Qualifying Cotton Owens had the fastest qualifying lap, at . The race had one qualifying race for
Convertibles and one for the hardtop Grand National cars.
Bob Welborn, winner of the Grand National qualifying race earlier in the week, started on the
pole position.
Shorty Rollins won the Convertible qualifying race and started second. Twenty of the 59 cars in the Daytona 500 were convertibles. On February 21st, there was a Consolation race where the winner would be added to the field. Jack Smith was the winner.
Race There were no caution periods in the race; making it one of the few "clean races" in NASCAR history, though it would occur in three of the first four Daytona 500s, as the Daytona 500 also went caution-free in both 1961 and 1962. This would be repeated ten years later with the
1969 Motor Trend 500. On the morning of the race, Bob Welborn's chief mechanic,
Paul McDuffie, discovered a rocker arm bolt off-center and knew the engine wouldn't last the entire race. McDuffie said, "We didn't have time to fix it because we would have had to install a new head. We didn't locate the trouble until we made a last minute check on the valves. That head was the only thing in the engine I didn't build. It was a factory head." Welborn led the early laps in the race but his race ended after 75 laps (of 200) with engine problems. Other leaders in the first 22 laps of the race were
"Tiger" Tom Pistone and
Joe Weatherly.
Fireball Roberts took over the lead on lap 23, leading the next 20 laps before dropping out on lap 57 due to a broken fuel pump. When Roberts went to the pits on lap 43,
Johnny Beauchamp, running in second place, became the leader. On lap 50, Pistone took over first place and Jack Smith moved into second; Beauchamp was third and Lee Petty was fifth. From lap 43 to 148, the race leaders were Pistone, Smith, and Beauchamp. Although Smith and Pistone led most of these laps, Beauchamp led a few times, for example records show he led on lap 110. There is print information about the details of the race, including the leaders of the race in five-lap intervals. Pistone and
Jack Smith both had dropped out of contention by lap 149 and Beauchamp took over first place. .
Richard Petty also had to retire from the race with an engine problem and earned $100 ($ when adjusted for inflation) for his 57th-place performance. Lee Petty battled with Beauchamp during the final 30 laps of the race, and they were the only two drivers to finish on the lead lap. Petty took the lead with three laps left and led at the start of the final lap. Petty and Beauchamp drove side by side across the finish line at the end final lap for a
photo finish. Beauchamp was declared the unofficial winner by NASCAR officials, and he drove to victory lane. Petty protested the results, saying "I had Beauchamp by a good two feet. In my own mind, I know I won." The controversial finish helped the sport. The delayed results to determine the official winner kept NASCAR and the Daytona 500 on the front page of newspapers. ==Official results==