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How a Fistfight Changed Racing Forever | Tales From the Bottle

Qxir | September 19, 2025



Sure boxing’s cool – but a race is never going to break out in the middle of a boxing match.

“The 1979 Daytona 500, the 21st annual event, was the second race of the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season. It was held on February 18, 1979. Sports pundits consider the 1979 Daytona 500 to be the most important race in stock car history.
The race was televised live from beginning to end, a rarity in the era, and the first for a 500-mile race in the United States. Camera angles such as the “in-car” view were introduced to viewers from all over the United States.
On the final lap, race leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison collided with each other on the Daytona International Speedway’s backstretch. Both drivers’ races ended in Daytona’s grass infield. The wreck allowed Richard Petty, then over one-half lap behind both, to claim his sixth Daytona 500 win.
As Petty made his way to Victory Lane to celebrate, a fight erupted between Yarborough, Donnie Allison and his brother, Bobby, at the site of the backstretch wreck. Both events were caught by television cameras and broadcast live.
The race brought national publicity to NASCAR. Motorsports announcer and editor Dick Berggren said, “Nobody knew it then, but that was the race that got everything going. It was the first ‘water cooler’ race, the first time people had stood around water coolers on Monday and talked about seeing a race on TV the day before. It took a while – years, maybe – to realize how important it was.” Chip Warren was Chief Starter, according to CBS’s Ken Squier.”

More on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_Daytona_500

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Written by Qxir

Comments

This post currently has 39 comments.

  2. @tufstuff2586

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    The race was awesome to watch not just the fight but the racing was good but the amount of luck that took place is amazing. The race shouldn't have even happened due to the track being wet but due to lucky events it all changed

  12. @Belleplainer

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    Allison. It was Allison's fault. Yarborough was already at Allison's quarter panel when Allison moved over to block him. At that point he was no longer blocking Yarborough but was instead taking him out.

  20. @Serenity_Dee

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    NASCAR is a bunch of people turning left at 200 mph who occasionally do something highly entertaining. The rest of the time, you're drinking cold beers and eating hot dogs and hamburgers and fried chicken.

  22. @Dipstik_BullNoseVibeBRZ

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    This right here is where my mother and father, in Canada, btw, decided to name their firstborn boy after this great man.
    In the fall of 1982, I came into existence, and as she wanted, I was named Cale.
    The even stranger thing, I am a "gearhead" and have raced in many different vehicles 😊. Dunno if that's karma or whatever you would call it. Thankfully, though, I'm not a hothead like my namesake 😉 and the really funny part, I'm not a Nascar fan at all!

  27. @chrisofchris

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    It’s wild hearing these NASCAR driver’s names pronounced with an Irish accent, You pronounced them correctly, just weird hearing them without a. “Southern Drawl”

  34. @kvarner6886

    September 19, 2025 at 4:53 pm

    I'm a 35 year old American whose dad loved NASCAR, and somehow I had no fucking clue it was an acronym. Even though I knew it was stylized in all-capitals… Guess I am as stupid as people think Americans are. Guess I need to buy a six-pack of Bud Light, a few semi-automatic guns, and a giant truck that burns coal.

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