By Mark Aumann, Turner Sports Interactive
January 14, 2003
10:04 AM EST (1504 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- A high-winged, slant-nosed mechanical predator in Petty blue swooped down and captured the 12th annual Daytona 500.
It was a stunning win, because it was young Pete Hamilton in Victory Lane, not two-time winner Richard Petty. But what might have been more stunning was Petty's decision not to relieve Hamilton in the car after his mount blew an engine on the ninth lap.
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Instead, the 27-year-old Hamilton picked up his first Grand National victory by holding off the hard-charging Ford of three-time series champion David Pearson.
"I think he'd have had to pry me out with a crowbar," Hamilton said of any plans Petty had of replacing him in the car. "We were running good and you don't like to get out at a time like that.
"I have the greatest respect in the world for Richard. He coached me a great deal before this race, showed me what to do.
"One of the first things he told me was that you have to finish to win, and that's what we tried to do. We didn't run too hard at the start. We tried to save something for later."
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"Later" came on lap 186, when Hamilton followed leader Pearson into the pits for what was expected to be the final stop of the day.
Pearson went for left side tires, while Hamilton changed right side tires. But one lap later, Richard Brooks spun in the second turn as the caution flag came out.
Petty, stationed in Hamilton's pits, made a split-second decision to bring Hamilton back on pit road to change the other two tires, giving him four fresh tires to Pearson's two.
When the track went back to green on lap 190, Hamilton quickly ran down Pearson, putting his No. 40 on the inside of Pearson's No. 17 for an entire lap before completing the pass.
Everyone in attendance, including Hamilton, expected the veteran to counter with one final slingshot move.
"I knew all about the slingshot, but I kinda felt like I'd be able to hang on once I passed him," Hamilton said.
He was right. Pearson swept to the inside of Hamilton's Plymouth on lap 198 but his Ford wiggled and lost traction, the victim of tires that had lost their grip.
"I knew I was finished then," Pearson said. "After that, my tires were hot and I couldn't catch him.
"We goofed. We thought we could outrun him without changing tires on the right, and we were wrong."
Bobby Allison and Charlie Glotzbach finished a lap behind, while Bobby Isaac and Richard Brickhouse were two laps down.
For the third straight year, Cale Yarborough had the fastest car -- and for the second straight year, wasn't around the for the finish. His car's engine blew, as did those of Donnie Allison and A.J. Foyt. Defending winner LeeRoy Yarbrough lost seven laps in the pits and ended up ninth.
Glotzbach, who came so close to winning in 1969, lost valuable time when he was black-flagged on lap 171 because he was missing his gas cap.
This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.
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