The 28-car wreck at Talladega Superspeedway close to the top of Sunday’s YellaWood 500 broke the Cup Collection document for the biggest crash, including one other catastrophic chapter to inventory automotive racing’s lengthy historical past. Nonetheless, the large crash was 9 vehicles in need of NASCAR’s total document set in 1960 through 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 had been nonetheless so inventory that they had been raced with the home windows rolled down and headlights taped to forestall a pointy bathe of glass throughout crashes. The foundations had been looser in NASCAR’s decrease divisions. The Modified Division allowed a plethora of modifications so long as they may very well be hid beneath a inventory physique. The Sportsman Division was a center floor between the highest division’s inventory vehicles and the modifieds.
Each decrease divisions usually 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 combat over a $26,475 purse. This was a large subject, contemplating there’s a 40-car restrict for Cup Collection races right now.
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, 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 accomplished, 37 vehicles had 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 had been transported to close by Halifax Medical Heart with minor accidents. There was additionally no fireplace regardless of a number of cracked gas tanks throughout the automotive graveyard. It was most likely a reduction for at the very least one tv government, contemplating that CBS supplied protection of NASCAR’s races at Daytona for the primary time, permitting viewers throughout the nation to observe the mayhem.
The wreck featured just a few names that trendy followers are doubtless aware of. 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 informed the Charlotte Observer:
“We had been popping out of the final flip, and obtained shut off. My automotive was knocked finish over finish. I assumed this was it. I’ve been operating modifieds a very long time, however I’ve by no means seen something like this one right now.”
After a 40-minute delay, the race resumed with 38 authentic starters joined by six vehicles that didn’t qualify to bolster the depleted subject. 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.
Consider 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 Status As Secure Monitor 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 right now’s superspeedway races.
