Daytona Countdown: '72

Foyt visits Victory Lane; Pong visits Sunnyvale

For the second year in a row, A.J. Foyt had the car to beat. This time, he put it in Victory Lane. When Richard Petty broke a valve on Lap 80, Foyt led the final 120 laps to win the 14th Daytona 500 by more than a lap over Charlie Glotzbach on Feb. 20, 1972.

NASCAR ACCELERATION •   Know Your NASCAR •   Tickets for Daytona •   2004 Daytona 500 highlights •   Get TrackPass for 2005! ALSO IN 1972 ... •   Kurt Waldheim becomes the Secretary General of the United Nations (Jan. 4)  •   U.S. airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers and baggage (Feb. 5)  •   The Goodyear blimp flies for the first time (March 8)  •   Governor George Wallace of Alabama is shot by Arthur Herman Bremer at a Laurel, Md., political rally (May 15)  •   Imelda Marcos is stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant; her bodyguards shoot him (Dec. 7)  Courtesy: Wikipedia

The top money-making movie in 1972 was "The Godfather," which had over $134 million in gross receipts. Foyt, who won $44,600 for winning the race, is the godfather of driver John Andretti.

A 1972 Mercury Cougar two-door coupe with a 46-cubic inch V8 retailed for $3,016. Foyt could have purchased 14 Cougars with his winnings. The average cost of a new home exceeded $30,000 for the first time in 1972, so Foyt could have bought a new house in Houston and four Cougars for the garage.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 1,000 for the first time in November. If Foyt had invested his first-place check that year, his $44,600 would be worth about $467,000 today.

The first arcade video game -- Computer Space -- was deemed too hard to play. Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney then put in $250 each to start a new company, Atari (from the Japanese game "Go") in 1972.

Their first release was a simple video tennis game called "Pong.". Debuting at a Sunnyvale, Calif., tavern, the game was overflowing with quarters after one day. At least 100,000 Magnavox Odyssey home game systems featuring "Pong" were sold. Four years later, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications for at least $28 million.

If Foyt had wanted to play "Pong", he could have driven his Cougar from his hometown of Houston to Sunnyvale, a distance of 1,896 miles, in 38 hours at freeway speeds. At the race-winning average speed of 161.55 mph, Foyt could have made it in 11 hours and 44 minutes.

The first scientific hand-held calculator was introduced on Feb. 1. The Hewlett-Packard 35 -- designed to fit in an engineer's shirt pocket -- cost $395 and had the advantage of being able to handle more than four basic functions. CEO Bill Hewlett suggested naming it the HP-35 because it had 35 keys.

President Richard Nixon had a busy year. He ordered the development of a space shuttle program in January, took a trip to the People's Republic of China in February, signed the SALT I treaty in Moscow in May, increased Social Security spending in October and soundly defeated George McGovern to win re-election in November. "Never Been To Spain" by Three Dog Night was No. 5 on the Cash Box charts.

In June, Nixon also was taped discussing using the CIA to obstruct an FBI investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

The 15 millionth Volkswagen Beetle was sold in February, eclipsing the Ford Model T. The Goodyear blimp Europa flew for the first time in March. In December, Apollo 17 astronauts were the last to walk on the moon.

Tragedy struck the 1972 Olympics in September, when 11 Israeli athletes were killed after eight members of an Arab terorist group invaded the Olympic Village.

Current drivers born in 1972:
• Stan Barrett (Dec. 1)
• Matt Kenseth (March 10)
• Ashton Lewis (Jan. 22)

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