Al Unser's crash at IROC Daytona in 1978

The fourth race of the International Race of Champions season, at Daytona, produced this scary crash on lap 23. Richard Petty, Mario Andretti, Johnny Rutherford, Gordon Johncock, Darrell Waltrip, Benny Parsons and Al Unser were involved in an accident coming off the second turn just past the halfway point. Petty was knocked unconscious and spent the night in a local hospital for observation. Unser rocketed over a dirt embankment in the infield, almost knocking over a television tower. After the restart, Andretti went ahead to take the win, just ahead of Waltrip.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Mario Andretti
• Johnny Rutherford
• Gordon Johncock
• Darrell Waltrip
• Benny Parsons
• Al Unser
• Daytona
• IROC
• crash

[Radar19792006]

@AngerIsOurGift I've never understood that either, Jackie never seemed to catch much slack from viewers. To be fair, he never refrained from speaking his mind so maybe he just rubbed some folks the wrong way. I always love watching races where he was in the booth, he and Jim McKay had a fantastic rapor, esp when talking Stock Car racing.

[AngerIsOurGift]

Jackie Stewart is awesome, why would less Stewart be a good thing? One of the greatest figures in Motorsports ever... easily.

[Zoomer30]

Unser really wanted to go to the beach that day.

He looks back as if to say "naah leave it there guys I get it later"

[dickcamnitz]

Petty was knocked unconsious in that  crash. Next day in the 500, he wrecked again.

[bagruen]

Good racin' !! The best thing that has happened with the passing of time is that Jackie Stewart no longer commentates.