The problem Dodge and Plymouth faced during the 1969 NASCAR season was that the bodywork of their current production cars were obstinately the opposite of aerodynamic.

They all had blunt front grilles and some had deeply tunneled rear windows that broke up the air as it tumbled off the roof. In fact, aerodynamically speaking, the worst of all the cars Mopar was building at the time was the Dodge Charger — the very car whose sales would most likely benefit from some NASCAR success.

Dodge first tried to clean up the Charger by creating the Charger 500. It was a subtly smoothed version of the same car but with a flat nose and a rear window moved flush with the roofline. But the Charger 500 was only a half step forward and not particularly successful.

So midway through ‘69, Dodge took the Charger 500, added a long, shark-like nose and planted a 23-in.-high wing on its tail. The result was the Charger Daytona, a car that cut through the air with stunning ease and remained stable even at 200 mph.

In fact, during testing at Talladega on March 24, 1970, Buddy Baker became the first driver to turn a lap at more than 200 mph in the 426 Hemi-powered No. 88 Daytona.

The Charger Daytona won its first race (the inaugural Talladega 500 in 1969) and was the primary ride for Bobby Isaac during his successful run for the 1970 Championship.

Building on that success, in 1970 Chrysler applied the Daytona formula to the Plymouth Road Runner to create the 1970 Superbird.

In 1970, under pressure from superstar Richard Petty, Chrysler produced a sister car, the Plymouth Superbird. The introduction of the Superbird saw the rise of a new NASCAR star, Pete Hamilton.

Richard Petty took a chance on Hamilton putting him in the #40 Superbird and it paid off big time as he became a Super Speedway sensation.

Unquestionably, Pete Hamilton’s greatest victory came in 1970 when he won the Daytona 500 in the Petty Enterprises #40 Superbird. He won twice more at both Talladega races in 1970 and got his fourth and final super speedway win at the July race at Daytona driving for Cotton Owens. He also won a Daytona 125 qualifier in 1971.

Hamilton’s exploits aside, the season belonged to Bobby Isaac who drove the #71 K&K Insurance Nord Krauskopf owned Dodge in 47 races to 28 top ten finishes and 11 victories and his only Grand National Championship.

Isaac’s finish to a great season came at Talladega when he broke Buddy Baker’s 200 MPH record, also set in a Dodge Daytona, Isaac’s speed was 201.104 MPH.

For Petty’s part, save for losing the championship to Isasc, it was a vintage year as he won 9 poles and 18 events including 27 top fives and 31 top tens to finish in forth place for the season despite starting 7 less events than Issac.

The following year, the wing became extinct due to new NASCAR restrictions, but was soon replaced by a feature that lasted nearly 40 years - the rear spoiler.

Chrysler’s glorious winged cars only raced competitively for about a season and a half in NASCAR. But their radical appearance, instant on-track success, and sheer audacity produced an indelible and enduring image.

However, as thrilling as the Charger Daytona and Superbird were on the racetrack, they were mere specks on the sales charts—homologation specials few people wanted to live with every day. So NASCAR effectively outlawed the winged wonders going into the 1971 season by restricting their engine size and increased homologation requirements so that no manufacturer would ever be so daring again.

Other 1970 notes:

Pete Hamilton’s cruises to victory in the Alabama 500 at Talladega as ABC Sports televises the second half of the race live to a nationwide audience. The network squeezes the three hour and 17 minute race into a 90-minute time slot.

David Pearson scores his first win of the season in the Rebel 400 at Darlington. Richard Petty is injured when his Plymouth flips on the front chute. ABC Sports picks up live coverage a few minutes before Petty’s crash. Short grainy video here.

Restrictor plates make their first appearance in August at Michigan International Speedway. Charlie Glotzbach drives a winged Dodge Daytona to victory under the caution flag.

The final dirt-track race in NASCAR Grand National history is run at State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh, N.C. Richard Petty wins in a Don Robertson-owned Plymouth.

Legendary NASCAR driver Curtis Turner perishes in a private plane crash in Pennsylvania. Bobby Isaac finishes first in the 250-miler at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

All the posts in this series can be read here.

More than 50 teams used the on-track session to prepare for Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200, but IZOD INDYCar Series star Danica Patrick drew most of the media attention.

A large contingent of print, radio and television media gathered outside of her garage area for most of the day. Patrick will make her stock car debut in Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 (live on SPEED at 4:30 p.m. Eastern) and Thursday’s practice session provided valuable on-track time for the Roscoe, Illinois, native. She was 17th of 53 drivers posting time with a 180.484 mph/49.866 second lap around the 2.5-mile speedway.

James Buescher will be racing the same chassis that he drove to victory lane with one year ago.

Mikey Kile and Mark Thompson, two of five Venturini Motorsports entries this weekend, were second and third fast, followed by Joey Coulter and Dakoda Armstrong.

Nine-time ARCA Racing Series Champion Frank Kimmel, who has finished second at Daytona twice but does not include a Daytona victory among his 74 career ARCA wins, was eighth overall in the Ansell-Menards Ford Fusion (181.240 mph/49.658 mph). Five-time Daytona ARCA race winner Bobby Gerhart was 18th overall (179.971 mph/50.008 seconds)

Spotted in the Garage Area

Owensboro, Kentucky native and former ARCA Racing Series driver Bobby Watson, a well-regarded former ARCA driver with several series wins and a second-place points finish to Benny Parsons in 1969, was in the Garage Area Thursday assisting fellow Kentucky native Steve Blackburn (No. 68 Harley-Davidson & Honda of Prestonburg Dodge).

Fast Females

A total of six female drivers participated in the Thursday practice session, including Danica Patrick (No. 7 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet-17th quickest), Alli Owens (No. 15 ElectrifyingCareers.com Chevrolet-13th quickest), Leilani Munter (No. 59 GREENandSAVE Dodge-32nd quickest), Milka Duno (No. 90 Stringer Motorsports Toyota-44th quickest), Jennifer Jo Cobb (No. 21 Bowsher-Moooi Motorsports Chevrolet-47th quickest) and Jill George (No. 48 Radon.com Dodge-50th quickest).

Another fast female in Daytona this weekend is ARCA’s Matriarch, 96-year-old Mildred Marcum. Marcum helped found ARCA with her husband John in 1953 and attended ARCA’s first Daytona race in 1964. On Monday, she met with NASCAR Media Group for an intensive interview in which she relayed her days of working as a NASCAR Official alongside the France Family during the sport’s early years. Marcum still works in ARCA’s Temperance, Michigan home office on a fulltime basis.

Indiantown, Florida Native Sheltra Sixth Fastest

Patrick Sheltra, a native of Indiantown, Florida, was sixth overall during Thursday’s practice with a 49.612 second/181.408 mph lap late during the session.

“Our PowerTrac Dodge is really good,” said Sheltra. “We didn’t have to play with it a whole lot today. The car handles well all by itself and the little drafting we did today, I didn’t have one complaint. We’re going to qualify somewhere between eighth and 12th, I think tomorrow but come race day, we’re going to have a shot at winning this thing. I just have to thank Jon (Wolfe, crew chief) and all of the guys for working real hard. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell Friday

The 43-car starting field for Saturday’s Lucas Oil Slick Mist 200 will be determined Friday, in part by Menards Pole Qualifying presented by Ansell. Bobby Gerhart and Justin Marks are both former pole sitters in the ARCA Racing Series at Daytona entered for this year’s race.

The Queensland Government and V8 Supercars Australia jointly announced that the Gold Coast fixture will be wholly re-invigorated in conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the event this October.

The emphasis will be on extremely affordable ticketing and be all-inclusive of entertainment and live concerts. The world class V8 Supercars Australia events team headed up by Gold Coaster, Shane Howard, will take charge of the Gold Coast SuperCarnivale.

An additional focus will be on attracting interstate and international visitors back to the event.

“I would argue that no single event in Australian history has undergone the dramatic changes that are planned for this year’s SuperCarnivale on the Gold Coast,” V8 Supercars Australia Chairman Tony Cochrane said.

“Aside from a massive reduction to the size of the site it is also our absolute goal to transform it into a family style event.”

(Rut…row, looks like the whole “no more naked bobbies on the beach” thing maybe taking hold. Alas, the Halfvast Staff™ of Full Throttle are weeping silently. But hey, the place is still the sex shop capital of Australia that must be worth something right?)

The Bligh Government, under pressure from two damning reports into last year’s failed GP to be released today, has decided to stop chasing risky minor international racing series (boldface mine) and will instead put its faith in the rapidly expanding home-grown race to rebrand and rebirth the 19-year-old event.

“Minor international series?” Is that anyway to treat a fellow race promoter?

Oops, sorry I guess it is, but really, why let a little “gross mismanagement” get between friends?

For the first time in the history of V8 Supercars, the event will become the third endurance race on the calendar alongside the prestigious L&H 500 at Phillip Island and Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000. It will be raced over 600kms, 300kms each day, with each V8 Supercar team including an international co-driver

“In total we will have 17 international drivers, one for each V8 Supercar team, from around 14 different countries, driving for our teams, alongside our drivers across a 600km endurance weekend,” Mr Cochrane said.

Mr Cochrane confirmed that former Gold Coast winner Scott Pruett (USA), placegetter Alex Tagliani (Canada), reigning Australian Le Mans 24 Hour winner David Brabham, former Formula 1 and Champ Car stars Mark Blundell (England) and Christian Fittipaldi (Brazil) have already signed as co-drivers.

The complete race format and all 17 co-drivers will be announced at the event launch in April.

“There is no question that this event will have everything for everybody, including a massive international component in our visiting drivers. Their presence alone will spark massive interest around the world and compliments new world-wide television deals we are announcing next Wednesday at our season launch.”

The event, to be promoted by V8 Supercar Events, will be part of the inaugural V8 Grand Slam which could offer up to $2.5 million in prize money for a driver that wins the Gold Coast event, Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000 and the Sydney Telstra 500 in Sydney in the same year.

A move Petty would rejoice in.

At the beginning of the 1969 NASCAR season, Ford and Mercury were virtually unbeatable. On the big tracks hosting races of 300 miles or more, Ford tied together a 13-race winning streak. Fords took the top five spots at Atlanta, the top four at Michigan, and finished first and second in eight of the 13 victories never losing a superspeedway event until September.

At that, the win was “tainted” by a Richard Brickhouse driven Dodge win as all the major players walked out of Talladega over safety concerns.

After a 1968 season that produced only one superspeedway win in his Plymouth Roadrunner, Richard Petty requested that Chrysler officials shift him to the more aerodynamic Dodge for the 1969 NASCAR Grand National campaign. Chrysler balked, indicating they wanted to keep him in the Plymouth nameplate. In a shocking decision, Petty bailed out of the Chrysler camp entirely and joined the powerful Ford team. The King of NASCAR racing won his first start in a Ford.

The Torino Talladega had a replacement nose, one extended by six inches and with a flush-mounted grille on a more rounded front end. The close-fitting bumper was actually a rear bumper cut and reshaped to fit the front end. The rocker panels were reshaped and rolled to allow Ford to run the racing cars closer to the ground within NASCAR.

They called it appropriately and conveniently, the Talladega. In order to keep Mercury in the game they applied the same treatment to the Cyclone fastback to create the Cyclone Spoiler II.

While the slippery pair were built in minuscule numbers to homologate them for racing, they all had the 428 Cobra Jet engine, an engine Ford never intended for racing. (Ford 427 Cammer, along with Chrysler’s Hemi, having been banned by NASCAR) Instead, Ford built a limited number of Boss 429 Mustangs to homologate that open port engine for NASCAR competition.

The ‘69 season started with two wins, one by Petty at Macon a second by Bobby Allison at Montgomery both in ‘68 Plymouths, that was the marquees last harrah that season.

With a clever tire strategy, the LeeRoy Yarbrough won the 1969 Daytona 500 in a Torino Talladega prepared by Junior Johnson.

David Pearson meanwhile would take 11 wins and the 1969 season championship driving Holman-Moody Talladegas. After his defection, Richard Petty won another 10 races in Fords and finished second in the championship.

At one point spanning events as diverse as Daytona, Bristol, the mile and half at Trenton and Michigan the Torino Talladegas won 11 straight. Overall they captured 26 events and the Mercury Cyclones of Cale Yarborough and LeeRoy Yarbrough captured two wins apiece for a total of 30 wins in 54 attempts.

The Torino Talladegas and Cyclone Spoiler IIs are the cars that made the Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth Superbird necessary. (And possibly Daytona’s best car ever, tune in tomorrow to see.)

All the posts in this series are available here.

With a standard set of rules, stability had gained a foothold within the NASCAR kingdom. Despite smaller fields of competition, NASCAR Winston Cup racing was getting more television time as well.

The Detroit manufacturers had cooled in their enthusiasm for NASCAR as the country seemed to be more concerned with fuel economy than high performance.

But then, when no one was looking, Chevrolet introduced the Laguna Type-S3 version of its midsize Chevelle and began dominating the premier series.

The Type-S3 was introduced midway through the 1975 model year and distinguished by its sloping shovelnose. The shape was magic for team owner Junior Johnson and driver Cale Yarborough.

Cale Yarborough drove his #11 Junior Johnson/Holly Farms Chevrolet to the 1976 NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National championship. Yarborough won nine races along the way to the first of three consecutive titles. He finished last in the Daytona 500, but assumed command of the points chase in August. Yarborough beat Richard Petty by 195 points.

The season was filled with triumph as well: Not only did veteran Cale Yarborough win his first NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National championship, but NASCAR also welcomed female driver Janet Guthrie, who finished 15th at the World 600.

The Junior Johnson/Cale Yarborough combo started 1977 by taking the Daytona 500 and going on to win eight more times. Throw in six wins for Darrell Waltrip in his similar DiGard Chevrolets and NASCAR felt something had to be done.

So for the 1978 season the S3 was strangled out of competition with restrictive engine regulations. And NASCAR allowed the Chevrolet small-block V8 to be used under any GM body shell—Buick, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac or even (theoretically) Cadillac. And that was that for the S3.

NOTES: For those that complain about NASCAR’s “fluid” rulebook and points system, NASCAR announced a new points system in 1975, the fourth different method of distributing points in the last five years.

Benny Parsons takes the lead three laps from the finish and wins the Daytona 500 when leader David Pearson spins on the backstretch. Parsons comes from the 32nd starting position to claim the upset win and the biggest victory of his career.

Qualifying for the 1976 Daytona 500 was unusual. A.J. Foyt, in Hoss Ellington’s #28 Chevrolet, was quickest with a speed of 187.477 mph. Aside from the quick laps turned in by Darrell Waltrip and Dave Marcis, virtually all of the others were 8-10 mph off the pace. The discrepancy led NASCAR to reinspect the quick cars. The times of Foyt, Waltrip, and Marcis were disallowed; Foyt and Waltrip because nitrous oxide bottles were found in their cars; Marcis for a radiator technicality.

Ramo Stott and rookie Terry Ryan were the unlikely front-row starters in the 500 as a result.

Donnie Allison drives a Laguna Type-S3 to a convincing win in the National 500 at Charlotte and survives a stormy post­race teardown to notch his first NASCAR Winston Cup Grand National victory since 1971.

The Ferrari driver said he was “happy to be back on the track after spending so much time looking at the races on television” as he completed 103 laps to clock a fastest lap of 1 minute 12.574 seconds.

He led 38-year-old Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, returning to Formula One with Sauber after many years spent as a McLaren test driver, as seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher set the third fastest time.

Wearing a red helmet, the 41-year-old German took his Mercedes team car out for the first time here ahead of his official return to the sport after a three-year absence.

“From a physical point of view, I feel very well,” said Massa, who suffered severe head injuries when he was struck at around 250 kph by a spring that flew off Ruben Barrichello’s Brawn car on July 25.

“I completed more than 100 laps, but I could have done double that.

“I’ve already done tests with the old car. Everything was better than what I thought in terms of timing and consistency. For me everything was normal.”

Massa said: “The car seems to be going in the right direction. It’s easier to drive compared to last year, when it was always complicated to find a good balance. But there is still a lot to do before the first race.”

As for Schumacher, Massa admitted: “It’s a bit strange to see a silver car with a red helmet.”

Massa added that he had joked with Schumacher on the track: “I overtook him, he waved to me!”

The first race of the season is the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14. - AFP/de