NOTE: All images belong to NASCAR and Car & Track Productions.

After several years of fairly rough SpeedWeeks, which included three fatalities during preliminary events from 1969-'72, SpeedWeeks in 1973 proved to be very safe, and would not give an indication of how tragic a year 1973 would be in auto racing.

This video on the 1973 Daytona 500 is in three parts. Each of the first two parts are the two qualifying races that determined the starting field beyond the front row (and there were some surprises, as well as a GIANT field trying to make the race), and the third part is the 1973 Daytona 500 itself.

The first qualifying race turned out to be a preview of what the Daytona 500 would turn into, which was a race-long battle between two of NASCAR's hardest chargers of the era, Buddy Baker and Cale Yarborough, who was back full-time in NASCAR for the first time since 1970. Other contenders in that first qualifying race included Richard Petty, Gordon Johncock (driving Hoss Ellington's #28 car), who was to win the rain and tragedy-marred Indianapolis 500 in May, Dick Brooks, Benny Parsons, and Darrell Waltrip. The lead changed hands 17 times in 50 laps, with Baker winning by about 2 car lengths over Yarborough.

The second qualifying race was one of those fairy tale stories that began with 1970 Daytona 500 winner Pete Hamilton, the second-fastest qualifier, starting up front, joined by the likes of A.J. Foyt, Jim Vandiver, and Herschel McGriff (in a second Petty team car), while 1970 NASCAR champion Bobby Isaac and 3-time NASCAR champion David Pearson starting a bit further back. Pearson was a late qualifier, and although he ran strong in his qualifying race, his poor starting position for the 2nd qualifier put the Wood Brothers in a hole they never could get out of, as they had to gamble on fuel mileage, and eventually ran out, resulting in a ninth-place finish and a starting position of 20th for the Daytona 500.

Most of that second qualifying race was a battle between Hamilton, Pearson, Isaac, and Coo Coo Marlin, before Marlin and Pearson ultimately took charge, and when Pearson ran out of fuel during the last caution period (for an incident between Jerry Cook and Slick Gardner), Marlin stole the last lap restart, and the victory over McGriff.

With over 70 cars running the two qualifying races, just making the Daytona 500 was a challenge, even for some of the top drivers. Among those that failed to qualify were Donnie Allison, in what was to be the debut race for DiGard Racing, as well as Sam Sessions, who finished fourth in the 1972 Indianapolis 500 (and who was a teammate of Yarborough in that event). Another driver that failed to qualify for the Daytona 500 in his first attempt was Richard Childress. In fact, almost as many cars failed to qualify for this race as there were successful qualifiers.

While the qualifiers were run on a sunny day, race day was overcast, with sprinkles resulting in Mr. 500 himself, Andy Granatelli, having to pace the field for far longer than he anticipated, as the first 13 laps were run under caution. When the green flag came out for real on lap 14, Baker and Yarborough picked up right where they left off, as they had the best cars, and would combine to lead 181 of the 200 laps. As was normally the case back then, mechanical attrition whittled the field. Hamilton, the 1970 winner, was the first out, almost immediately followed by Johncock. By lap 60, Pearson had also become a casualty in one of the few races he didn't win that year. The day's only wreck occurred just after Pearson's exit, when Marty Robbins (yes, THAT Marty Robbins) tangled with another car, and Darrell Waltrip and Red Farmer spun in the infield.

When Petty had to pit for a cut tire on lap 89, it had apparently become a 2-car race between Baker and Yarborough, but with Petty needing a pit stop at the three-quarter mark, John Utsman blew his engine at the start-finish line, and at the same time, Cale's engine blew in turn 1. Petty had now replaced Yarborough as the lone driver capable of challenging Baker, as the rest of the field was at least two laps behind.

The decisive moment came when Petty stopped for fuel with 11 laps remaining, and his pit stop time was about 5.3 seconds, and when Baker pitted on the next laps, his pit stop was about 8.5 seconds, forcing Baker to play catch-up, and with 6 laps to go, his engine blew, resulting in Petty winning the Daytona 500 in the biggest landslide in race history.

Bobby Isaac, who had never had any luck at all at Daytona, finally found some to finish second, while Dick Brooks, in the next-to-last race for Cotton Owens' #6 Dodge, was another lap behind in third (in fact, no two cars that finished in the top ten and were running finished on a common lap). Next came Foyt, McGriff, Baker, James Hylton (who completed the same number of laps as Baker), Ramo Stott, Buddy Arrington, and Vic Parsons (no relation to Benny).