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III EMPIRE OF DIRT
BY STEVE COX
O
ver the years, Daytona
International Speedway
has proven itself to be
not just a place where legends
are made, but a place where a
remarkable number of first-time,
and only-time winners have been
crowned, as well. And I'm not
just talking about supercross
(although primarily I am).
In NASCAR's premier series,
for example, AJ Foyt won his
first-ever race at the 1964 Fire-
cracker 400 on the high-banked,
2.5-mile Daytona oval. Mario
Andretti won his only NASCAR
event at the 1967 Daytona 500.
Derrike Cope won the Daytona
500 in 1990 after Dale Earn-
hardt cut a tire on the last lap. It
was Cope's first top-five finish in
NASCAR. (He won only one oth-
er race his entire career, which
was at Dover later that same
year.) The Daytona 500 also
marked the first wins for Sterling
Marlin in 1994 (he repeated in
1995), Michael Waltrip in 2001,
and Trevor Bayne in 2011.
And when we move to two
wheels, there are similar stories,
including Don Emde's 1972 Day-
tona 200 win. It was the only win
in history by a privateer (at least
during the years the factories
were participating), the first win
on a Yamaha (the Tuning-Fork
crew ended up winning the next
12 Daytona 200s, which is a
record unlikely to be topped),
the smallest-displacement
motorcycle ever to win (a 350cc
twin, designed specifically for
the Daytona 200), and between
Don Emde and his father Floyd,
they became the only father-son
duo ever to win the Daytona 200
(Floyd Emde won it when it was
held on the beach in 1948).
As we stick with two wheels
and enter the dirt of the Daytona
THE MAGIC OF DAYTONA
Justin Brayton
joins the list of first-
timers at Daytona.
