By Mark Aumann, NASCAR.COM
January 20, 2005
10:41 AM EST (15:41 GMT)
When David Pearson spun out while leading two laps from the finish, Benny Parsons was there to claim victory in the 17th Daytona 500 on Feb. 16, 1975, putting Chevrolet in Victory Lane for the first time since 1960. A 1975 Chevrolet Camaro two-door coupe with optional 454 V8 engine retailed for $3,685. "Wheel of Fortune" debuted in 1975. Parsons could have purchased 11 Camaros with his first-place check for $43,905 and still had enough left over to buy 134 vowels.  |  | NASCAR ACCELERATION | |
| ALSO IN 1975... |
| • | Ella Grasso becomes governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as governor in the U.S. who did not succeed her husband (Jan. 8) |
| • | The Vietnam War ends as Communist forces take Saigon and South Vietnam surrenders unconditionally (April 30) |
| • | In Detroit, Mich., Teamsters Union president Jimmy Hoffa is reported missing (July 31) |
| • | NASA launches the Viking 1 planetary probe toward Mars (Aug. 20) |
| • | The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) is used for the first time by Bill Gates in a letter (Nov. 29) |
Courtesy: Wikipedia
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Fueled by the success of George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" in 1974, the disco era was in full swing by 1975. People across the country were dancing to "The Hustle" by Van McCoy. Ashley Whippet was the defending world canine disc champion. "Whip It" was a hit for Devo in 1980. "Charlie Hustle," Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds, was named the World Series MVP, Sports Illustrated's Sportsman of the Year and the Sporting News Man of the Year. "Fire" by the Ohio Players was the No. 2 song in the country on Feb. 16. If Parsons, a former Detroit taxi cab driver, had wanted to travel from his hometown of Ellerbe, N.C. to disco with Pete Rose in Cincinnati, the 523-mile journey would have taken nine and a half hours by cab -- or three hours and 24 minutes at Parsons' race-winning average of 153.469 mph. The January edition of Popular Electronics magazine featured a new "personal computer." Ed Roberts' Altair 8800 had no keyboard or monitor, limited short-term memory and included a microprocessor and a 256-byte RAM card for $395. Bill Gates and Paul Allen write a version of BASIC to make it run. President Ford survived two assassination attempts in September and a tumble down the stairs of Air Force One in Salzburg, Austria in June. Chevy Chase portrayed a bumbling President Ford when "Saturday Night Live" debuted in October. The first guest host was George Carlin. Millions refused to go in the water in the summer of 1975, as "Jaws" wracked up $260 million in movie ticket receipts. Darrell Waltrip, nicknamed "Jaws" by Cale Yarborough, finished 26th in the 1975 Daytona 500. In March, George Lucas began production on the first "Star Wars" movie, starting a company called Industrial Light & Magic to handle special effects. On July 17, astronauts and cosmonauts met in space as an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft docked with each other in orbit. Current drivers born in 1975:
• Brendan Gaughan (July 10)
• Kevin Harvick (Dec. 8)
• Jimmie Johnson (Sept. 17)
• Jason Leffler (Sept. 16)
• Elliott Sadler (April 30) → Click here for more Daytona Countdown. | 
