’s trying to tell me, and what to do about it. A.J. said, ‘About the time he takes his hand off the steering wheel and lifts it up in the air, knock the hell out of him. I guarantee he won¹t ever shake his fist at you again.’ I tried it, and it worked.”

 

JUNIOR JOHNSON, 1960 DAYTONA 500 WINNER AND HONORARY PACE CAR DRIVER

ON HIS HISTORY IN THE SPORT
“I had a great career as a driver and won a lot of good races. Some of the ones I won were some of the biggest races, but we did miss one or two. In the short time that I drove, I won a lot of races. I was pretty young when I quit driving. I was only 33 or 34 years old when I retired from driving and started working on cars and had a great career as a car owner. A good bunch of boys drove for me. They weren’t always good when they drove for me, but they were good at one time or another. I probably had one of the best stable of drivers – Cale (Yarborough), Darrell (Waltrip), Bobby Allison, LeeRoy Yarbrough, A.J. Foyt drove for me a couple times, Mario Andretti drove for me at Riverside, Ca. Down through the years I was lucky to have good cars to where good people wanted to drive for me. I was very capable of getting a bank or anybody to sponsor me. I had some of the largest sponsors back in the days than anybody.

ON HIS AFFILIATION WITH WINSTON
“I needed a sponsorship, so I went to Reynolds and back at that time $850,000 was a big sponsor, so I went after that and they started talking to me about how much sponsorship money they had access to. I think it was something like $570 million they were putting into TV and stuff and I thought, Lord, I’m going to get me a big piece of that. But they said ‘$850,000, we want to do more than that and do you have any recommendations’. I told them if they wanted to sponsor the whole circuit that they could get with Bill France and do the whole circuit, but I still thought I was going to get my $850,000. I hooked France up with them and they agreed on the deal and I lost the sponsorship and I had to go back to work again, so that didn’t turn out to be the best thing for me. But, me and Richard Petty probably won the most money that they put up, so I got my $850,000 in the long run.”

ON DEALING WITH THE POLICE WHILE RUNNING MOONSHINE
“I got used to it. In fact, if I went down with a load of whiskey to Greensboro or Winston-Salem or Charlotte and I had a race (with the cops) going down, I got to where I’d come back and hunt them out, take them all going back and I had a lot of fun then because I was empty – I could handle them pretty good. It was sort of a cat and mouse game. If you had a bootleggin’ car that had the motor in it like it was supposed to have, we were far ahead, as far as racing was concerned. That’s basically where the racing started from – the bootlegger-type atmosphere.”

ON IF IT WAS MORE EXCITING TO RACE THE COPS OR AGAINST FELLOW DRIVERS IN AN ACTUAL RACE
“It was more thrilling for me to win a race because I was competing against people that were equal to me. A lot of them were bootleggers, so if you beat them, you beat whole lot more capable people.”

ON DARRELL WALTIP
“Sometimes I would wonder if there was something wrong with the car because he couldn’t outrun anybody. So, I would get on the radio and I would talk to him a little bit and I would just be quiet and he would run some laps and he would be up and down. So, I would say, ‘Darrell! You’ve got to pick it up a little bit, you’re getting outrun,’ and he said, ‘I’m doing everything that I can do’. I’d let him run a little bit, then I’d say, ‘Hey, Cale. You’ve got to pick it up a little bit’. He said, ‘My name ain’t Cale, it’s Darrell!’ Then he’d pick up a second.”

ON BEING CREDITED WITH DISCOVERING THE DRAFT
“I was here with Ray Fox and the dog track people over here wanted to build a car and it’s about two weeks before the race. So, they got a deal going with Ray Fox and they called me and wanted me to come down and drive the car. I guess France and all of them were in on it too. I came down and that thing – if there has ever been a dog at the race track, that was. It had a truck motor in there, it wasn’t a race motor. They used them to log with and stuff like that. It just would run. It was way off. I forget how many mile an hour it was slower. Ray had it as fast as it was going to run, he could work on it all he wanted to and it would still be way off. Well, I went out one time and I saw Cotton Owens. I was going into the first turn, coming off of the fourth turn and I decided to hold it wide open and when he came up I was going to try to outrun him. He came by me and I was behind him and we came up the frontstretch and I was all over him and wasn’t running but half throttle. I really didn’t know what had happened or anything. I went back in and Ray thought he had fixed the car because I had been running about 15 mph faster than it did for the whole time we had been down there. And he said, ‘Boy, I got that thing fixed now.’ and I never said a word and I didn’t know what had happened. So I told them to put me on a new set of tires and we’ll go back out and try again. It drove and ran like I was dragging a truck behind me and I knew then that something was going on that I had never been used to or knew anything about. I went and got some of the other guys and I could do every one of them the same way. I almost went home, but when I found that out, whatever I could do, what’s happening when I get behind those cars, if I can hang on to those cars, I’ll be ok, and I stayed and the front end of that car rubbed every Pontiac as long as they lasted.”

ON HIS FIRST TRIP TO DAYTONA
“It’s an awesome thing when you come through that tunnel and look at this thing. It’s hard to believe that you could build a car that would run all day long around this thing wide open. I don’t think there was a soul that came through that gate that didn’t just almost stop and say, ‘Man, what am I doing here?’ It was very exciting and if you ever run around this thing, you can see why. If you ride around this thing and are leading the race, it’s one of the most awesome feelings you’ll ever have. When that checkered flag falls on you, you know you’ve done everything you can do in racing and you’ve accomplished something that you will have for a lifetime. You can win championships and all that kind of stuff, but nothing can compare to having that checkered flag drop on you at this place.”

COMPARING WHAT IT’S LIKE TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 AS A DRIVER AND AS AN OWNER
“It was great. When LeeRoy (Yarbrough) won the race for me, I think that was the most exciting race because everybody said that we had blew the race because we stopped with 12 laps to go and put left-side tires on. Our tires were worn out and LeeRoy couldn’t run it wide-open, so we had to make the decision to take a chance on blowing a tire or put tires on and finish the race. That was the most exciting one because I thought we had lost the race by having to stop, but to come back and win and win in the style we won. But that could never take the one that dropped on me away because that’s the greatest race at Daytona.”

 

MARVIN PANCH, 1961 DAYTONA 500 WINNER

ON HIS FIRST IMPRESSION OF DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
“When we came in to start with, there was nothing here except for two tiny grandstands and the racetrack. Of course, they had Lake Lloyd where they dug all the dirt out. When we pulled in the pits and got ready to go practice, the guys were standing around saying, ‘Wow, this is a big quarter-mile.’

ON THE PURSE FOR THE DAYTONA 500
“When I won the race here it paid $21,050 and I had a 40% deal to drive for Smokey and after the race, he said, ‘Anybody good enough to win the race is worth 50%.’ But I’m very jealous. They make money now.”

ON THE FIRST DAYTONA 500
“I remember it very well. As a matter of fact, when we got here, Bill France had a lot of hardtops and he wanted to run the convertibles against the hardtops and he didn’t have too many convertibles. So, he came by and said, ‘We’ll give you $1,000 to cut your top off and run your car as a convertible.’ That sounded pretty good, so I cut the top off and thought we had it made. Well, the only problem with that, the hardtops lapped us about every 16-18 laps.”

ON WINNING THE DAYTONA 500
“I did not have a ride for that race. Smokey Yunick built a new ’61 Pontiac for Fireball (Roberts) to run and the old ’60 Pontiac from the Fireball campaign the previous year was sitting in the shop, wrecked. The mechanics who worked on the new car said, ‘Smoke. We should run that old car.’ And Smoke said, ‘Nah. It’s too wide, too heavy, it just won’t run with the ’61s,’ and they said ‘Well, we think it will.’ So, he told them that if they thought that much of it to take it outside the shop – he wouldn’t even let them work on it inside the shop – he said he’d furnish all the parts, pieces, engine, everything, but they were on their own time. And they did it. So, Fireball said, ‘Why don’t you put Panch in it?’ So, they put me in it and in the qualifying race here, Fireball and I ran one-two drafting each other and left the rest of the field. When I came in after that, Smokey came up to me and said ‘I don’t want any of that during the race’. I said, ‘What do you mean you don’t want any of that during the race?’ He said, ‘If something happens to Fireball, I don’t want you in the same wreck.’

“So, we started the race and I worked my way back and I was running about a half a lap behind them when the starter fell off of Fireball’s car and I got the signal to go and that old ’60 ran just as good, if not better than those ’61s. Pontiac had the field loaded with ’61s and they weren’t too happy about me winning with a year old car.”

 

A.J. FOYT, 1972 DAYTONA 500 WINNER

ON HOW DIFFICULT IT WAS TO WIN THE DAYTONA 500 SINCE HE WASN’T A STOCKCAR REGULAR
“Truthfully, the Wood Brothers had such a fantastic car, it really wasn’t a problem winning. I think we lapped the field. It was fantastic. The car pretty much drove itself and I was just along for the ride. What else can I say? It was pretty damn easy.”

ON RACING WITH DARRELL WALTRIP IN THE ROLEX 24 AT DAYTONA
“We had the 24-hour race and I’d been around the series a couple of times and knew their language and (Darrell and I) were sitting there and I said, ‘Let me tell you. If the car breaks down or there’s this or that you’ve got to go out and fix it. You’ve got a torch in the car.’ ‘Hold it just a minute,’ (Darrell said). ‘You think I’m going to race a sports car here with a torch in there, you’re crazy!’ I’m sitting there dying laughing, Darrell got mad at me and says, ‘What are you laughing about?’ They came back and said, ‘What we’re talking about is a torch, is a flashlight.’

ON WINNING BOTH THE INDY 500 AND FIRECRACKER 400 IN THE SAME YEAR
“It was a pretty good race because I was kind of an outsider. Petty was here and I think it was Bobby Isaac and some other regulars were down here and they were team cars with Ray Nichels Engineering and I was running pretty decent and Bobby was leading the race and I go down the back straightaway on the checkered flag lap and they kind of lined up across. I said, ‘Well, this is a bunch of crap. I’m not going for that.’ So, I turned around and when we went into Turn 3 I went across the apron and I lost it. I didn’t hit anything, but I turned sideways. I came off of Four and Art with Champion Spark Plugs said it was the first time he saw a car come off the number four corner and the car’s number was 47 and he said, ‘I read it one side, and then I read it on the other side, but it went straight.’ Don’t ask me how it went straight, but I didn’t care if I parked all of us because I didn’t feel like that was fair. So, lucky enough I got through it.”

 

PETE HAMILTON, 1970 DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION

ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE COMING DOWN HERE FROM NEW ENGLAND AND WINNING THE DAYTONA 500
“It’s great to back here in Daytona. Of course I love the place. For me it’s the place where I had the biggest race win that I ever had while driving Richard’s (Petty) car here in 1970. I ran the Permatex race a couple of times and was able to finish once and was able to almost finish except that Bill Wimble’s right rear tire ended up through my windshield parked in the pits. So, I got a little used to running here and we ran in ’68 for a fellow by the name of Jim Ruggles. We had fast cars. We didn’t necessarily always finish, but we ran fast. Richard (Petty) gave me a call one day and asked if I’d like to run his car and it didn’t take me too long to put my fanny in my car and drive up to Level Cross (N.C.). I feel very fortunate that happened. It certainly was a lot of fun to win the race.”

ON HIS FAVORITE DAYTONA MEMORY
“I remember one of the things in ’68, driving for Ruggles, we had qualified third or fourth. We started the 125 (qualifying race) and Buddy Baker was on the pole and he said, ‘I’m only going to run a couple of laps and then pull down.’ I was brand new then. We took off and I was behind Buddy and we ran a couple of laps and are going down the backstretch and I see this big ol’ arm waving and he pulls down and I can remember coming off the fourth turn over here and it was the first time I had been at the front of the pack and leading. It was amazing that I didn’t just drop right into the wall or the infield. We led this thing and got a little more used to it and the biggest mistake I made was to come into the pits and change tires because we never left the pits.”

 

BOBBY ALLISON, THREE-TIME DAYTONA 500 CHAMPION (’78, ’82, 88)

ON HIS FAVORITE DAYTONA MEMORY
“There were lots and lots of good times. I should be able to tell you all about 1988. I was 50 years old and won the Super Bowl of auto racing for the third time in my career with the best young man in racing second to me (Davey Allison). How can anything be better than that? Anywhere in sports – anywhere in the world. Had that mishap in Pocono four months later and I do not remember Daytona 1988 at all. I remember I won the fishing contest over in the lake and I remember we had a big party at Park’s Seafood Restaurant Sunday night for something, but I don’t remember what for. That’s something that I’ve had to accept. A long time back I got some encouragement from some friends to not grieve over what I didn’t have, enjoy what I did, and so that’s been a big help to me.

“I can remember the ’78 win with Bud Moore. We were down here with the Thunderbird and it wasn’t the most aerodynamic looking thing. Bud Moore had had a good year and a bad year the year before. It started with Buddy Baker and they had a lot of success and then ran through a bunch of engine problems and things and Buddy decided to go drive for somebody else. So, Bud called me up and I got into that Thunderbird and it was better than I thought it was going to be. I’m riding around there and I’ve got a big smile on my face and I think I’m going to win the 125 and there was a bad spot going into Turn 3 and a good friend of mine was trying to pass me and that’s the only place where I was giving any ground at all, so Buddy Baker dove underneath me and (hit that spot) and came up and stuck me in the wall and tore the car all to pieces. I was going to go home. I was really unhappy and feeling bad and run down from the year before trying to race that Matador. So, I waited a day and then decided to go down and tell Bud Moore that I was going home and looked and they had the car all fixed up, re-painted, new engine, all the dents out of it, so I had to stay and give it one more day. I started 33rd and came to the front. It was an incredible feel for me. Richard (Petty) and several of the guys were fast, but the guy that wins is the guy that gets to 500 miles first. That day, I got to 500 miles first and came from a long ways back. It was a great event for me and really got me back on my feet.

“Everybody expects me to remember ’88, but I don’t. I do remember ’82 though. In ’82, we fixed our bumper so that it would fly off – I’m told. I won the (Busch) Clash, with the bumper like it was and I won the 125 with the bumper like it was and I qualified for the outside pole like it was. Saturday at noon, one of the really special inspectors we had came over to the car and said, ‘I know you guys are cheating, you’ve got to cut that back bumper off and move it 1/8”.’ So, he wouldn’t let us go out onto the track for Happy Hour. We cut the bumper off and re-welded it back on. Now, we only had a little welder and it was OK for sheet metal and stuff – it really wasn’t good enough to do that, but it did hang the thing back on – but on the start of the race Cale (Yarborough) got into me and his bumper was welded on way better than mine and so mine came off. I go on from there and I win the race. Well, if the bumper is why I won the race, why did I win the Clash and the 125?”

ON DAVEY WINNING THE 1992 DAYTONA 500
“It really was special. I had been in recovery from ‘88 with incredible memory loss and all that stuff that was going on and was struggling with life in general. Basically, I healed quickly, but was struggling with all the other problems from the head injury. Here was this young man who had been so much pleasure to me from the time he was a little bitty guy, and here he was winning the Daytona 500. It was just a really great day for me. I think Judy and I both really got extra special pleasure out of that particular part of it.”

ON THE ENDING OF THE 1979 DAYTONA 500
“When Richard (Petty) went by and saw the two cars (of Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough) down there, there was no fracas going on yet. Donnie was just getting out of his car and I think Cale was still sitting in his and the two cars were probably 75-100 feet apart. I went by all that mess and I saw Donnie climb out of his car and I knew he wasn’t hurt bad. I felt bad for him because I knew he had been leading the race and I went on around and got the checkered flag – which is my job to finish the race. Then I pulled up closer to where Donnie’s car was and yelled, ‘Donnie, do you want a ride back to the garage area?’ and he said, ‘Nah, go on, I’ll get a ride.’ With that, Cale started hollering that the wreck was my fault and I think I probably questioned his ancestry, which did not calm him down any. He had his helmet in his hand and he ran toward me and got out there about 15 feet from the car and yelled at me some more and I think I was dumb enough to question his ancestry a little further. He lunged at me and hit me in the face with his helmet and it hurt, the blood ran down into my lap – it cut my lip and bloodied my nose. It stunned me and surprised me and I said, ‘I got to get out of the car and address this right now or run from him the rest of my life.’ None of us wanted to run from each other. We were out there doing our deal, but we were proud of what we’d done and we also had that cockiness that it takes to be a competitor in any competitive activity. So, I had to get out and address it right now. So, I got out of the car and the guy started beatin’ on my fist with his nose. My story and I’m still sticking to it.”