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Issue Date: February 17, 2008
It's the 50th running of NASCAR's most legendary event, so we're gathering champions from every decade for a special inside look.
By Dennis McCafferty
 Get our print issue for the 2008 NASCAR poster inside
No matter when they won, Daytona 500 champions achieved the ultimate.
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It started in 1959, when NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. launched a race on a 2.5-mile superspeedway a few miles inland from Florida's Atlantic coast. The Daytona 500 was born. That year, Lee Petty earned $19,050 for cranking his Oldsmobile more than 135 mph to finish first. The only problem was that he and competitor Johnny Beauchamp finished so close together that it took officials 61 hours to review photos and declare a winner.
"It turned out to be a blessing in disguise," says Petty's son Richard, who won seven 500s in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. "It created three days' worth of controversy that brought all kinds of attention to the race, right there at the very beginning."
Today, fans will be as excited as ever as The Great American Race marks its 50th running. On a recent day, Richard Petty and four other NASCAR stars who achieved the ultimate at Daytona International Speedway -- together representing 14 victories in five decades -- gather over boxes of fried chicken and coleslaw to share memories and take part in an exclusive USA WEEKEND Magazine photo shoot. Joining Petty are Bobby Allison, who won three 500s in the '70s and '80s; Fox Sports analyst Darrell Waltrip, who won in 1989; Sterling Marlin, one of only three drivers who have won back-to-back 500s (Richard Petty and Cale Yarborough are the others), with his coming in the '90s; and Jimmie Johnson, whose 2006 win at Daytona set the tone for his first Nextel Cup championship that same year.
The Daytona 500 is "a race you definitely want to win," says Johnson, reigning Cup champ. "Everybody's watching."
Under that kind of pressure, so many drivers have tales of struggle and uplift -- even the successful ones. "We won seven, but we should have won three or four more," Petty says. "But we probably won three or four we shouldn't have. That's racing."
Indeed, the 500 can be as cruel as it is kind. Lee Petty, who died of natural causes in 2000, had to retire a few years after his car flipped over a guardrail in 1961 during a qualifying race. And NASCAR's biggest star of the modern age, Dale Earnhardt Sr., died in a crash at the very end of the 2001 race. Earnhardt had seemed cursed at the 500, finally winning in 1998 after his 20th try.
The challenges make victory so much sweeter. Waltrip celebrated with unrestrained joy, dancing the "Ickey Shuffle," which was all the rage at the time. "Drivers know that if you don't win a Daytona 500, your racing career is incomplete," Waltrip explains.
He still maintains a playful side. "Richard, you can take off that hat," he tells Petty. "We're indoors now."
Midshoot, it's difficult to keep Allison from turning to his fellow drivers and chatting. "Bobby, you're the troublemaker of the bunch, aren't you?" our photographer scolds with a smile.
"He's always been a troublemaker," Johnson says.
Allison doesn't protest. Why would he? When the shoot is over, he's happy to share with anyone his recollections of the 500. "People have forgotten all the things Bobby did," an observer, a NASCAR veteran, says of the driver whom fans named "Most Popular" seven times. "This sport owes a lot to him. So do the young drivers."
Allison's first 500 victory was in 1978, when he was as sick as a dog and started 33rd in the field. "It took a while to get to first," he says. In 1982, his rear bumper flew off after it was adjusted to pass inspection. "During the race, a car hooks up to the bumper and tears it off," he says. "The drivers accused me of fixing the car so the bumper would fly off, to make it go faster. But the truth was that I had the flat-out fastest car on the track that day, bumper or no bumper."
As for Allison's 1988 racing victory? His memories remain bittersweet. Later that year, he survived a devastating crash at a Pocono race, suffering head trauma. Allison doesn't remember much about that season, including the Daytona win. "I have that race on videotape, but I can't stand to put it on," he says. "I can't recall anything that I'm seeing. It aggravates me. It's like watching someone else's life, not mine."
With that, he shakes hands goodbye and walks out the door. He's the last of the five drivers to leave, after spending the day sharing memories of Daytona victories that remain vivid, and one that got away. That, too, is racing.
Cover and poster photographs by Peter Gregoire for USA WEEKEND
Grooming by Rhonda Harris; photography location courtesy Richard Petty Driving Experience, Concord, N.C.
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