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Date July 4, 1959 (1959-07-04) Course Permanent racing facility2.5 mi (4.02 km) Distance 100 laps, 250 mi (402.336 km) Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) Average speed 140.581 miles per hour (226.243 km/h) | ||
The 1959 Firecracker 250 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on July 4, 1959, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
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Summary
Contested over 100 laps, it was the twenty-sixth race of the 1959 NASCAR Grand National Series season. Fireball Roberts, driving for Jim Stephens, took his first win of the season, while Joe Weatherly finished second and Johnny Allen finished third.
The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.
By the 1990s, NASCAR's top-level series became a media circus that only races at facilities that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.