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Petty Provided Fireworks At '84 Firecracker

http://sports.tbo.com/sports/MGBMWDT74WD.html

By TONY FABRIZIO
Published: Jul 1, 2004

DAYTONA BEACH - To mark NASCAR's first 50 years in 1998, Sports Illustrated ranked the 10 greatest races of all time.

Daytona's 1984 Firecracker 400 was No. 7.

For certain, the '84 Firecracker stands as one of NASCAR's milestone races. With a sitting U.S. president in the house for the first time at a big stock car race, ``King'' Richard Petty earned the 200th and, as it would turn out, final victory of his legendary career.

That was 20 years ago this week, and Daytona will commemorate the anniversary before Saturday night's 46th Pepsi 400. Petty will carry a checkered flag around the track in his old No. 43 Pontiac, and the 1984 Victory Lane ceremony will be recreated.

``It was one of those unbelievable days - winning the race, winning it right at the end and winning with the president of the United States there,'' Petty recalls now. ``I just can't believe it has been 20 years since I won a race.''

Ronald Reagan gave the command for drivers to start their engines from Air Force One, then landed at the adjacent Daytona Beach airport and watched the race from a speedway suite.

What cemented the race's place in history was that Petty had to battle one of his fiercest rivals for the win, beating him by only a few feet.

Petty and the tenacious Cale Yarborough were running 1-2 on the 157th of 160 laps. When Doug Heveron wrecked in Turn 1 to bring out a caution, both leaders knew they were on the last contested lap and that the race would end under caution.

Yarborough made his move on the backstretch, using the old ``slingshot'' pass to pull ahead going into Turn 3. But he carried so much momentum into Turn 4 that his car slid up the banking, providing an opening for Petty.

Petty pulled even on the inside, and the two warhorses raced side by side on the tri-oval, touching three or four times before passing the flag stand.

``It was so close, I couldn't call it,'' said Barney Hall, who announced the race for Motor Racing Network. ``Mike Joy said, `I think Richard Petty won by inches.' It turned out he did. But it was so close. I was as excited as everybody else was when they came off Turn 4, beating and banging.''

As many trivia buffs know, Yarborough didn't even finish second that day. He was so flummoxed after losing by such a close margin that he pulled down pit road with a lap remaining. That allowed Harry Gant to pass him for second, giving Yarborough third.

``My brain blew up, I guess,'' Yarborough said later.

While Daytona's 80,000 fans were focused on seeing a piece of history, Yarborough had been determined to prevent it. And he nearly did. Some wonder whether Petty would have gotten to 200 had he not won that day. He raced another eight years without getting a victory.

``Everybody was talking about his 200th win [before the race],'' Yarborough said. ``But everybody was also thinking about not letting him have it, too. I didn't want him to have it, either. I wanted it.''

Afterward, Petty - then and now a staunch Republican - visited with Reagan and other dignitaries. It's a memory he relived, he says, after Reagan's death on June 5.

``We went upstairs and talked to him a little bit after the race and had some pictures taken,'' Petty remembers. ``Then we came down and had a dinner with him - a luncheon or whatever you want to call it. All the drivers got to meet him. I thought that was a very personal thing. Of course, that was Reagan. That was the kind of person he was.''

Both Petty and Yarborough were on the down sides of their careers in 1984 after winning seven and three championships, respectively. Petty had won only eight races in the 1980s. Yarborough was racing part-time, although he had won that year's Daytona 500 and Winston 500 at Daytona's sister track, Talladega.

Nevertheless, the 1984 Firecracker 400 finish became their most famous duel.

``The fact it was Cale I had to beat wound up making it a memory that's special for me,'' Petty says now. ``Maybe it's not too special for Cale. But we'd run a bunch together, and he was one of the best at that particular time.

``As for who I'd ran against at Daytona, the only person I probably would have liked to have beat more was David Pearson.''

A little Nascar history.

Petty pulled even on the inside, and the two warhorses raced side by side on the tri-oval, touching three or four times before passing the flag stand.

I would love to see that race. Does anyone know if it's available on video or DVD?

``My brain blew up, I guess,'' Yarborough said later.

This happens to me a lot.

POWER RANKINGS

Biggest Gain this week: Michael Waltrip, up seven spots

Biggest Drop this week: Robby Gordon, down five spots

New this week: Ricky Rudd (23).

Dropped out: Scott Riggs (25).

Week 17 of 36, Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway

Rank	Prev	Number	Driver	Comments
1	1		Jimmie Johnson	Give Johnson some credit for that late pass of Boris Said. Just seeing around Said’s hair requires the highest level of concentration.
2	2		Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Forget him losing points to Jimmie Johnson. He’s also losing points to Michael Waltrip.
3	6		Elliott Sadler	He’s had top-10 finishes at Sonoma twice in the last three years. Which means everyone is scared Elliott will rip their head off if they spin him out in Turn 11.
4	11		Michael Waltrip	Wow. Awesome run at Sonoma. For a while, we were sure DEI had simply placed Ron Fellows in the car without telling anybody.
5	8		Jeff Gordon	So he helped conserve fuel by shutting off his engine during the yellow flags. Gordon wasn’t sure exactly how to turn his engine off, so he had to ask Kirk Shelmerdine how to do it.
6	4		Matt Kenseth	His top-10 qualifying effort at Sonoma was his first top-10 qualifying effort in 2004. Which means he had qualified in the top 10 during each race of his probation.
7	3		Bobby Labonte	So it’s pretty much a done deal that he will have another teammate next year. They have not hired anyone yet, but inside sources say the candidate must be kind to dogs and children, which means they have to be nice to Jeremy Mayfield’s pets and Brian Vickers.
8	5		Ryan Newman	There was no Lucky Dog rule in effect at Sonoma, which is why he wasn’t able to win after his tire went down.
9	11		Jamie McMurray	“Chip only calls you when things are bad,” said McMurray. Which means his boss called Casey Mears after Casey shaved his head.
10	10		Tony Stewart	So he tangled with Brian Vickers and Ward Burton during the race, but he chose to confront Vickers. Maybe he figured he could understand Vickers better.
11	7		Kasey Kahne	He was listed as one of People Magazine’s 50 Hottest Bachelors. What? No Dale Jr. listed to sell more magazines? Did he get married already?
12	13		Mark Martin	“We had an off day and still ran eighth,” he said. Which means if he has a mediocre day, he wins.
13	9		Jeremy Mayfield	We were told that he took Craig Kilborn for a ride on the track at Sonoma before the race. It was a Dodge Viper, which has no back seat, so Mayfield had to put his dogs in the trunk.
14	14		Kurt Busch	His fuel tank ran dry after 10 laps at Sonoma. Which is like 11 pit stops over a 110-lap race. But it still wasn't as many pit stops as Robby Gordon.
15	15		Dale Jarrett	So rumor has it Jarrett helped pay Matt Kenseth’s $25,000 fine from the Pocono incident. In return, Kenseth has agreed to give Jarrett a lap back at Richmond in September.
16	18		Kevin Harvick	Looks like the war of words between Harvick and Kenseth didn’t slow down much. Forget The Brickyard – the race we are looking forward to is the Busch race at Bristol.
17	17		Brian Vickers	As he figured out, maybe those anger management classes for Tony Stewart didn’t work. Do those things come with a refund if they wear off after a couple years?
18	24		Jeff Burton	It’s been four races since he’s had a sponsor, and in that span, he’s averaged a 12th-place finish. Which means if he can avoid signing a sponsor until September, he might make the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
19	21		Casey Mears	He leads the Nextel Cup Series in seventh-place finishes (4).
20	20		Rusty Wallace	“Dumb things just keep happening,” he said. Not sure whether he was talking about running out of gas, or whether he was referring to Tony Stewart.
21	16		Robby Gordon	What awful luck. His tire fell off before the first pit stop. Maybe a rival team loosened the lug nuts. But why in the world would they do such a thing?
22	19		Terry Labonte	Just in case you were wondering, it was Texas Terry who lost the coveted lead in seventh-place finishes to Casey Mears.
23	NR		Ricky Rudd	Looks like he got some help spinning from Klaus Graf there. Which means Rudd should have painted Achtung on the deck lid of the No. 21 Ford.
24	23		Greg Biffle	Those rumors that he is going to Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 11 Chevy simply won’t go away. One of Gibbs’ selling points to Biffle is: “Well, Tony Stewart explodes more often than our engines do, Greg.”
25	22		Sterling Marlin	Car spun good.

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