The 1973 Medal of Honor Firecracker 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on July 4, 1973, at Daytona International Speedway in

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 ...

. This race - and the 1969 and 1971 runnings of this race - was actually called the "Medal of Honor Firecracker 400", in an effort to honor Congressional Medal of Honor winners.

Race report

This was the first race with new rules regarding carburetor restrictors. It was widely assumed that these ruled helped volume production wedge engines, especially that used by Chevrolet. This race eventually became Marty Robbins' most iconic race during his career in NASCAR. While he would start in 36th place (out of the 40 drivers who made up the racing grid), he would finish the race in eighth place, seven laps down.

J.D. McDuffie John Delphus McDuffie Jr. (December 5, 1938 – August 11, 1991) was an American racing driver. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1963 to 1991, collecting 106 top-10 finishes during his career, despite never finishing on the lead ...

ended up being the last-place finisher of this race due to an engine problem on lap 2 of 160. It took more than 160 minutes and two caution flags for

David Pearson David or Dave Pearson may refer to: * David Pearson (librarian) (born 1955), British librarian and scholar * David Pearson (racing driver) (1934–2018), American car racing champion * David Pearson (scientist) (born 1942), Canadian scientist, a ...

to defeat

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 ...

in front of sixty thousand fans. Six car lengths was the distance between Petty and Pearson. Bobby Allison secured the

pole position In a motorsports race, the pole position is usually the best and "statistically the most advantageous" starting position on the track. The pole position is usually earned by the driver with the best qualifying times in the trials before the rac ...

at during qualifying.Racing information for the ''1973 Medal of Honor Firecracker 400''
at Racing Reference The race averaged . Engine problems took numerous other drivers out of the race. All competitors (except for Canadian-born

Vic Parsons Vic Parsons (born November 29, 1939) is a retired Canadian NASCAR driver from Willowdale, Ontario (a suburb of Toronto). He competed in nineteen Winston Cup Series events in his career with seven top-tens. Cup career Parsons made his debut in 1 ...

) were born in the United States.

Mercury Mercury commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Merc ...

Dodge Dodge is an American brand of automobiles and a division of Stellantis, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Dodge vehicles have historically included performance cars, and for much of its existence Dodge was Chrysler's mid-priced brand above P ...

, and

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

made up the majority of the grid. Bobby Allison,

Cale Yarborough William Caleb "Cale" Yarborough (born March 27, 1939) is an American former NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver and owner, businessman, and farmer. He is one of only two drivers in NASCAR history to win three consecutive championships, winning in 1 ...

, Richard Petty and David Pearson were the only lap leaders. The Chevrolet vehicles dominated the race, but after Yarborough and Allison retired it was David Pearson's show. Notable crew chiefs in the race were Tim Brew,

Jake Elder J. C. "Jake" Elder (November 22, 1936 – February 24, 2010) was a NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series crew chief. He was the championship crew chief for two years and for part of a third season. Elder had these successes despite never pas ...

, Travis Carter, Harry Hyde,

Dale Inman Dale Inman (born August 19, 1936) is a retired NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series crew chief from Level Cross, Randolph County, North Carolina. He is best known for being the crew chief of Richard Petty at Petty Enterprises during three de ...

, Tom Vandiver, and Bud Moore. Vic Parsons scored his best NASCAR finish in seventh place. Gordon Johncock, fresh from his Indy 500 win, finished 4th at this race. The winner of the race won $16,100 ($ when considering inflation) while the last-place winner received $1,270 ($ when considering inflation). All the prize winnings from this race were $105,080 ($ when considering inflation).''1973 Medal of Honor Firecracker 400''
racing information at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet

Qualifying

Finishing order

# David Pearson # Richard Petty #

Buddy Baker Elzie Wylie "Buddy" Baker Jr. (January 25, 1941 – August 10, 2015) was an American professional stock car racing driver and commentator. Over the course of his 33-year racing career, he won 19 races in the NASCAR Cup Series, including the 198 ...

# Gordon Johncock # Benny Parsons #

Dave Marcis David Alan Marcis (born March 1, 1941) is an American former professional stock car racing driver on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit whose career spanned five decades. Marcis won five times over this tenure, twice at Richmond, including his final ...

# Vic Parsons # Marty Robbins # Dick Brooks # Joe Frasson # David Sisco # James Hylton #

Cecil Gordon Cecil Gordon (June 21, 1941 – September 19, 2012) was an American stock car racing driver. A competitor in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series between 1968 and 1985, he competed in 449 events without winning a race. NASCAR Career as driver Gordon d ...

# G.C. Spencer # Roy Mayne # Elmo Langley #

Dean Dalton Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

# Buddy Arrington # Frank Warren # Lennie Pond # Larry Smith # Raymond Williams # Henley Gray # Bill Champion #

Darrell Waltrip Darrell Lee Waltrip (born February 5, 1947) is an American motorsports analyst, author, former national television broadcaster, and stock car driver. He raced from 1972 to 2000 in the NASCAR Cup Series (known as the NASCAR Winston Cup Series dur ...

# Walter Ballard #

Richard Childress Richard Childress (born September 21, 1945 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) is an American former race car driver in NASCAR. As the owner of Richard Childress Racing (RCR), he became one of the wealthiest men in North Carolina. In 2004, he opene ...

# Donnie Allison # Ed Negre # Bobby Allison # Jabe Thomas # Jim Vandiver # John Sears # Ed Sczech # Dick Simon #

# A. J. Foyt # Coo Coo Marlin # Bobby Isaac #

Timeline

Section reference: * Start: David Pearson officially had the lead position as the green flag was waved, Bobby Allison took over the lead prior to the end of the first lap, Bobby Isaac took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 2: J.D. McDuffie fell out with engine failure. * Lap 4: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 5: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 8: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 9: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 11: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 13: Bobby Isaac fell out with engine failure. * Lap 14: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 35: Coo Coo Marlin fell out with engine failure, David Pearson took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 36: Bobby Alliston took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 37: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 42: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 45: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 46: A.J. Foyt managed to lose the rear end of his vehicle. * Lap 47: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Cale Yarborough. * Lap 65: Cale Yarborough had a terminal crash. * Lap 66: David Pearson took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 79: Richard Petty took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 82: Dick Simon could not handle his vehicle in a proper manner. * Lap 83: Bobby Allison took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 87: An oil leak forced Ed Sczech out of the race. * Lap 96: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 100: David Pearson took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 102: John Sears fell out with engine failure, Bobby Allison took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 105: Richard Petty took over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 110: David Pearson took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 116: Richard Petty took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 118: Jim Vandiver managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 125: Bobby Allison fell out with engine failure. * Lap 129: David Pearson took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 131: Donnie Allison's windshield was severely damaged. * Lap 132: Richard Childress managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 138: Richard Petty took over the lead from David Pearson. * Lap 141: David Pearson took over the lead from Richard Petty. * Finish: David Pearson was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

{{1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Medal of Honor Firecracker

Medal of Honor Firecracker 400 The Coke Zero Sugar 400 is an annual NASCAR Cup Series stock car race at Daytona International Speedway. First held in 1959, the event consists of 160 laps, , and is the second of two major stock car events held at Daytona on the Cup Series cir ...

NASCAR races at Daytona International Speedway