1984 Daytona 500, Part 1 (Intro/Starting Grid/Command)

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This is part one of the 1984 Daytona 500. This race, run on February 19, 1984, is one of the truly forgotten jewels in the history of NASCAR. In fact, I consider this race, the 26th running of the Daytona 500, to be the greatest of all the Daytona 500s. It might not have had the most memorable moments, but from a pure competition standpoint, as far as the greatest drivers and teams in the history of the sport, and the all-day competition between the finest in the sport's history at their peaks, this ranks to me as the greatest Daytona 500 of all-time.

This part, the first of many (how many, I won't know for some time) deals with the introduction, as done by SPEED's NASCAR Classics, the entire starting grid of 42 cars (which was done much better than any racing broadcast you see today), and the command to start engines, which was done by President Ronald Reagan from the White House. Of note, Reagan would also conduct the coin toss for Super Bowl XIX from the White House on the day of his second inauguration (January 20, 1985).

By the way, this race marks the debut of a team then known as All-Star Racing, which eventually became Hendrick Motorsports. Their driver, Geoff Bodine, would go on to finish eighth in the race, one lap behind the leaders. I'll have the full order of finish, along with race statistics, in the info box on the final part of this race.

The commentators for this race are Ken Squier and David Hobbs in the booth, with Ned Jarrett and Chris Economaki, working his first Daytona 500 on TV since 1978, when he worked the pits for ABC Sports, working the pits.

NOTE: This is a combination version between SPEED's NASCAR Classics, which rebroadcast every Daytona 500 done by CBS, and ESPN Classic, who also showed the 1984 Daytona 500. As these are edited rebroadcasts, the entire race has not been preserved, but when I did the combination version, I did so to get as much of the race as possible.

All credits go to SPEED, NASCAR, and CBS, who originally broadcast the race on February 19, 1984.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1984
• Daytona
• 500
• introduction
• SPEED
• NASCAR
• Classics
• starting
• lineup
• CBS
• Sports