| Year: | 1975 |
| Type: | NASWINSTON |
| Race No: | 2 |
| Season No: | 30 |
| Distance Laps: | 200 |
| Distance Mi: | 500 |
| Distance Km: | 804.672 |
| Weather: | Temperatures of 82.9F; wind speeds of 13mph[1] |
| Pole Driver: | Donnie Allison |
| Pole Team: | DiGard Motorsports |
| Duel1: | Bobby Allison |
| One Team: | Penske Racing |
| Duel2: | David Pearson |
| Two Team: | Wood Brothers Racing |
| Most Driver: | David Pearson |
| Most Team: | Wood Brothers Racing |
| Most Laps: | 74 |
| Car: | 72 |
| First Driver: | Benny Parsons |
| First Team: | L.G. DeWitt |
| Network: | ABC's Wide World of Sports |
| Announcers: | Bill Flemming Jackie Stewart |
The 1975 Daytona 500, the 17th running of the event on February 16, 1975, was a race in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.
From the start, it appeared that David Pearson was on his way to his first Daytona 500 victory as he built a sizable lead on second place Benny Parsons late in the race. However, Richard Petty, eight laps behind the leaders due to a leaking radiator which needed frequent pit stops to replenish, and Parsons hooked up in a draft and began reeling in Pearson who was slowed by lapped traffic. The key moment of the race occurred two laps from the end when contact with Cale Yarborough in traffic sent Pearson spinning on the backstretch. Parsons avoided the accident and went on to take the win.[2]
One of the things that set up the late incident that cost David Pearson the race was that Cale Yarborough was running on 7 cylinders. On the final restart, Cale was placed in front of the leaders, on the end of the lead lap, but the power deficit he was at resulted in the leaders lapping him in less than 25 laps. When Pearson caught up to Yarborough and Richie Panch, Yarborough was trying to slip in behind Pearson and simply misjudged it. Of course, another was the role Richard Petty played. Even in a two-car draft with Ramo Stott (who barely missed the massive lap 4 crash), Parsons was losing ground to Pearson, who was content to draft A.J. Foyt, but Foyt dropped out with nine laps left while running third, not long after Petty got back onto the track after his final pit stop, and where he came out was a stroke of luck for Parsons and Stott, because he came out exactly where they were running.[2]
As per the list below, 26 of the 40 drivers failed to finish the race for various reasons, including a huge crash on the fourth lap, which took out nine cars, nearly one-quarter of the field.[2]
West Coast ace Hershel McGriff's third and final Daytona 500 ends with a blown motor on lap 13. Bruce Jacobi would debut in this race, finishing in 12th place after qualifying in 39th place.[2]
Among those involved were famous country music singer Marty Robbins, who also crashed out of the 1973 Daytona 500.
At the time, it was the biggest crash in terms of the number of cars involved in race history. Donnie Allison started on the pole, but only led the first lap and was sidelined by mechanical problems, as was DiGard Racing teammate Johnny Rutherford, the reigning Indianapolis 500 champion. Another that failed to finish was Buddy Baker, who led 46 laps. As a result, a record-low 14 cars, including that of Pearson, were classified as running at the finish.[2]
None of the 40 cars in this year's Daytona 500 had a single-digit car number.[2]
Note: * denotes that the driver failed to finish the race.
| Pos | Driver | Points | Differential | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bobby Allison | 355 | 0 | |
| 2 | David Pearson | 345 | -10 | |
| 3 | Dave Marcis | 310 | -45 | |
| 4 | Richard Petty | 302 | -53 | |
| 5 | James Hylton | 284 | -71 | |
| 6 | Cecil Gordon | 283 | -72 | |
| 7 | Benny Parsons | 271 | -84 | |
| 8 | Ed Negre | 259 | -96 | |
| 9 | Richard Childress | 239 | -116 | |
| 10 | Hershel McGriff | 207 | -148 |