1959 Nascar Daytona 500

I never knew Lee Petty won the Daytona 500 with an Oldsmobile.
It was a 394 Ci V8 engine.
The design dates back to the 303 Olds V8 that came out in 1949.
It was a big heavy engine too a 394 Olds.
Beat Pontiac, Chevy, Ford, & Mopar.
LOL.

Kinda Kool Grumpy.
 
I believe this was the first photo finish, took a day or two to announce the winner.

Rare finish for Olds, Pontiac was very strong back then.

Thanks
Randy
 
GLHS60 said:
I believe this was the first photo finish, took a day or two to announce the winner.

Rare finish for Olds, Pontiac was very strong back then.

Thanks
Randy
Click to expand...
Very Neat & fun looking back at NASCAR Racing Randy.
 
Ya know that race almost didn't happen, they were having trouble keeping tires on the cars. The average speed was about 35-6 mph faster than anything before. The track is so long, they let the engines wind up in rpms and they had never ran at 140 plus mph for such long periods of time, and it was just eating up tires. Firestone saved the day though, they had about 3-4 weeks to come up with a tire that would take the torture, they added two bias ply belts to the previous racing and it worked. It worked out the tires got to the track two days before the race, so they had one day to test the tire and they were able to run 45-50 laps on them. Big Bill France(CEO nascar and owner of the track) was pushing a lot also, he had put his whole life and money on the line to get Daytona started.
 
GLHS60 said:
I believe this was the first photo finish, took a day or two to announce the winner.

Rare finish for Olds, Pontiac was very strong back then.

Thanks
Randy
Click to expand...
Yes Randy, it was the first photo finish for NASCAR, not the first for racing but first for stock car racing.
 
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