Official name Firecracker 400 | ||
Date July 4, 1976 (1976-July-04) Location Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida Course Permanent racing facility
2.500 mi (4.023 km) Distance 160 laps, 400 mi (643 km) Weather Hot with temperatures reaching up to 91.0 °F (32.8 °C); wind speeds up to 12 miles per hour (19 km/h) | ||
The 1976 Firecracker 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on July 4, 1976, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Ticket prices for this race ranged from $8 ($33.67 when adjusted for inflation) to $30 ($126.26 when adjusted for inflation).
Contents
Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.
Summary
There were 40 drivers on the racing grid; all of them were American-born males except for Janet Guthrie. Buddy Arrington "earned" his last-place finish due to ignition troubles before the start of the first lap out of the 160 laps raced that day. A.J. Foyt achieved the pole position with a top speed of 183.090 miles per hour (294.655 km/h) while the average speed of the race was 160.966 miles per hour (259.050 km/h).
Cale Yarborough managed to defeat David Pearson by eight seconds in front of an audience of 40,000 people. Two cautions (for 14 laps) and 41 different lead changes made the race two hours and twenty-nine minutes long. The green flag was waved at 10:00 A.M. and the checkered flag was waved at approximately 12:29 P.M.
The winner of the race received $22,215 ($93,497.87 when adjusted for inflation) while the last place finisher went home with $1,310 ($5,513.49 when adjusted for inflation). The race was run on America's 200th birthday and was the site of Dick Skillen's best career finish of 17th place.
Finishing order
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race