1963 Daytona 500

1963 Daytona 500

Race details
Race 7 of 55 in the 1963 NASCAR Grand National Series season
1963 Daytona 500 program cover
Date	February 24, 1963 (1963-02-24)
Location	Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.5 mi (4.023 km)
Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (800 km)
Average speed	151.556 mph (243.906 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Fireball Roberts	Banjo Matthews
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner	Junior Johnson	Ray Fox
Duel 2 Winner	Johnny Rutherford	Smokey Yunick
Most laps led
Driver	Fred Lorenzen	Holman-Moody
Laps	77
Winner
No. 21 Ford	Tiny Lund	Wood Brothers Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ABC's WWOS
Announcers	Bill Flemming and Chris Economaki

The 1963 Daytona 500, the 5th running of the event held on February 24, 1963, was won by Tiny Lund driving a 1963 Ford. Lund drove his number 21 to victory in three hours and 17 minutes. There were 2 cautions flags which slowed the race for 10 laps.^[1]

Weather played a critical role in Tiny Lund winning this race; with temperatures reaching up to 75 °F (24 °C) and wind speeds up to 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).^[2] Lund won by making only four pit stops, but he would not have been able to make the distance on four pit stops had the first ten laps not been run under caution to dry the track from earlier rains. Had the race not started under caution, Lund would have had to make five pit stops, just as Fred Lorenzen and Ned Jarrett did. He was able to win on four pit stops alone because of the slow start time.