03/30/2017 – Followers of NASCAR Cup history can quickly recall the pivotal races in the sport’s history that relate to milestones in the sports development, growth, or change, i.e. the first race at Daytona or Indianapolis, the final race at North Wilkesboro, Richard Petty’s last race, the 2001 Daytona 500 that claimed the life of Dale Earnhardt, the first restrictor plate race, just to name a few.
There is one race that truly sticks out in how it had a collateral effect on NASCAR beyond the race itself, but rather the circumstances how it was presented to the public and subsequently catapulted the sport into the public’s eye in a manner that could not have been planned or conceived. By how things like this happen, the collective collateral talent in both visual and technical presentation took advantage of a captive US television audience and – with some luck and the genuine characters and unpredictable drama implicit on the racetrack – literally changed the future of NASCAR. One of the best presentations on how the 1979 Daytona 500 changed NASCAR can be seen here –
A Perfect Storm – 1979 Daytona 500
From a Pontiac perspective, there was no Red Dart participation on the track, that was still 2 years away; the only Pontiacs on the track were the Trans Am pace cars.
Pontiac Racing 