1979 NASCAR DonWilliams Huge crash

[TheReturnoflee]

THAT WAS ACTUALLY A BIG ONE!

[sneezabonk]

Why did the cars always have a huge explosion upon collison with other cars back then?

[Water4Jeremiah]

You know if it weren't for these drivers pushing themselves to the absolute limit we wouldn't have the safety in our cars we enjoy today. Much respect and may their courage be an example to us.

[RArkadian]

I haven't yet seen a video that shows his crash properly.

[DIXIEOUTLAW56]

I live in valdosta ga. Don williams drove a #168 dirt race car for years at the now closed Thunderbowl Speedway,it was a 3/8 mile dirt oval.. The car was owned by the Cooper Bros. Racing located in Ray City Ga. .He lived and was from Madison Fla. which is about 30 minutes away from Valdosta...He was a good man and a dam good wheelman..Rest In Peace Don...#168

[C0LL1N]

even the ARCA drivers would be impressed by a wreck like this

[benbaileymusic]

I think he died because a piece of sheet metal drove itself up through the visor of his helmet, and into his forehead. Also I believe he is not one of those flaming cars but one of the earlier wrecked cars... another side note is that Joe Frasson, the car the most on fire, was the first driver to wear nomex gloves and fireproof underwear... which probably saved a lot of his skin, but the goggles and his helmet melted to his face.

[mickyhunt]

and that's why they introduced brakes for the following season

[penske13]

rest good don.....:(

[lemigrant]

Crazy nascar drivers! Even with 342 crashing cars in front of it, they dont stop pushing!

[GeorgiaXXIcentury]

rip

[ronny302]

Oh my god, that was terrible. What a huge impact. You could think, the incoming driver was blind as he hits the car, which he should have see.

Sad to hear, the injured driver was in vegetated state for ten years. No one´s live should have an end this way.

[burtonfan2]

It wasnt the car the exploded. in the extended video you see him get out of the car. It was another car the hit the wall behind all of this

[crispinh1]

Williams was not one of the main cars you see in the video, according to commentary on another video, his car hit the wall behind the explosion while trying to avoid it and entered the grass area (it can be seen above the car that 2 wheels on top of another, his car is going backwards, at about the :19 - :20 area of this clip)

[germanshepard44]

Were there no spotters back then

[adame3383]

nope

[Rcrby525]

@germanshepard44 no, there wasn't, in-car radio didn't come about til 82.

[SuperSherryj]

He was in a vegetated state for 10 years. We do not know if he was aware of what happen to him. I can only pray he didn't. He lived at my grandparents house in a hospital bed with a full time nurse. He basically died that day, doing what he loved!! Now the love of racing lives on in my children.

[atgn70]

So you are saying Don was youre uncle?!

[SuperSherryj]

Yes he was, he was my moms brother.

[bmak07]

was he in a coma????? How did he die 10 years later

[Rcrby525]

@bmak07 being kept alive by machines.

[jaked812812]

was he in a coma?

[Bowerbaiyu]

Gosh aren't you supposed to slow down when you see a wreck not keep going the same speed and try to avoid it?

[joyrod11]

well yes now its a rule in NASCAR that as soon as a wreck happens the field is frozen. but back then they were allowed to finish the lap before taking the yellow. the rules in place now to prevent things like this. just for the record this wreck reminds me of tetsuya ota's wreck at fuji

[grassy04]

no you lay on the gas and take the high side because theoretically gravity pulls the crash to the bottom due to the bank at speedways

[erasetoimprove]

ummmm... not on the straightaway where there is less to no banking lol. Regardless... this was in a much different time in racing. It is likely the caution wasn't even out yet when this happened because only one or two cars were involved. Up until the mid 90s, it took more than a car or two spinning to bring out the yellow. They usually had to be obviously disabled, or debris had to be on the track.

[sonic7644]

Absofreakinglutely, the more space between the cars (as in the faster cars being able to pass and move away) the less chance of 10-20 car pile ups, ummm, yeah, less people in each accident=less numbers added into chance of death equation, freak accidents can and will allways happen, if the driver has the guts to push a car past it's limits let him, thats what racing is akll about

[sonic7644]

NASCAR has become more prone to accidents since the use of restrictor plates in the name of safety, keeps all the cars congested, with the safety devices of today alot of these fatal accidents would not be so now, let them run, not navigate traffic

[wawwwaaa]

are you dissing plates??

[MIBFreakPack]

I never knew he died 10 years later. Very sad, RIP =(

[SaintBEEP]

back then they actually race, most of racing is boring now except for NASCAR, and NASCAR is still a little boring, but i like it.

[wvsd1966]

i remember that really racing thats it

[hookups]

i've got the dvd of the '79 daytona 500...

it started under caution, so they showed this crash during some of the early caution laps. they claim his head out the wall, so i'd have to think it wasn't head-on, but more of a drivers side impact.

the drivers were hardly secure in those seats back then...look at the '86 richard petty wall hit during the daytona 500...

[atgn70]

hey,if you have the dvd,it would be great if you posted it in its entirety with commentary..I remember watching this when I was a kid,and I remember reading about it in Auto Racing Digest as well..I remember them talking about how Don Williams was hurt badly..I would love some more info..

[atgn70]

If I remember,there was alot more to this pileup than what was shown here.

[atgn70]

or post just this part with the commentary.

[Culiver51]

It was a big mystery for the longest how Don Williams was involved in the wreck. Of course back then, replays weren't that great. It was later told that Williams was a rookie and from lack of experience, he slammed the brakes and the car went into the outside wall head on. Williams died in May of 1989. He was from Madison Georgia and wasn't married.

[mkl62]

@Culiver51 I thought it was Madison, Florida. There is a chapter of this incident in Ed Hinton's book, Daytona.

[hms4ever]

All I can say is this why they don't race back to the line during a caution anymore. Now days they would be slowing down well in advace of the crash, but back then they raced back to the line to take the yellow flag.

[bikercbr60007]

why werent they slowing down?????

[gunner9878]

R.I.P.

[Inglewolf]

This wreck actually was caused by a car not seen in this video.

Before this video footage begins, Jack Ingram lost an engine and slowed drastically. #43 Freddie Smith (the car seen in the first ten seconds here) spins and is struck by #50 Joe Fresson. Fresson is the car that comes to a stop further down and nailed by #04 Delma Cowart, resulting in the fiery crash.

Don Williams is in the #68 is the car seen at 0:20 going backwards from the wall. Unlike Fresson, he would'nt walk away.

[mattybb47]

i still cant see the car what color is it

[kingborg4343]

if you slow it down you can see he was t-boned by the car that went on its side for a bit.

[DC322]

Also this was the beginning of the race and the cars were full of fuel when the incident happened. Now these days those race cars have fuel cells, bladders and lines that prevented such fires as the one back in 1979.

[Lincolnlineman]

How fast did the cars go round Daytona back then? But this is a shocking accident, thank goodness for improvements in car and track safety.

[e521soediv]

oh yea he died say it one the video info

[HannahMyHero]

was that a fatal crash or did everyone survive

[e521soediv]

im not sure i think he was in acoma or somethin not sure if he died tho.

[linexnick]

wow my friend is in this wreck he was driving the yellow #4 car (budy byles)

[Inglewolf]

That's the yellow car that went off the side of the blue car, driven by Red Farmer, after the explosive wreck.

If I ever learn how to put old video tape to the internet, I'll post the entire wreck (albeit Speedvision footage, circa 1999)

[wolves16]

Right. I bet.

[e521soediv]

if only they didnt race back to the line back then.

[mkl62]

It really angers me to know that NASCAR turned its back on Don Williams. When his mother heard that "Big" Bill France had Alzheimer's, she thought to herself, well, you're now getting what you deserve. I had a 3rd cousin who suffered the same type injury in a wreck in September 1969. He died in July 1993. All that time he was nothing but a vegetable. Drivers just weren't protected back then. I think about J.D. McDuffie's tragic death. Senseless.

[TCmod1]

@mkl62 Idk they were pretty safe for what they had back then. But you gotta remember he had a car goin 200 mph hitting him going through 1.5" tubing rupturing a .125" thick fuel cell full of racing gas.

[FilmPA]

Is this why the Smashing Pumpkins made the song "1979" ?. In the music video, they are driving one of those types of cars. Same color of the one that exploded too. If it is that is very sad.

[ReadyToWrestle]

I watched the video just now and no. The video had absolutly nothing to do with this crash or NASCAR in general.

[wolves16]

No.

[hsdl4200]

What ever happened to his wife, Nancy Williams (maiden name: Gray)??

[lazer124]

sick video, drop by sometime

[tomateiro]

i tought only on indy a car could explode like that

[burtonfan2]

williams went head on, but you cant see it through the smoke

[DirtTrax68]

The #43 blue car is Freddy Smith...who races Dirt Late Models. A driveshaft came through his windshield which caused him to loop it.

[JunBugJP3]

Wait which one was williams im confused, was he the one who smashed into the car that burned after head-on

[burtonfan2]

the dude on fire survived. in the longer versoin, you can see him running out

[RichRich530]

the thing thats sad is that y the hell arent the cars slowing down? those last impacts could have easily been avoided if they would have slowd down, but instead don williams is dead... RIP

[gingy717]

Maybe if they slamed on there breaks they would have skided out of control and caused more damage. Just a theory i really dont know

[JoeytheHDK]

The car on fire was driven by Joe Frasson, who walked away from the car under his own power, even though you don't see it in this video. He was unhurt.

Williams' car can be barely seen on the right-side of the screen, at the :19 or :20 mark.

It's pretty asinine for someone to call this one cool, especially considering the hell that Williams endured for the next ten years. He was severely injured, and struggled to survive for ten years before dying in 1989.

[AirForce418]

Damn... that fire was huge, it's no wonder the man died

RIP Don Williams

[jay157]

i dont think the car on fire is don. i think hes behind the fireball. i think he hit the wall head on

[wolves16]

Nope. The fire wasn't his car.

[Ariamaluum]

I read an article about Don Williams when he was in a coma the year before he died. Pretty sad.

[SeanPuffyCombs9]

that can't be , the Busch series was created in 1982

[IllinoisHighwayMan]

Before the NASCAR Busch Series was created, there was a NASCAR division called the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Series.

[lpdoby]

That's correct. When Busch started to become a major player in NASCAR sponsorship, it was decided that the Late Model Sportsman Series would be where Busch would be the title sponsor. Hence, the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series (as it was called before the name was changed to the Busch Series).

Then, Nationwide Insurance took over as the title sponsor.

[Redneck13Leon13]

cool? the man died! i bevlieve this was a sportsman race and not the 500 but i could be wrong