Gentlemen, Start Your Cash Registers

Prior to 1979, NASCAR was still a regional, almost niche attraction.  That all changed on February 18 that year with the running of the Daytona 500.  Many racing historians cite this day as the birth of the marketing extravaganza we know as modern NASCAR.

The '79 Daytona 500 was the first racing event of its kind to be nationally televised live, pole to pole.  (Even the Indy 500 was shown on a tape delay that was edited back then.)  Coincidentally, the President’s Day Blizzard had locked down most of the northeastern and mid Atlantic US, which significantly increased the size of the audience.

And those viewers weren’t disappointed.  A tight race, it finished with an epic fistfight between leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison resulting from a last minute crash which allowed Richard Petty to slip through for the victory.  That video is still watched today:

This race has been called the “first water cooler race” and elevated NASCAR into the sports big time in the US.  It also "introduced two new innovative uses of TV cameras: the 'in-car' camera and the low angle 'speed shot, which are now considered standard in all telecasts of auto racing."  After this, NASCAR--  and its cultural impact--  would never be the same.

1979 was also the rookie season of the man who would become the face of modern NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt Jr.