Driving a foot-to-the-floor flat-out race, visiting USAC national champion Mario Andretti dominated the ninth annual Daytona 500 NASCAR stock car race at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Magnificently driving a Holman and Moody built 1967 two-carburetor Ford Fairlane, Andretti won before the largest sports crowd in Florida history, 94,250, in a race that was slowed on nin occasions by the caution flag.
Andretti had built the biggest leading margin of the race, 22 seconds over his Ford teammate, Fred Lorenzen, when Richard Petty’s car blew an engine with two laps remaining.
Andretti, who earned $43,500, took the checkered flag under the yellow, with Lorenzen and James Hylton following.
This story appeared in the Feb. 14 edition of the SPEED SPORT Insider.
