In the years since, we’ve seen plenty of presidential candidates — and on a few occasions, a sitting president — come to Daytona on race day hoping some of that NASCAR-man-of-the-people glow would stick to him.
But there’s no overstating how big of a deal it was, 40 years ago today, when Ronald Reagan visited the Fourth of July Firecracker 400 during the run-up to his landslide re-election victory over Walter Mondale.
We’ve seen Air Force One land a few times beyond the backstretch and across the street at the local airport. But we first saw it that day in ’84, while the race was ongoing, and that picture’s long-lasting appeal — particularly to locals — speaks volumes on what a different world we inhabit just four decades later.
For starters, Reagan, in his official role as Grand Marshall, gave the starting command via rotary telephone from some 30,000 feet while en route to Daytona Beach.
“I thought it was unbelievable … That was a technology wonder in those days,” recalls former News-Journal colleague Godwin Kelly, who was three years into his longtime role of motorsports editor back then.
THE GREAT AMERICAN BOOKCelebrate the fast-paced history of the Daytona 500 with this new book
Once on site, Reagan was ushered to an upstairs suite atop the Campbell grandstands, which were roughly a dozen stories shorter than the current setup — it was four years before the old Winston Tower added a lot of height to the tri-oval bleachers.
At the Speedway, the “modern technology” of those days gave way to time-tested security procedures.
“Once the president was on Speedway property, the press box was locked down,” says Godwin, who was among those who went through a pre-race security gauntlet that included bag checks, metal detectors and, for good measure, a wanding. “I’d never experienced security so tight.”
In the run-up several weeks prior, Secret Service had spelled out the special details to second-generation NASCAR/Daytona boss Bill France Jr., who balked at the idea of bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling the infield entrances. He learned that the Secret Service takes zero chances in such settings, and how the grandstand suites were easily reachable for a close-range rocket.
Bill Jr., who’d be seated alongside the president on race day, said, “Bring all the dogs you want.”
BYE BYEHooters hits the off-ramp; no more Chase Elliott sponsorship in NASCAR, and wings ain’t cheap!
Reagan at the mic: ‘Not very good,’ he confessed
President Reagan was eventually led to the radio broadcast booth to join Ned Jarrett, who anchored the coverage for the Motor Racing Network. A broadcast perch was no stranger to Reagan, who did such things as a young man, but this was far from a summer day at the ballpark.
“I’ve noticed one thing already,” he told Jarrett after introductions. “I’ve been here only a short time, but I’ve noticed that if you’re trying to look at the number on the car, you better look when they’re down the track a ways. You’re not going to see it when they go by here.”
Reagan was his amiable self and though he tried to say the right things when prompted by Jarrett, it became obvious that calling 200-mph traffic is something of an art form, and the president quickly complimented Jarrett for it.
Later, when asked how his radio stint went, the president said, “Not very good.”
“I’m glad when I was a sports announcer it was mainly baseball and football and a few things like swimming,” he said. “I was having an awful lot of laps when I was trying to figure out who was where.”
NASCAR was a different product in 1984
As for the racing product of the day, find a replay and prepare for some culture shock.
What’s that? Sunshine! It was back when Daytona not only still had a July race, but still started it in late morning — a hat-in-hand gesture to the late-afternoon thunderstorm gods around here. Also, lights were still 14 years away.
Yep, that’s ABC’s Jim Lampley on the play-by-play … for a tape-delayed broadcast. Today, many folks tape-delay their sporting events, but on purpose.
Also, this was four years before restrictor-plate racing came to Daytona and Talladega, so you don’t see big packs of equally-hamstrung cars.
It was seven years before pit-road speed limits, and an unrestricted pit lane looks like madness from this distance.
The 1984 season was 19 years before they eliminated “racing back to the yellow” and 20 years before NASCAR adopted the green-white-checkers overtime finish for all of its national circuits. Boy, how those future changes would’ve affected the ’84 Firecracker.
A wreck on Lap 158 (of 160) brought out the yellow as Petty and Cale Yarborough entered Turn 1 and kept the hammers down. The next flag they passed under would be yellow, with just two to go, and essentially end the racing.
Cale passed Petty on the low side entering Turn 3, and Petty tried returning the favor off Turn 4 but only got alongside Cale. And side-by-side they flew to the stripe, with Petty’s boxy Pontiac Grand Prix inches ahead of Cale’s Chevy Monte Carlo.
A sweaty summit …
At the time, we didn’t know it would be the final win of Petty’s unmatched career, but we knew it was No. 200, which called for something beyond the normal post-race choreography. The call went down for Petty to park at the start-finish line and come upstairs to the suite for a celebratory summit between King Richard and President Reagan.
The high temp that day was 87, which means way past 100 inside the cockpit, and after a few hours of that, the King looked much like a peasant just off a day in the field. Between the grease, dirt and endless sweat, you could practically smell him through the TV screen — Reagan, in sharp contrast, was dapper as ever in a summertime sport-coat and dark-blue striped tie.
Obviously, Lampley asked Petty about the significance of winning No. 200 in front of the leader of the free world, and King Richard was quick with the answer.
“Two hundred is very important, but under the circumstances … With all of the presidents there’s been in the United States, this is the first one to show up at the racetrack. I wanted to be the one to welcome him to Grand National racing.”
… and fried chicken
Soon thereafter, Petty would shower, Reagan would lose the tie and loosen his collar, and the two would reunite — among many others — for a late lunch of Kentucky Fried Chicken inside a spacious garage in the track paddock. Beforehand, the President delivered a short and, given the surroundings and the holiday, appropriate speech.
First, regarding his surroundings: “I think I can understand why stock-car racing is so popular. Americans have always cherished mobility, and we greatly admire innovation. And by combining man and machine, stock-car racing brings out the best of both of these American impulses.”
And the holiday: “Our Founding Fathers gave us a wonderful gift 208 years ago — a free country, a country where no one need live in fear, and where everyone can speak and pray and live as he or she sees fit.
“I’m certain that if Jefferson and Adams and Washington were here with us today, they’d be sharing in the festivities. And if Patrick Henry were here, from what I’ve read about him, he’d have been out on the track with one of the cars. Our Founding Fathers were kind of gutsy, and we’d better not forget that.”
While Reagan Republicans and Mondale Democrats have grown as scarce as the July 4 Firecracker 400, the lure of automated mobility, sometimes at speeds stretching the comfort level, seems to have remained in the collective bloodstream. May it forever be so.
— Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com
