The 1979 Daytona 500 was the second race of the 1979 NASCAR Winston Cup (now Sprint Cup) season. It was held on February 18, 1979. Critics consider the 1979 Daytona 500 to be the most important race in stock car history.
The race was Richard Petty's sixth Daytona 500 win. A crash and subsequent fight between leaders Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, along with Donnie's brother Bobby, brought national publicity to NASCAR. Motorsports announcer and editor Dick Berggren said: "Nobody knew it then, but that was the race that got everything going. It was the first 'water cooler' race, the first time people had stood around water coolers on Monday and talked about seeing a race on TV the day before. It took a while – years, maybe – to realize how important it was."
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