By Mark Aumann, Turner Sports Interactive
January 23, 2003
11:01 AM EST (1601 GMT)
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- In one of the strangest races in Daytona 500 history, the wildest moment turned out to be an unscheduled tag-team wrestling match.
As a nationwide television audience witnessed the first live flag-to-flag coverage of a 500-mile race, Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison smashed into each other while going for the lead on the final lap. When Bobby Allison stopped to survey the damage, the three began swinging fists and helmets at each other, leaving a surprised Richard Petty to cross the finish line the victor, snapping a winless streak of 45 races.
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It was almost inevitable that Yarborough and the Allisons would be involved in a race-ending incident, because that's how they started their day, once a chilly morning rain ended.
On lap 32, Donnie Allison lost control and forced Yarborough and Bobby Allison to take evasive action, as all three cars spun through the muck and the mire on the backstretch infield.
Forced to pit to repair his waterlogged car, Yarbrough ended up losing four laps to the leaders. But he used a series of cautions to his advantage -- including making up three laps in a 35-lap span -- to get back on the lead lap for the final sprint to the finish.
Chasing the Allisons -- leader Donnie and the lapped car of Bobby -- but a half-lap ahead of Petty, Darrell Waltrip and A.J. Foyt, Yarborough made his move on the final lap, diving below Donnie's car in Turn 1. Allison ran Yarborough down to the apron, where the two Oldsmobiles made contact, then slid up the embankment to hit the outside wall before spinning back into the infield.
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| Richard Petty celebrates his victory in the 1979 Daytona 500. Credit: Daytona Racing Archives. |
All three cars came to a stop in the grass, where the melee ensued. Helmets and racing gloves became weapons as the Allisons and Yarborough kicked and clawed in the mud.
"It's the worst thing I've ever seen in racing," Yarborough said. "Bobby waited on us so he could block me off. It was evident. The films will show it. I had him beat. I knew how to win the race.
"They double-teamed me. My left wheels were over in the dirt, and Donnie knocked me over in the dirt further. He carried me on into the grass. I started spinning and Donnie started spinning.
"Donnie denied doing it. Bobby pulled up over there, and I asked him why he did it. He bowed up, and I swung at him. It was the worst thing I've ever seen in racing."
To no one's surprise, the Allisons saw things a little differently.
"Naw, I didn't block them," Bobby Allison said. "I wasn't even close. I rode up there after the race was over to make sure they were both OK."
"I don't think Bobby slowed down, and Bobby didn't move anywhere," Donnie Allison concurred. "Cale had made up his mind he would pass me low, and I had made up my mind he was gonna have to pass me high. I had already decided if he was going to pass, it was going to be on the outside.
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"When he tried to pass me low, he went off the track. He spun and hit me. I feel like I had to keep from getting knocked out, and I didn't do that.
"When Bobby came over to find out if we were all right, Cale went over and punched Bobby through the screen. Then he came at me and started calling me names."
Petty, who had been running a distant third, suddenly found himself in the lead with less than two miles to go. Waltrip made a desperation move to the apron of the track in the tri-oval, but Petty stayed in front by a car length at the line.
"I had hold of my steering wheel, and I was going to cut it left if Darrell got any closer," Petty said.
Petty, who had offseason surgery to remove 40 percent of his stomach, was racing against the advice of his doctor.
"I'm on top of the world," he said. "The weathe rgot cooler, and it was not an exhausting race. From a mental standpoint, however, it was rough. I thought it was the worst race I've ever been in, the way the cars were jumping around on the track."
Buddy Baker's Daytona jinx continued. Baker, who sat on the pole with a record speed of 196.049 mph, was finished by lap 38 with ignition problems.
"That just beats all I've ever seen," Baker said. "If there was ever a perfect race car, that was it. I'm a disappointed man right now."
Dale Earnhardt led 10 laps and finished eighth in his first 500, while Terry Labonte was 16th and Geoff Bodine 29th.
This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.
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