NASCAR Cup Series

The biggest 'Big One' ever took place in 1960

Published Jul. 2, 2016 10:05 a.m. ET

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Friday night’s Subway Firecracker 250 NASCAR XFINITY Series race at Daytona International Speedway saw a couple examples of “The Big One,” with 14 cars crashing on Lap 15 and eight more on the last lap.

Tonight’s Coke Zero 400 will almost certainly have at least one more Big One. Big crashes are a fact of life at restrictor-plate tracks.

In last year’s race, the field wadded up coming to the checkered flag, with Austin Dillon’s car going into the catch fence, flipping upside down and being struck by Brad Keselowski’s car.

But the biggest Big One in Daytona history happened way back in 1960 during a NASCAR Modified race, the precursor to the XFINITY Series today. In that race, 68 cars entered and 37 of them crashed in Turn 4 during the opening lap.

This amazing video captures it all, and shows how far safety advances have come since then.

If you look closely as the cars take the green flag, there are at least a dozen photographers standing unprotected in the trioval while they take pictures.

And there were no SAFER barriers, nor HANS devices, tire innerliners or even firesuits. It’s a miracle that the drivers all escaped with only minor injuries.

I always say, you shouldn’t watch the race for the wrecks, but, wow, just wow, this is insanity.

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