Sunday 17th February 1974

The 1974 Daytona 500, the 16th running of the event, was won by Richard Petty after three hours, eleven minutes, and thirty-eight seconds of racing at Daytona International Raceway in Daytona Beach, Florida, USA. This was his 5th Daytona 500 victory and his second straight win. During the start of the 1974 NASCAR season, many races had their distance cut ten percent in response to the energy crisis of the year. As a result, the race was shortened to 180 laps (450 miles), as symbolically, the race “started” on Lap 21 and the race is often known as the Daytona 450. The Twin 125 qualifying races (won by Bobby Isaac in a Banjo Matthews Chevrolet and Cale Yarborough in the Richard Howard Chevy prepared by Junior Johnson) were also shortened to 45 laps (112.5 miles).