1984 Daytona 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 30 in the 1984 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season | |||
Track map of Daytona International Speedway showing mainly the speedway.
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| Date | February 19, 1984 | ||
| Location | Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.02336 km) |
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| Distance | 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) | ||
| Average speed | 150.994 miles per hour (243.001 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Ranier-Lundy | ||
| Qualifying race winners | |||
| Duel 1 Winner | Cale Yarborough | Ranier-Lundy | |
| Duel 2 Winner | Bobby Allison | DiGard Motorsports | |
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Cale Yarborough | Ranier-Lundy | |
| Laps | 89 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 28 | Cale Yarborough | Ranier-Lundy | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | CBS | ||
| Announcers | Ken Squier and David Hobbs | ||
| Nielsen Ratings | 8.7/23 (12.3 million viewers) |
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The 1984 Daytona 500, the 26th running of the event, was held February 19, 1984, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Cale Yarborough, who won the pole, completed a lap of 201.848 miles per hour (324.843 km/h), officially breaking the 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) barrier at Daytona. He won the race for the second year in a row, and the fourth time in his career, with the identical last-lap pass, this time victimizing Darrell Waltrip who would later go on to win the same race in 1989.
Cale Yarborough and Waddell Wilson were ready to repeat as Daytona 500 champion as Speedweeks got under way. Yarborough won the pole with a new track record, so next for him was the Twin 125. In race one, he won after 1980 Daytona 500 champ Buddy Baker failed to outfox the cagey veteran. baker was leadingwith 8 laps to go, but decided he would not be a sitting duck. Baker slowed and forced Yarborough to pass. Yarborough took off and Baker could not catch him. Yarborough won by 1.8 seconds. In the second race, 1982 Daytona 500 champ Bobby Allison hold off Harry Gant, while Darrell Waltrip in his 12th attempt to win the Daytona 500 struggled to a 13th-place finish.
It was in 1984 that the 4th turn was dubbed Calamity Corner after three vicious weeks. Ricky Rudd was battered and bruised in a wild, tumbling, sidewinding crash in the Busch Clash, but he won two weeks later in Richmond (despite a concussion suffered in the Clash; there was no concussion rule, implemented in 2014, at the time). In the second Twin 125, Randy LaJoie spun off turn four. His car began flying and went underside-first into the inside wall before flipping end over end to a hard stop. The next day, in a consolation race, Natz Peters's car ricocheted off the inside wall into the path of another car, driven by Jim Hurlbert. Both cars exploded in flames. Fortunately, none of the drivers were seriously injured.
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