Enduring Performance: Daytona in the summer

Fireball edges teammate Lorenzen to win 1963 Firecracker 400

It was another fantastic Fourth of July for Fireball Roberts in the 1963 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

	Fireball Roberts passed Fred Lorenzen on the final turn. Credit: ISC Archives
	NASCAR 24/7A day's worth of news in 90 seconds

The Daytona Beach native, driving a bright purple Holman and Moody No. 22 Ford, edged teammate Fred Lorenzen by less than a car-length in a frantic finish to post his fourth win on the Fourth -- and his second consecutive Firecracker 400 victory.

"I've always been lucky on the Fourth," Roberts said. "This game of racing is like Russian roulette. When it's your day, you win, and when it's not, you're gonna lose no matter what you do. Today was my day all the way."

It didn't appear that way at the beginning, as Jim Paschal and Junior Johnson put their Chevrolets out front. But both retired near the midway point with engine problems, as the Fords of Roberts, Lorenzen and Marvin Panch then took over.

Roberts built a lead of nearly a lap on Lorenzen when with 10 laps to go, Jim McGuirk blew a right-front tire and spun at the start-finish line. Lorenzen was able to close up on Roberts' bumper on the restart and make a pass for the lead when the green flew again three laps later.

However, all three drivers -- Lorenzen, Roberts and Panch -- knew the best place to be on the final lap was second, so the trio slowed dramatically on the final lap, jockeying for the prime spot to use the draft.

"It was kind of funny," Roberts said. "We all slowed down real slow on the backstretch trying to make the other take the lead going into the final turn. We slowed down some 20 miles per hour before Lorenzen passed.

"It's usually the worst thing you can do in a race to lead going into the fourth turn when there are three cars of nearly equal speed real close. I just cut through the vacuum behind Freddie's car on that last turn and went on to win."

In fact, Roberts admitted he almost lost control of his car on the last lap as he and Lorenzen banged together in an effort to manuever for position.

"The turbulence at the speed we were running was terrific," he said.

Roberts said he felt for Lorenzen, because he knew what it was like to be helpless to prevent the slipstream move.

"When a fellow cuts inside you like I did to Freddie, he feels like his car is chained as the other fellow rolls by," Roberts explained. "This time the strategy worked and I won, but you never can tell next time.

"Sometimes the best plans are failed, but like I said, today was my day."

Panch had a similar strategy laid out, only he wasn't able to take advantage of it.

"I planned to do exactly what Fireball did, only he got there first," Panch said.

There were three cautions, two for spectacular incidents, the first on Lap 40 when Paul Goldsmith spun and his front windshield popped out at more than 160 mph. It took safety crews seven laps to sweep up the broken glass which littered the front straight.

LEGENDS •   Fireball Roberts

The second came on Lap 50, when Troy Ruttman's car became airborne, flipping end over end twice in Turn 1 as he ran in the lead pack. Roberts was right behind Ruttman when the incident occured and was able to avoid hitting him, but Lorenzen suffered damage to the front of his car.

"I was right behind Troy when he flipped and it was the turbulence, not a blown tire, which flipped him," Roberts said. "The wind just picked his car up and he tumbled. I was almost sucked into the wall behind him."

Darel Dieringer was a distant fourth, two laps behind.

When asked if Roberts could have caught Johnson, who nearly lapped the field before retiring, Roberts said, "I think it would have still been one of those things decided on the final lap and the Lord knows who would have won."

Unfortunately, Fireball didn't get the opportunity to defend his Daytona victory, as he would die on July 2, 1964, two days before the that year's Firecracker 400, of burns suffered in a crash at Charlotte in May.