1964 Firecracker 400

Last updated
1964 Firecracker 400
Race details [1]
Race 35 of 62 in the 1964 NASCAR Grand National Series season
1964 Firecracker 400 program cover and logo.jpg
1964 Firecracker 400 program cover
Date July 4, 1964 (1964-July-04)
Official name Firecracker 400
Location Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
Course Permanent racing facility
2.500 mi (4.023 km)
Distance 160 laps, 400 mi (643 km)
Weather Extremely hot with temperatures of 93 °F (34 °C); wind speeds of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)
Average speed 151.451 mph (243.737 km/h)
Attendance 34,681 [2]
Pole position
Driver
 Bud Moore
Most laps led
Driver Richard Petty Petty Enterprises
Laps 102
Winner
No. 47 A. J. Foyt Ray Nichels

The 1964 Firecracker 400 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on July 4, 1964, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It was the first NASCAR Grand National Series race to take place after Fireball Roberts died two months earlier in the infamous 1964 World 600. This race would eventually be aired on ABC's Wide World of Sports on tape-delay.

Contents

Race report

There were 33 American-born drivers on the official grid. [2] Fred Lorenzen (employed by Holman Moody) secured his last-place finish during the parade laps because he refused to start the race. [2] Paul Goldsmith also elected not to start the race; making Doug Moore the "legitimate" last-place finisher due to a distributor issue on lap 1. Reb Wickersham spun on the first lap and very nearly took out Foyt. [2] [3] It took just more than two and a half hours for A. J. Foyt to defeat Bobby Isaac by a single car length in front of more than 30000 spectators. [2] There were 19 lead changes and five caution periods for 25 laps. [2] [3]

Rodney Williams would make his NASCAR debut in this race. [3] A.J. Foyt would appear in various races from the 1960s through the 1990s. His most notable future wins would come at the 1972 Daytona 500 and the 1972 Miller High Life 500. [4] Larry Frank would carry two movie cameras in his car to record all the action being taken place. Attempts to record NASCAR history had already been attempted for the 1955 Southern 500 and the 1956 Southern 500. [5]

For the final 56 laps, Isaac and Foyt dueled for the win, exchanging the lead 15 times between the two. [2] Despite a blown engine African-American racer Wendell Scott brought his self-owned Ford home with a top-20. [2] This race was run two days after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law.

Ken Spikes didn't return to racing until the 1967 Daytona 500. [6] He was also hurt in the lap 88 wreck; going sideways on the outside of turn 4, slammed the inside wall broadside thankfully on the rightside of the car. [2] [3] He would probably have been killed if it had hit on the other side. [2] [3]

Top 10 finishers

Pos [2] GridNo.DriverManufacturerLapsWinningsLaps ledTime/Status
11947 A. J. Foyt Dodge160$13,000142:38:28
2426 Bobby Isaac Dodge160$8,89543+1 car length
3954 Jimmy Pardue Plymouth160$5,4300Lead lap under green flag
453 Buck Baker Dodge158$3,4750+2 laps
5241 Jim Paschal Plymouth158$2,2000+2 laps
676 David Pearson Dodge158$1,9000+2 laps
7210 Johnny Rutherford Ford 156$1,3500+4 laps
885 Earl Balmer Dodge156$1,4501+4 laps
9116 Darel Dieringer Mercury153$1,2500+7 laps
101382 Bunkie Blackburn Pontiac152$1,0500+8 laps

Timeline

Section reference: [2]

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References

  1. ↑ Weather information for the 1964 Firecracker 400 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1964 Firecracker 400 race information at Racing Reference
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 1964 Firecracker 400 race information at Race Database
  4. ↑ A.J. Foyt’s top five career accomplishments at Yahoo Sports
  5. ↑ Stock Cars of 50s & 60s – Stock Car Memories: Darlington-Southern 500 (DVD). Topics Entertainment.
  6. ↑ Driver Ken Spikes Career Statistics at Racing-Reference
Preceded by Firecracker 400 races
1964		Succeeded by
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