61 days until Daytona: Marvin Panch steals win in caution-free 500
There’s 61 days until the 2017 Daytona 500 on Feb. 26th on FOX. No driver has won NASCAR’s biggest race driving the No. 61, so this time, we’ll pay homage to Marvin Panch’s 1961 victory.
Panch drove an older 1960 No. 20 Pontiac owned by legendary car owner Smokey Yunick, but he originally wasn’t scheduled to run the 500 that year.
Thanks to the suggestion by Fireball Roberts, Yunick put Panch in his second entry, joining Roberts on the team.
And as it turns out, that was a winning move by both Yunick and Roberts.
In a race that didn’t see a single caution flag, which is something that has only happened two other times in Daytona 500 history (1959, 1962), Panch took the lead with just 13 laps remaining after teammate Roberts blew an engine after he had built up over a two-lap lead on Panch.
It was Panch’s only victory of the season, as Joe Weatherly, Paul Goldsmith, Fred Lorenzen and Cotton Owens rounded out the top five.
This particular 500 also saw the absence of Petty Enterprises, as both Lee and Richard Petty were sidelined due to accidents during their respective qualifying races.
While the younger Petty crashed into the guardrail and suffered a sprained ankle, the senior Petty’s injuries were much worse.
After he and Johnny Beauchamp were both sent flying through the guardrails and outside of the track, Lee Petty suffered multiple fractures, a punctured lung and multiple internal injuries.
Petty would compete again later that season, but after head and back injuries that were less severe than Petty’s situation, Beauchamp decided to call it a career.
