79 Daytona 500 "The Perfect Storm"

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Ken Squier settled into a booth near the front door of Billy's Tap Room & Grill, the oldest restaurant in Ormond Beach. Across the mahogany table, Dave Despain, his Speed Channel co-star for the past week, munched on a salad as he talked about the dog whisperer who counseled him by phone about his problematic hound.



"Did I tell you about my rare red Irish poodle?" interjected Squier, who chose a martini as a precursor to his main course.



Squier, 72, can weave a story with the best of them. This one is centered on the poodle he often takes to the coffee house near his home in Waterbury, Vt., to pass off to strangers as a rare breed.

"If they seem like nice people I will admit these Irish poodles are so rare that you usually only see them on St. Patrick's Day after several green beers," Squier said with a straight face. "They'll go home and say, 'I saw the [gosh-darnedest] thing in Vermont. It was an Irish poodle.



"Or they'll say, 'We met the [gosh-darnedest] fool we've ever met. He had this big red poodle and he thought it was Irish."



Thirty years ago, Squier spun a story nobody would have believed had they not seen or heard it. It was a tale of the 1979 Daytona 500, the race that vaulted NASCAR's premier series onto the national map.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• 1979
• daytona
• 500
• perfect
• storm
• nascar
• bumpsnotes
• joseph
• foster
• cbs

[goguard07]

@MrPrimetime76 MrPrimetime76, thank you so very much for answering my question, a query that has puzzled me since I first heard the tune that was used for the intro to Cincinnati Reds Baseball on my local NBC affiliate in 1979. Thanks again, and God bless!

[MrPrimetime76]

@goguard07 Children of Sanchez by Chuck Mangione

[altfactor]

While parts of the Northeast and mid-Atlantic were snowed-in, I don't think that had much to do with the huge ratings CBS got the 1979 Daytona "500".

Auto racing's popularity had grown by leaps and bounds during the 1960's and 1970's, and that's why so many people watched.

[goguard07]

What is the name of the background music at 1:07? I have heard that song for years but never knew who released or performed it.

[McCall72]

Favorited. Thanks for uploading it!