By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 19, 2005
08:45 AM EST (13:45 GMT)
Down a lap early in the running, Richard Petty stormed back to win the 15th Daytona 500 by more than two laps over Bobby Isaac on Feb. 18, 1973. Petty's Daytona 500 victory was his fourth and was worth $36,100. In June, Secretariat won his third consecutive race -- the Belmont Stakes -- to become the first Triple Crown winner since 1948.  |  | NASCAR ACCELERATION | |
| ALSO IN 1973 ... |
| • | Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in metric on signs (Feb. 12) |
| • | Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched (May 14) |
| • | Patent for the ATM granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain (June 4) |
| • | A major fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center. The disaster comes to be known as the 1973 National Archives Fire (July 12) |
| • | Singer, songwriter Bobby Darin (birthname Robert Casotto) dies of heart complications at 37 (Dec. 20) |
Courtesy: Wikipedia
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Petty won 200 of his 1185 starts and retired at age 55 with career earnings of $7,755,409. Secretariat won 16 of his 21 starts and retired at age 3 with career winnings of $1,316,808. Richard's son Kyle has won eight times. Secretariat sired more than 80 stakes winners, including A.P. Indy, Chief's Crown, Dehere, Gone West, Storm Cat and Secreto. If Petty had gone to Claiborne Farm in Paris, Ky., to race Secretariat, the 425-mile drive would have taken Petty eight and a half hours from Level Cross, N.C., by freeway, or three hours and one minute at the race-winning speed of 140.894 mph. If Secretariat had decided to visit Petty in Level Cross and had been able to match his Belmont-winning pace (1.5 miles in 2:24), it would have taken "Big Red" 11 hours and 20 minutes. The Six Million Dollar Man, starring Lee Majors, premiered in 1973 and finished No. 11 in the ratings. Twenty five years later, Jeff Gordon won 13 of 33 races and became NASCAR's first $6 million man. In January, CBS sold the New York Yankees for $10 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner. In 2004, Forbes magazine estimated the value of the franchise to be $832 million. If Petty had taken his first-prize purse of $36,100 and joined the syndicate, it would be worth about $3 million today. The No. 1 hit song on Feb. 16 was Hurricane Smith's Oh, Babe, What Would You Say? Hurricane Brenda first hit Mexico in August. On Jan. 27, the Paris Peace Accord was signed, effectively ending the Vietnam War. The last American combat soldiers left South Vietnam in March. Of the more than 3 million Americans who served in the war, almost 58,000 were killed and more than 1,000 were missing in action. As the war wound down, Watergate picked up. Televised hearings began on May 17 in the United States Senate. Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned Oct. 10 and was replaced by Gerald Ford on Nov. 27. On Nov. 17, President Nixon proclaimed "I am not a crook." On Sept. 20, Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in three straight sets at the Astrodome to win "The Battle of the Sexes." On Oct. 17, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries imposed an oil embargo on the U.S., primarily because of its support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Gasoline, which cost 38 cents a gallon at the beginning of 1973, was almost impossible to come by at the end of the year, selling for as much as $1.20. The price of a barrel of oil went from $3 to $5.11 in one day -- then rose to $11.65 in December, leading to mandatory rationing and shortages nationwide. → Click here for more Daytona Countdown. | 
