Combining the last three posts:
1965 was the year Chrysler pulled out of Nascar. The 426 hemi dominated the 1964 racing season and Nascar banned it for '65 as a non-production engine so the Chrylser factory teams were ordered to sit out most of the season.
Petty did do a bit of drag racing in '65 in a hemi-powered Barracuda and he did crash and kill someone in the stands. I forget the details but it might have been at Bristol?? and I believe the wreck was casused by a suspension component failure.
Chrylser started producing the street hemi in '66 so Nascar was back on.
In early 1969, Dodge was getting spanked by the Torinos so they came out with the Charger 500 followed by the Daytona. Petty, being a Plymouth driver, didn't get a version of the Daytona and Chrysler wouldn't let him switch to Dodge so he defected to Ford for the remainder of the season. He came back to Plymouth in 1970 when they got their aero car, the Superbird.
1965 was the year Chrysler pulled out of Nascar. The 426 hemi dominated the 1964 racing season and Nascar banned it for '65 as a non-production engine so the Chrylser factory teams were ordered to sit out most of the season.
Petty did do a bit of drag racing in '65 in a hemi-powered Barracuda and he did crash and kill someone in the stands. I forget the details but it might have been at Bristol?? and I believe the wreck was casused by a suspension component failure.
Chrylser started producing the street hemi in '66 so Nascar was back on.
In early 1969, Dodge was getting spanked by the Torinos so they came out with the Charger 500 followed by the Daytona. Petty, being a Plymouth driver, didn't get a version of the Daytona and Chrysler wouldn't let him switch to Dodge so he defected to Ford for the remainder of the season. He came back to Plymouth in 1970 when they got their aero car, the Superbird.
