Daytona Countdown: '70

Hamilton beats his boss to the stripe; Vietnam protests intensify

Pete Hamilton snuck one over on the boss in the 12th Daytona 500. After Richard Petty's Plymouth expired on Lap 7, Petty's team car -- with Hamilton behind the wheel -- beat David Pearson and Bobby Allison by three car-lengths on Feb. 22, 1970.

NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Tickets for Daytona •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005! ALSO IN 1970 ... •   Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya (Jan. 15)  •   The Ford Pinto is introduced (Sept. 11)  •   Anwar Sadat accepted as Egyptian president (Oct. 7)  •   A U.S. Air Force plane makes an emergency landing near Leninakan, Soviet Union. Soviets release the American officers, including two generals, Nov. 10. (Oct. 21)  •   In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years causes large floods, kills 293, leaves 200,000 homeless and virtually halts the Vietnam War (Oct. 30)  Courtesy: Wikipedia

A 1970 Dodge Charger 500 with a 390-horsepower V8 engine could be had for $3,246. That means Hamilton could have bought 13 Charger 500s with the winning purse of $44,850 -- and had enough left over to buy over 7,000 gallons of gas -- at 36 cents a gallon.

Hamilton could have settled for 22 American Motors Gremlins, introduced that year with a base price of $1,959.

Parker Brothers introduced the Nerf ball in 1970, a polyurethane foam ball that was safe for indoor play. By year's end, more than four million Nerf balls were sold.

"Venus" by Dutch rockers Shocking Blue was the No. 3 song in the country, according to Cash Box. "Venus de Milo" wouldn't have been able to catch a Nerf ball, since her arms had been broken off by the time the sculpture was found on the Aegean island of Melos in 1820.

Nerf bars are steel tubing used to protect a vehicle's sheet metal or to keep open-wheeled cars from flipping. "The Flip Wilson Show" debuted in 1970.

Before the Nerf ball, Parker Brothers was more well-known for the board game "Monopoly." If Hamilton had wanted to drive from his hometown of Dedham, Mass. to Park Place and Boardwalk -- which are located in Atlantic City, N.J. -- he could make the 342-mile journey in about seven hours in a Gremlin, or two hours and 17 minutes at his race-winning speed of 149.601 mph.

Other television shows that debuted in 1970 included "All My Children," "Monday Night Football," "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Odd Couple" and "The Partridge Family."

Dick Trickle made his Daytona 500 debut in 1970, finishing 26th.

Despite an increase in the price of first-class postage -- to six cents -- 210,000 U.S. postal employees went on strike for two weeks in March. President Nixon sent the military to New York post offices. At the same time, Nixon signed into law legislation banning TV ads depicting cigarette smoking.

The Beatles officially called it quits on April 10, one day before Apollo 13's "routine moon mission" turned out to be anything but. The three astronauts turned to Earth safely five days before the first Earth Day was celebrated.

Opposition to the Vietnam War grew in 1970. Four Kent State students were killed by National Guardsmen on May 4. A Washington, D.C. war protest drew 100,000 people a month later. In October, President Nixon announced that 40,000 more troops would be home by Christmas.

Current drivers born in 1970:
• Andy Houston (Nov. 6)
• Buckshot Jones (July 23)
• Jason Keller (May 23)
• Jerry Nadeau (Sept. 9)

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