And in this corner ...

As racing’s radio and TV announcers are fond of saying, “The stars and cars of NASCAR” are back in Daytona Beach, Fla., to begin another Sprint Cup Series season.

This evokes indelible memories of 30 years ago when the teams gathered for what was to prove perhaps the most momentous Daytona 500 in history.

The race at Daytona International Speedway ended with three-peat Winston Cup champion Cale Yarborough brawling in a helmet-swinging, fist-flying fight with the Brothers Allison, Bobby and Donnie, while Richard Petty swept to an improbable victory that surprised even him.

But this is getting way ahead of the whole story…

The excitement and high expectations that something special was building had begun a week earlier on Feb. 11.

   Third-generation driver Kyle Petty, Richard’s 18-year-old son, was making his very first start in a race car.  The event was the ARCA 200.

   My best media friend and traveling pal, Steve Waid, and I asked King Richard if we could join him to watch the race from atop the Petty team’s transporter.  He graciously agreed.

   There were three other people up there: Papa Lee Petty, the patriarch of the clan from little Level Cross, N.C., a three-time driving champion who won the first Daytona 500 in 1959; and two fast-friend drivers, Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough.

   Kyle kept his Dodge Magnum near the front throughout, but once almost slammed into the second turn wall.

   While Richard paled, Lee stoically puffed his pipe and observed in a distinctive drawl, “Kin’t go no higher than that.”

   On the last lap the rookie Kyle showed savvy beyond his years by blocking ARCA veteran John Rezel to take the checkered flag.  Richard essentially leaped from the transporter to rush to Victory Lane for his son’s arrival there.

   Donnie Allison turned to Yarborough and, high-fiving with a grin,  said, “Don’t tell me that genes don’t have a damn thing to do with it!”

   The two could not have imagined what fate held for them the following Sunday on Feb. 18, 1979.
   As the 500 rolled toward conclusion, Donnie and Cale dramatically raced 1-2 respectively for 40 laps, just inches apart.

   Everyone in the packed grandstands knew what was coming.  On the final lap Cale would use the aerodynamic “slingshot pass” down the backstretch to pass Donnie and win the race.

   Most in a massive national TV audience probably didn’t anticipate this.  They’d never much watched racing before.

   CBS had them as somewhat captive viewers as it televised the 500 live flag-to-flag for the first time.

   A monster blizzard had swept across much of the U.S. that weekend, producing heavy snow as far south as Savannah, Ga.  Millions were confined to their homes that Sunday and there was little exciting to watch on TV except the Daytona 500.

   Sure enough, on the last of the 200 laps at the great 2.5-mile track Yarborough swung to the inside off turn two to make his move for the lead.

   However, Donnie Allison didn’t relish the role of sitting duck and refused to yield.  He kept drifting further and further leftward to the inside.

   Approaching turn three all four of the tires on Yarborough’s car were in the grass.  He turned hard right to get back onto the asphalt and slammed into the side of Allison’s car.

   The collision seemed to weld the two vehicles and they slammed hard into the outer concrete wall, then bounced down the banking onto the apron.

   From almost a mile behind, Richard Petty, running third, saw the yellow caution light flash.

   “I sorta figured what had happened,” said Petty, who was running the 500 against doctor’s orders after having about half his stomach removed a few weeks earlier because of ulcers.  “But I was still surprised when I went by to see those two cars settin’ there smokin’.

   “The next time I came around on the cool-down lap it looked liked Saturday night at a quarter-mile track in the old days when post-race fightin’ was pretty common.  I was tempted to stop and watch it.”

   It was the sixth of Petty’s eventual record seven Daytona 500 triumphs and the 186th in a career than continued until 1992 and produced 200 victories, also a record.

   The wild finish enthralled many in the TV audience, and tuned them into NASCAR.

   I’ll contend forever that race is mostly responsible for the ensuing boom that has made stock car racing so amazingly popular.

   Regardless, in 1979 at the Daytona track the top row of grandstand seats overlooking the start/finish line was on a level with the press box.  When excited fans jumped up, they blocked the vision of the media.

   And had these dramatic developments ever excited them!

   Petty led Darrell Waltrip by only a car length, with tough ol’ A.J. Foyt only a few feet further behind.
   Waid jumped up on his chair in the press box.  “Richard’s gonna win the race.  Richard’s gonna win the race!” he shouted.

   And Petty did win, using the same blocking technique Kyle had employed a week earlier.

   I calmly replied to Waid, “Yeah, I know.  What I want to see is the fight.”

   I swear at that very moment CBS-TV’s adroit anchorman, Ken Squier, declared, “There’s a fight in turn three!”

   There was a TV monitor to the left and slightly behind my shoulder.  We turned to see Yarborough going at it against both Allisons.

   Bobby had stopped to see if Donnie was okay, and the brawl ensued that Yarborough later dismissed as a “scuffle.”

   That’s Bobby’s version.

   Some of the juiciest quotes ever from NASCAR’s top series followed.

   Here’s how I recorded them in my stories and columns three decades ago for The Charlotte Observer:

   Yarborough blamed Bobby Allison for setting up to block him, even though Allison was several hundred yards ahead of the two leaders.

   “It’s the worst thing I’ve ever seen in racing,” huffed a red-faced Cale.  “I knew how to win the race.  Donnie drove right down into me and carried me into the grass.  I had him set up perfectly and I had the car to get him and he knew it.  It was as intentional on his part as all get out.  He knew he couldn’t beat me any other way.  What hurts more than anything, including losing the race and all that money (a winner’s share of approximately $75,000) is how Donnie jeopardized our lives.  We were running way over 190 (mph).”

   Donnie: “Cale had made up his mind that he was going to pass me low, and I’d made up my mind that if he was going to pass at all, it was going to be high.  When he went low, he ran off the track, spun and hit me.  When Bobby drove up, Cale went over and punched him while he was still sitting in the car.  Then he started calling me names and it was on.  Cale ain’t wearing no halo in this.”

   Bobby Allison: “After the wreck I stopped to see if they were hurt.  I asked Donnie if he wanted to climb in my car and ride back to the garage.  He didn’t, and about that time here came Cale running up.  I couldn’t hear what he was yelling about, so I unhitched the window screen.  Durned if he didn’t reach in and hit me.  Then, when I got out, he tried to kick me.”

   A famous photo shows Bobby holding a fallen, wild-eyed Yarborough by his left ankle.

   Someone asked Junior Johnson, owner of the team fielding Yarborough, what he thought of the fight.

   “I don’t give a damn if they’d beat the hell out of each other,” responded Johnson.  “All I know is we lost a race we should have won and I’ve got a tore-up race car.”

   Because of the raging controversy and the horrid highway conditions brought on by the blizzard, Steve Waid and I decided to stay in Daytona Beach until Tuesday.

   Early on Monday morning we went to NASCAR headquarters to see what sanctioning body president Bill France, Jr., was going to do about the last-lap crash and the fight that followed.

   We were told to wait in a room just off France’s office.  Cale and Donnie already had been in to plead their cases and had departed.  Bobby was in there at the time.

   After a few minutes, Bobby, bearing a slight bruise under his left eye,  emerged with a grin and this amusing, humorous remark:

   “All I’ve got to say is that all of a sudden I found Cale Yarborough’s nose pounding on my fist.”

   Ah, for the good ol’ days and drivers as spirited and fun as the Allisons and Cale Yarborough!

   When Steve and I finally got to meet with France, he gravely spoke of possible heavy fines and suspensions for Yarborough ad the Allisons.

   However, both of us could sense that he privately was delighted with the developments of the day before.

   Neither big monetary penalties nor suspensions came about.

   Fact is, the trio had delivered NASCAR the biggest favor it ever has received.