Sunday 19th February 1961

Joe Weatherly won the inaugural 10 lap ‘American Challenge Cup’ race at Daytona International Speedway. The race was open only to winners of NASCAR Grand National “superspeedway” races. Weatherly drew the pole, but had only led lap 1 until making an outside move to beat Fireball Roberts to the line by 3 feet. Junior Johnson finished 3rd and Cotton Owens 4th giving Pontiac a sweep of the top 4. Weatherly averaged 154.905 mph for the 9 minute, 41 second race. 11 of the 17 eligible drivers competed.