Local News Now

Greatest NASCAR Race Ever: Dale Earnhardt takes checkered flag in 1998 Daytona 500

Newspaper Section

Dale Earnhardt all smiles after winning the 1998 Daytona 500 / Headline Surfer®

DAYTONA BEACH -- It can easily be argued to a jury of 12 NASCAR fans that the single greatest race in the history of stock car racing beyond a reasonable doubt has to be the 1998 Daytona 500.

Regan Smith edges out Brad Kezelowski by .013 seconds for green-white-checkered win in 2014 Nationwide 300 race at Daytona

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Regan Smith got “redemption,” today by edging out last year's winner Brad Keselowski by .013 seconds for the green-white-checkered win in Saturday’s DRIVE4COPD 300 at Daytona International Speedway.

First Person: Oops! Nationwide winner not in Daytona 500

Regan Smith not in the Daytona 500 / Headline Surfer®David Ragaan is the 43rd entrant in the Daytona 500 / Headline Surfer®

Headline Surfer® video / The intrepid reporter mixed up Regan Smith, (shown in the white and orange uniform), who is not in Sunday's Daytona 500 with David Ragan (brown and yellow uniform), who is the 43rd and final entrant in the Great American Race.

DAYTONA BEACH -- This certainly wasn't one of my finest moments in a long, distinguished journalism career, but it's better to be honest than to pretend otherwise: Fresh off his thrilling victory in the Nationwide race earlier today at Daytona International Speedway, I asked Regan Smith how he liked his chances for a repeat in Sunday's Daytona 500 as one of 43 drivers in the field.

Video ReWind: Junior Johnson wins 1960 Daytona 500 race marred by 37-car pile-up

Newspaper Section
SPECIAL FEATURE: Headline Surfer® brings you a snapshot of every Daytona 500 race, from 1959 to the present. This segment: 1960...
Junior Johnson wins 1960 Daytona 500 / Headline Surfer®

DAYTONA BEACH -- Fireball Roberts was the early leader of the 1960 Daytona 500 run on Feb. 14, but he would end up out of the race with engine problems and Junior Johnson took over and won the crash-marred affair.

He started ninth and was at home in North Carolina until a week earlier when he was convinced by Masoni to race. Masoni even supplied him with a car, a 1959 Chevrolet, sponsored by the Daytona Kennel.

DAYTONA 500 THROUGH THE YEARS: 1959, Lee Petty wins in photo finish

Newspaper Section
Key Words

Photo finish in 1959 Daytona 500 / Headlinew Surfer®Lee Petty, 1959 Daytona 500 winner / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® / Wikipedia /
Vintage photo shows Lee Petty (pictured here in the inset) squeaking by Johnny Beauchamp in the 1959 Daytona 500.
YouTube upload of NASCARHistory video /
Highlights of the first Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway are shown.
 
SPECIAL FEATURE: Headline Surfer® brings you a snapshot of every Daytona 500 race,  from 1959 to the present. This segment: 1959...
 

DAYTONA BEACH -- Johnny Beauchamp won the inaugural Daytona 500 on the high banks of Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 22, 1959, or did he?

There was no Warner Wolfe back then with with "lets go to the videotape," or digital cameras measuring in milliseconds. But there was a photo and it was what NASCAR used to take the win away from Beauchamp and give it to Lee Petty, father of Richard Petty and grandfather of Kyle Petty, beginning a family racing tradition.

Starting Line-up for 2014 Daytona 500: No. 3 Austin Dillon on the pole

Austin Dillon on the pole for Daytona 500 / Headline Surfer®Daytona 500 logo for starting line-up / Headline Surfer®Photos for Headline Surfer® / Austin Dillon in the No. 3 Chevrolet has the pole for Sunday's Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

DAYTONA BEACH -- Sunday's line-up for the Daytona 500 features the traditional and the non-traditional.

For example, the No. 3 is on the pole. That's tradition, as it was the number of NASCAR's greatest driver, Dale Earnhardt, the 1998 Daytona 500 winner, tragically killed on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500.

Duel Domination: Matt Kenseth & Denny Hamlin win qualifying races under lights for Sunday's Daytona 500

Newspaper Section

Joe Gibs racers sweep nighttime races

Duel 1 race at Daytona won by Matt Kenseth / Headline Surfer®Denny Hamlin wins 2nd Duel race at Daytona / Headline Surfer®Videos uploaded from YouTube /
Big crash in Duel No. 2 at Daytona International Speedway; 2nd video from fan in the grandstands.
Photos / Getty Images/NASCAR / for Headline Surfer® /
Matt Kenseth in the No. 20 wins Duel race 1 and Denny Hamlin in No. 11 wins Duel race 2 on Thursday night under the lights at Daytona International Speedway. The Duel races helped set the field for Sunday's Daytona 500, with No. 3 Sprint Cup rookie Austin Dillon already on the pole and Martin Truex Jr. joining him on the outside front row.
 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Joe Gibbs Racing swept the inaugural nighttime running of the Budweiser Duel at Daytona with Matt Kenseth and Denny Hamlin finishing atop the scoring pylon in their respective 150-mile qualifying races on Thursday night at Daytona International Speedway.

Kenseth, who led a race-high 31 laps in the first qualifying race, was the victor in a three-wide finish at the checkered flag, edging out Kevin Harvick by .022 seconds with Kasey Kahne a close third.

Florida's Marco Rubio condemns violence in Ukraine

Newspaper Section

Marco Rubio condemns Russian influence in escalating violence in Ukraine / Headline Surfer®DAYTONA BEACH – Marco Rubio, the Republican junior senator from Florida and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Select Committee on Intelligence, issued a statement today from Washington regarding the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and condemned Russian influence and corruption that he sees as a hindrance to the sovereign peoples in the former Soviet republic.