Petty Milestone: 1959 Daytona 500

When Lee Petty arrived at Daytona Beach in 1959 for the inaugural running of the Daytona 500, he came to the birthplace of stock car racing as an established, dominant champion. The year before, Petty had won nine races en route to taking his second NASCAR championship, finishing second five times and third twice to punctuate his dominance.

In short, going into that inaugural race 45 years ago, Lee Petty was the man.

But Petty would face the most unique and difficult challenge of his racing career at the brand-new Daytona International Speedway. The race would turn out to be the longest event in duration in NASCAR history, and when it was over Lee Petty would have a unique position in history as the winner of a dramatic race that would end in the sport's first official photo finish.

	Credit: Daytona International Speedway archives

To Petty and his fellow drivers, running at Daytona had meant negotiating the long, four-mile laps and sliding through the sand turns on the old beach course. But getting around the new 2-1/2 mile superspeedway meant learning a entirely new way of driving that required a completely different kind of car control. The unforgiving high banking quickly chewed up both tires and stock car suspensions, and drivers who couldn't master the high speeds and dangerous turns quickly found themselves in a world of trouble.

Nonetheless, the challenge brought out the best in both the drivers and the manufacturers. Petty, who would drive an Oldsmobile in the race, was joined by other top-flight competitors such as Johnny Beauchamp, Glen "Fireball" Roberts and Joe Weatherly. The list of makes and manufacturers included the Ford Thunderbird, Plymouth, Dodge, Pontiac and Chevy, as American automakers set out to show that they could conquer the country's newest superspeedway.

The cars responded well during qualifying, with Cotton Owens posting the fastest lap at a speed of 143.198 mph. Fifty-nine cars lined up to begin the race, and in the early laps, the list of drivers who held the lead included pole-sitter Bob Welborn, who had won the 100-

mile race earlier in the week, along with "Tiger" Tom Pistone, Weatherly, Roberts, Johnny Beauchamp and Jack Smith.

But as the lead continued to change hands, another major trend soon surfaced. The track began taking its toll on tires and suspensions, and cars began dropping out from a variety of mechanical failures. By the time the race had reached the 100-mile mark, it was clear that Petty and Beauchamp had the cars to beat.

Petty, in particular, had set up the car for the long haul, choosing a gear that would allow his engine to handle the high speeds. He quickly learned how to manage his tires as he swept through Daytona's wide, intimidating turns. He also demonstrated an early mastery of the drafting technique that would become a staple of superspeedway driving, hooking up with Beauchamp to put most of the field a lap down by the midpoint of the race.

But all bets were off in their on-track friendship as Petty and Beauchamp headed into the final laps. With two laps to go, Petty held the lead, but Beauchamp came out of turn 4 with a new draft partner, Weatherly, who was down two laps but could still run with the leaders. During the last lap, Beauchamp finally made his move to the inside after being inadvertently blocked by Weatherly, who stayed on the outside as Lee Petty got squeezed into the middle lane.

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The three cars came to the tri-oval neck and neck, the crowd roaring as they battled for the lead. But when the leaders crossed the finish line the race was too close to call. NASCAR officials stationed at the finish line thought Beauchamp had won by about a foot, and they declared him the winner, setting off a firestorm of controversy.

The disputes from Petty's pit box were both fiery and instantaneous, with Petty claiming that he had beaten Beauchamp to the line by two feet. Since NASCAR didn't have a photo-finish camera stationed at the finish line, NASCAR president Bill France decided to delay the determination of the winner until officials could go to the photos to make the final call.

It took three days for France to determine the winner, and the race was so close that newsreel footage had to be used to augment the photographic evidence. Beauchamp and Ford would protest the decision, but Petty was declared the victor.

Few people realized it at the time, but the win was more than just another feather in Lee Petty's racing cap.

"That was an awesome, awesome deal," remembers Richard Petty, who was 21 when his dad went to Victory Lane that day. "Because it was the biggest race track at the time. We knew it was going to be the biggest race, and that was an awesome deal for him, for us and for Petty Enterprises."

Richard's sense of history proved to be prescient. NASCAR's new superspeedway quickly captured the imagination of race fans everywhere, and the electrifying photo finish drew thousands of new fans to the fledgling sport of stock car racing.

Lee Petty had proved his mettle as an up-and-coming NASCAR legend by holding on to win the race, and the reign of the Petty dynasty was officially under way.