The commentary that Jim McKay gave at around 37:34 had a very chilling overtone to it when he quoted Bruce McLaren; as in less than six years later McLaren lost his life when testing his latest Can Am racer.

Great racing back when stock cars were stock cars!

At the end of this broadcast, Jim McKay listed the prominent drivers that had lost their lives in that tragic year of racing, and sadly, the Grim Reaper wasn't quite through for 1964, because a little more than a month after this race, Bobby Marshman would lose his life in a tire testing crash at the then-new Phoenix International Raceway. And in the first week of 1965, a month after Marshman's death, Billy Wade would be killed in a tire testing crash at Daytona.

Lorenzen drove a really smart race, great battle at the end. Also it's kind of surreal how many stock car drivers lost their lives in '64. Safety has really come a long way.

@bloqk16

10 ай бұрын

And in January 1965, AJ Foyt almost lost his life in a crash at the Riverside 500. How he managed to recover from his injuries to drive competitively at Indy in May was nothing short of a miracle. And Foyt was fit enough by July to win the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. For all of Foyt's successes, he paid a high price with his health. He admitted in an interview years ago that with all the metal in his body for the repairs he needed from his racing career injuries, he needs to daily take antibiotics to fend-off health complications.

This is my favorite NASCAR channel on KZread. I'm 25 and I love the history of NASCAR.

@bloqk16

10 ай бұрын

Being aware of your youth, I'll give you some background about the ABC-TV Wide World of Sports telecasts of the NASCAR races in the 1960s, as I witness to them as a youngster: None of the races were broadcast live. Sunday races were either video or film recorded, edited down to a 35 ~ 52 minute length, then televised on the following Saturday on ABC-TV Wide World of Sports [WWoS] at 5 PM local time. The NASCAR race generally shared time with another sporting event [or three] on WWoS, such as in this video the other sport segment was a lumberjack competition held in Wisconsin. You'd be surprised that even with WWoS televising the races six days after the fact, it *_did not_* take away from the suspense drama of the race on TV. Back then, print; radio; and TV seldom reported on the Sunday race results, so for most of the US, there were no spoilers to be had prior to the Saturday WWoS broadcast. I was an avid race fan back then, where trying to find out about the Sunday race results was nearly nil.

@chuckiefinster544

10 ай бұрын

Me too, 25, know more about fireball and lorenzen than larson and byron. Way to be, man.

@MrChristopherHaas

8 ай бұрын

Also WWoS televised USAC Indy car races at Phoenix, Trenton NJ, etc.. They also presented USAC sprint car races and Championship Dirt races that counted towards USAC indy car points until 1970. And, once in a great while, they presented the NASCAR sportsman series

In the final laps of the race when Petty and Lorenzen were battling for the lead, you can distinctly see the difference on the sizes of the Plymouth and Ford; as the smaller Plymouth gave it an advantage at the Daytona races in 1964.

just hard racing. no burnouts, helmet throwing, a kiss in victory lane and cars that looked the cars on the road. death was a real and accepted possibility. that is why those drivers were my heroes

Petty losing control of his car from a blown tire . . . tires back in that era were bias belted without the safety liner; as the safety inner tire liner hadn't been developed yet.

@zcam1969

6 ай бұрын

YEAH RADIAL TIRES DIDN'T EXIST THEN

Wendell Scott #34 i lived up the street from his garage . seen him work on his cars

@psidrop

5 ай бұрын

Considering what he was given to work with, he's the GOAT imo.

@zcam1969

5 ай бұрын

@p he did it because he liked to drive fast and race. actually he was a skilled mechanic .

Really enjoyed 🏁🏁

Petty's tire failure (and crash) on the next to last lap was in almost the exact same spot on the track where Pardue 's car vaulted over the guardrail & into a parking lot months before, killing him. Only "luck" kept Petty from leaving the track (maybe worse). The sheer force ripped Petty's seat from it's mounts & his helmet broke the windshield.

@robertstaley5049

4 ай бұрын

Larry Thomas took over the car formerly driven by Pardue only to lose his life in a highway accident a few weeks later.

@arthurgoldgaber1389

3 ай бұрын

Wow!

3rd

Another apologist falling upon his historic sword. History is history, don’t try to rewrite it. Learn from it and move the hell on down the road.