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Date February 22, 1970 (1970-02-22) Location Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S. Course Permanent racing facility
2.5 mi (4.023 km) Distance 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km) Weather Temperatures reaching up to 64.9 °F (18.3 °C); wind speeds approaching 10.1 miles per hour (16.3 km/h) Average speed 149.601 miles per hour (240.759 km/h) | ||
The 1970 Daytona 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) race held on February 22, 1970, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Summary
NASCAR's modern era would commence with this race. Winged Plymouth Superbirds made their grand debut. Pete Hamilton, hired by Petty Enterprises shortly before the season, won the race in the #40 Plymouth Superbird just three car lengths over David Pearson, after passing him with nine laps to go. It was the first win for the new Plymouth Superbird.
This race would last 200 minutes, with a proud audience of 103,800 people watching every minute of it. A grand total of 24 lead changes were made with an average green flag run of 22 laps. Exactly 23% of the race was held under a yellow flag; blown engines were the primary culprit behind the caution periods.
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.