Daytona Countdown: '65

Lorenzen is King of the Road in seventh annual Daytona 500

Fred Lorenzen's Ford outlasted Darel Dieringer's Mercury and Mother Nature to win the rain-shortened seventh Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, 1965.

A 1965 Mercury Cyclone with a 427-cubic inch V8 retailed for $2,625, so Lorenzen could have picked up 10 new Cyclones with his first-place check for $27,100. The 1965 Iowa State Cyclones went 5-4-1 in the Big Eight.

NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Tickets for Daytona •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005! ALSO IN 1965 ... •   Malcolm X is assassinated at his mosque in New York by Black Muslims (Feb. 21)  •   Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space (March 18)  •   President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid (July 30)  •   The anti-war student-run National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam stages the first public burning of a draft card in the United States (Oct. 15)  •   In St. Louis, the 630-foot-tall parabolic steel Gateway Arch is completed (Oct. 28)  Courtesy: Wikipedia

Waiting for the traffic to clear, fans may have heard What Have They Done To The Rain by the Searchers on the radio. It was No. 36 on the Cash Box charts in February. The Righteous Brothers had the No. 1 song in the land that week: You've Lost That Loving Feeling.

Another song on the radio that month was Roger Miller's King of the Road. If Lorenzen wanted to drive from his hometown of Elmshurst, Ill., to "destination: Bangor, Maine," it would have taken him almost 25 hours to travel the 1,234 miles at the speed limit -- or eight hours and 43 minutes at his race-winning speed of 141.539 mph.

Craig Breedlove could have made it in two hours, since he piloted "Spirit of America" to a world's record 600.6 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats in November.

The spirit of Americans in space was evident in 1965. On March 23, Gus Grissom and John Young were the first Gemini crew in space. On June 5, Ed White made the first space walk.

Americans were also heading to Vietnam in record numbers. On March 8, 3,500 U.S. Marines arrived in South Vietnam, the first American combat troops stationed there.

One day after Lorenzen's victory, Canada adopted its red and white maple leaf flag. Canadian Jim Bray finished 42nd in the 1965 Daytona 500.

Several television series got their start in 1965, including Batman, Hogan's Heroes, Green Acres, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Get Smart.

Robert Vaughn and David McCallum starred on U.N.C.L.E., while Pontiac driver Robert Vaughan finished last out of the field of 43 cars that year. Don Adams played Agent 86 and Barbara Feldon Agent 99 on Get Smart. Neil Castles' No. 86 Plymouth was 17th and Herb Shannon's No. 99 Mercury was 24th.

Current drivers born in 1965:
• Mike Bliss (April 5)
• Andy Hillenburg (April 30)

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