CBS signed a new contract with NASCAR to broadcast the race in full. Booth announcers Ken Squier and David Hobbs called the event, with Ned Jarrett and Brock Yates working the pit lane; other segments were handled by Marianne Bunch-Phelps. The broadcast introduced two innovations that became standard in motorsports coverage: the in-car camera and the low-angle speed shot.
A massive winter storm — the Presidents' Day Snowstorm of 1979 — paralyzed most of the Northeast and parts of the Midwest, keeping millions of viewers indoors who were not part of NASCAR's traditional southeastern base. The race drew a television rating of 10.5 and 16 million viewers, the highest Daytona 500 rating until 2002. Motorsports journalist Dick Berggren later reflected: "Nobody knew it then, but that was the race that got everything going. It was the first 'water cooler' race."
Buddy Baker and Donnie Allison qualified first and second, the only drivers to do so by time trials. Baker won the first qualifying race. Cale Yarborough, Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison, and David Pearson filled the next positions. In the second qualifier, pole-sitter Donnie Allison suffered an engine failure. Darrell Waltrip won the second qualifier. Notable failures to qualify included USAC star Jim Hurtubise and future hall-of-famer Bill Elliott.
The first 15 laps ran under slow green-and-yellow conditions to dry a rain-dampened track, which inadvertently caused Waltrip's camshaft to wear prematurely, leaving him running on seven cylinders for the rest of the afternoon. On lap 31, Donnie Allison lost control on the backstretch, spinning Yarborough and Bobby Allison through the muddy infield and costing all three drivers valuable time. Buddy Baker, the pole-sitter, dropped out on lap 38 with ignition problems later found to be caused by a crew member accidentally reconnecting a defective primary ignition box.
As attrition trimmed the field, Donnie Allison and Yarborough separated themselves from the pack. By lap 178, both were on the lead lap and pulling away from the rest of the field by half a lap. Donnie led through the final laps with Yarborough drafting tightly behind.
On the final lap, Yarborough attempted a slingshot pass on the backstretch. Allison moved to block. Yarborough held his line, and as he came alongside Donnie, his left-side tires dropped into the wet infield grass. He lost control, made contact with Donnie's car, and the two collided three more times before locking together and crashing into the outside wall in turn three. Both cars slid into the infield and came to rest short of the finish line.
Richard Petty, who had been over half a lap behind the two leaders when the crash occurred, drove through undisturbed to claim his sixth Daytona 500 win. He beat Darrell Waltrip to the line by one car length.
As the wrecked cars settled in the infield, Donnie and Yarborough began arguing. Bobby Allison, one lap down at the time, stopped his car at the crash scene to offer his brother a ride back to the garage. Yarborough, blaming Bobby for earlier on-track tensions, struck Bobby in the face with his helmet while Bobby was still seated in his car. Bobby jumped out and struck Yarborough in the mouth.
The confrontation escalated: Yarborough knocked Bobby to the ground and struck him in the back with his helmet. Donnie grabbed Yarborough from behind; Bobby jumped up and threw a punch; safety officials attempted to intervene. The brawl lasted roughly 16 seconds before track marshals separated all three. Television cameras caught most of the fight live and broadcast it to the national audience.
All three drivers — Donnie and Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough — were fined $6,000 each for conduct detrimental to stock car racing. The Allison brothers were initially placed on six months' probation; on appeal, the probation was reduced to three months for all parties, and blame for the crash was amended to be shared equally between Donnie Allison and Yarborough. The story ran on the front page of The New York Times sports section.
The 1979 Daytona 500 is universally credited with accelerating NASCAR's expansion beyond its southeastern roots into a national sport. Its simultaneous delivery of racing drama, human conflict, and sporting unpredictability — all live, on a single broadcast — set a template for what televised motorsport could be.
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