Cale Yarborough earned the pole in the #21 Wood Brothers Mercury with a record qualifying speed of 189.222 mph. The Thursday 125-mile qualifying races were rained out,
In one of the closest finishes in Daytona 500 history, Yarborough dueled with LeeRoy Yarbrough (driving for Junior Johnson) in the closing stages. Yarborough made the winning pass with just four laps to go and held on to win by a narrow one second. Bobby Allison finished third, followed by Al Unser and David Pearson. The race featured 11 cautions for 60 laps, with Yarborough averaging 143.251 mph. He earned $47,250 for the victory.
A memorable pre-race story involved Smokey Yunick’s team. During inspection, NASCAR officials identified nine items that needed correction on the car to be driven by Gordon Johncock. Yunick reportedly got in the car, after the fuel cell had been removed and told officials to “Better make that 10,” and drove off.
