There truly is nothing quite like watching a classic NASCAR race. Whether it be a random race that is special to you for whatever reason, like your first race or the first time you saw your favorite driver win, or whether it be the most famous races of all time such as the 1979 Daytona 500.
Well, NASCAR has now put any classic race you can think of on their new website: classics.nascar.com for free with NO ADS! There are some incredible finds on this website, and all of the classics you would expect are there. We have compiled the five most interesting.
1951 was only the third season of the NASCAR Cup Series, and footage of that season is incredibly rare. NASCAR has not one, but two races from that season including the Daytona Beach Race. It is not a full flag-to-flag broadcast, but the footage is just simply incredible. Watching the cars just bounce through the sand and onto the pavement and back the other way is something incredible.
It’s pretty cool to get some insight into how NASCAR races were consumed in the early days. Simple, five-minute mini-documentaries was all NASCAR had in the early days, and preserving it has made for a great way for fans to see how far the sport has come.
The World 600 was run for the first time in history in 1960, and NASCAR Classics has preserved it. In these days, a 600-mile endurance race for stock cars was unheard of. The cars took an absolute beating during this race with only 18 of the 60 starters being classified as “Running” at the end.
This is cool just because it’s not footage that you see very much. Sure, the 1959 Daytona 500 is on this site as well, but that footage has been used by NASCAR for years. It’s less common to see footage of this race, so that makes this race all the more interesting.
While most NASCAR races in the early days were preserved as just mini-documentaries, this was the first race to actually have traditional TV coverage. As a part of the ABC Wide World of Sports, a condensed version of the 1961 Firecracker 250 was broadcast on TV. It is the earliest TV broadcast of a race found on this site.
It’s not the full race, but it is still a cool insight into how NASCAR races were covered back then. Plus it is only the third year of Daytona International Speedway, so seeing early Daytona is always cool.
NASCAR had uploaded this race before on their YouTube page, but it was a condensed version of the race only about 1 and a half hours long. On this site, the race is uploaded in full. A pretty cool find for one of the most iconic moments in NASCAR history.
Most NASCAR fans have seen the finish, but to see the full race with no ads is really fun. It is a moment that brings a tear to the eye of many NASCAR fans.
Who doesn’t love watching a battle between two NASCAR Hall of Famers on the sport’s oldest superspeedway? The 1979 spring race at Darlington was one of the greatest battles in sports history. Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip battling in the final laps with…watch the race to find out who wins.
These are just a few incredible finds on this website. There are many more races found here, and if you can think of the race, it very well may be there. What more races will be added to this website as time goes on?
