In this episode of 'Shift: NASCAR’s evolution through the eyes of The King,' Richard Petty recalls the 1979 Daytona 500 that saw him make out with the win and Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough fight in the infield. 'Shift' is a series of conversations between Richard and Kyle Petty highlighting the evolution of NASCAR's 75-year history through the dark lenses of Richard Petty's famous glasses.
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00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - Richard Petty in car number 43 grabs the lead.
00:05 - Here comes Petty.
00:06 Richard Petty begins to close in from second place.
00:09 For racing fans, this is such sweet thunder.
00:13 (dramatic music)
00:16 (dramatic music)
00:19 (fire crackling)
00:29 (dramatic music)
00:40 - CBS come on and said,
00:43 "Okay, we're gonna go flag to flag.
00:46 Which has never been done in NASCAR racing.
00:49 - This is CBS.
00:52 - Richard Petty in an Oldsmobile car number 43.
00:56 For racing fans, this is such sweet thunder.
00:59 - It wound up, it was a big snowstorm on the East Coast.
01:08 Back then it was just ABC, CBS, NBC, TV.
01:13 Everybody up and down the East Coast tuned into it
01:15 because it was something different.
01:18 - We're just gonna have to run
01:19 and try to keep up with the crowd
01:20 and just hope that we get the good breaks
01:22 and somebody else gets the bad break.
01:23 - Donnie and Kale, they spun out a couple of times
01:28 and I got a couple of laps behind
01:31 and still was able to get back to the front of the race.
01:34 - As they come to the tri-oval,
01:38 the leader is Donnie Allison.
01:42 - We was running third, fourth, and fifth
01:44 with Fort, me, and Darrell.
01:47 We was racing for third place.
01:49 It came down to the very last lap
01:52 and Kale got a run to start on Donnie.
01:55 - A shallow lead for Donnie Allison.
01:59 Kale stays there, moves in again.
02:01 - And Donnie bound to turn when he went past him,
02:04 run him in the end field, and they crashed.
02:06 - He comes to the inside.
02:08 Donnie Allison throws the block.
02:09 Kale hits him.
02:10 He slides.
02:11 Donnie Allison slides.
02:13 He's leaking again.
02:14 They drive in the turn.
02:16 - Well, we don't know that.
02:17 We're like 20 seconds behind.
02:19 Backstretch, couldn't see nothing.
02:21 Looked in the mirror, didn't see no smoke or nothing.
02:23 So just as we got to the gate going in number three,
02:27 we looked down there and there lays number one and two
02:30 playing on the end field.
02:31 We're not racing for third, we're racing for first.
02:34 - Coming down, Richard Petty is now pulling out in front
02:40 at the line, won't take the inside, and he wins it.
02:44 - At the same time, they got off of this
02:49 and they got on the fight.
02:50 - There's a fight between Kale Yarborough
02:52 and Donnie Allison.
02:54 The tempers overflowing.
02:56 - Never have another race that exciting,
02:58 but the whole deal was that it was something different.
03:02 So everybody got to see the speed.
03:04 They got to see the wrecks.
03:05 They got to see a fight.
03:07 And then you got to see somebody
03:08 who wasn't supposed to win the wrecks win the race.
03:10 So they got to see everything that happens in NASCAR.
03:16 You had a perfect storm, basically, for a first TV deal.
03:22 It couldn't happen at a better time
03:25 and a better part for NASCAR.
03:27 (dramatic music)
03:29 (dramatic music)
03:32 (dramatic music)
03:35 (thunder)