The 1964 Daytona 500, was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

event that was held on February 23, 1964, at

Daytona International Speedway Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida, United States. Since opening in 1959, it has been the home of the Daytona 500, the most prestigious race in NASCAR as well as its season opening event. In addition to NA ...

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach, or simply Daytona, is a coastal Resort town, resort-city in east-central Florida. Located on the eastern edge of Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County near the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic coastline, its population ...

Race report

The race was won by

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notabl ...

driving a 1964

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. Petty drove his number 43 to victory in 3 hours and 14 minutes. There were three

caution flag Racing flags are traditionally used in auto racing and similar motorsports to indicate track condition and to communicate important messages to drivers. Typically, the starter, sometimes the grand marshal of a race, waves the flags atop a flag s ...

s that slowed the race for 19 laps. The Chrysler teams debuted their brand-new 426 ci

Chrysler Hemi The Chrysler Hemi engines, known by the trademark Hemi, are a series of American V8 gasoline engines built by Chrysler with overhead valve hemispherical combustion chambers. Three different types of Hemi engines have been built by Chrysler f ...

engine in this race; NASCAR ordered the teams who had it to sandbag it during practice and qualifying due to their superiority. During the race itself, Richard Petty, who at the time was known best for his skill on short tracks, led 184 of the 200 laps (a Daytona 500 record that stands to this day) and Chrysler teams took four of the top five spots. First Daytona 500 starts for Bobby Isaac, Doug Cooper, Johnny Rutherford, Jack Anderson, Jim Bray, and Neil Castles. Only Daytona 500 starts for Dave MacDonald, Jo Schlesser, Smokey Boutwell, Jim McElreath, Ronnie Chumley, Bobby Marshman, Joe Clark, Bill McMahan, and Jim Cook. Last Daytona 500 starts for Jimmy Pardue, Billy Wade, Dan Gurney, Larry Thomas, Ralph Earnhardt, Curtis Crider, Sal Tovella, Parnelli Jones, Fireball Roberts, and Elmo Henderson. This was the first NASCAR race that had a purse of over $100,000.

Top 10 finishers

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Paul Goldsmith started the event with the first-place position. * Lap 2: Richard Petty took over the lead from Paul Goldsmith. * Lap 3: Bill McMahan could not handle his racing vehicle properly. * Lap 7: Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 10: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 13: Fireball Roberts' transmission stopped working in a safe manner. * Lap 15: Bobby Johns managed to blow his engine while he was driving. * Lap 17: Bobby Marshman managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 21: Ronnie Chumley managed to overheat his engine. * Lap 31: G.C. Spencer had to leave the race due to a faulty engine. * Lap 40: A.J. Foyt took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 42: Paul Goldsmith took over the lead from A.J. Foyt. * Lap 49: Fred Lorenzen managed to blow his engine. * Lap 52: Richard Petty took over the lead from Paul Goldsmith. * Lap 54: David Pearson's accident forced the yellow flag to appear, caution ended on lap 60. * Lap 64: Buddy Baker managed to blow his engine. * Lap 77: Parnelli Jones managed to blow his engine. * Lap 107: Johnny Rutherford had a terminal crash. * Lap 112: Johnny Rutherford and Ned Jarrett's accident on turn two caused a caution, which ended on lap 118. * Lap 126: Jim McElreath had a terminal crash. * Lap 130: Jim McElreath's accident created a caution which ended on lap 134. * Lap 189: Bobby Isaac ran out of fuel while racing. * Finish: Richard Petty was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

{{NASCAR-stub

Daytona 500 The Daytona 500 is a NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of three ...

NASCAR races at Daytona International Speedway