1973 Medal of Honor Firecracker 400


The 1973 Medal of Honor Firecracker 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on July 4, 1973, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.
This race - and the 1969 and 1971 runnings of this race - was actually called the "Medal of Honor Firecracker 400", in an effort to honor Congressional Medal of Honor winners.

Race report

This was the first race with new rules regarding carburetor restrictors. It was widely assumed that these ruled helped volume production wedge engines, especially that used by Chevrolet.
This race eventually became Marty Robbins' most iconic race during his career in NASCAR. While he would start in 36th place, he would finish the race in eighth place, seven laps down. J.D. McDuffie ended up being the last-place finisher of this race due to an engine problem on lap 2 of 160. It took more than 160 minutes and two caution flags for David Pearson to defeat Richard Petty in front of sixty thousand fans. Six car lengths was the distance between Petty and Pearson. Bobby Allison secured the pole position at during qualifying.
The race averaged. Engine problems took numerous other drivers out of the race. All competitors were born in the United States. Mercury, Dodge, and Chevrolet made up the majority of the grid. Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and David Pearson were the only lap leaders. The Chevrolet vehicles indeed dominated the race, but after Yarborough and Allison retired from the race it was David Pearson's show.
Notable crew chiefs that in the race were Tim Brew, Jake Elder, Travis Carter, Harry Hyde, Dale Inman, Tom Vandiver, and Bud Moore.
Vic Parsons scored his best NASCAR finish in seventh place. This was his seventh and final Winston Cup top-10 but his sixth of 1973.
The winner of the race walked away with $16,100 in prize winnings while the last-place winner received $1,270. All the prize winnings from this race added up to $105,080.

Qualifying

Finishing order

  1. David Pearson
  2. Richard Petty
  3. Buddy Baker
  4. Gordon Johncock
  5. Benny Parsons
  6. Dave Marcis
  7. Vic Parsons
  8. Marty Robbins
  9. Dick Brooks
  10. Joe Frasson
  11. David Sisco
  12. James Hylton
  13. Cecil Gordon
  14. G.C. Spencer
  15. Roy Mayne
  16. Elmo Langley
  17. Dean Dalton
  18. Buddy Arrington
  19. Frank Warren
  20. Lennie Pond
  21. Larry Smith
  22. Raymond Williams
  23. Henley Gray
  24. Bill Champion
  25. Darrell Waltrip
  26. Walter Ballard
  27. Richard Childress
  28. Donnie Allison
  29. Ed Negre
  30. Bobby Allison
  31. Jabe Thomas
  32. Jim Vandiver
  33. John Sears
  34. Ed Sczech
  35. Dick Simon
  36. Cale Yarborough
  37. A. J. Foyt
  38. Coo Coo Marlin
  39. Bobby Isaac
  40. J.D. McDuffie

    Timeline

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