1979 DAYTON 500...

     Over the years the Dayton Speedway presented varous "signature" events, long distance races that offered relatively big purses to competitors.  In the early days, the big race was the Dayton 100.  Then, as the cars improved, the track featured the Dayton 300.  Finally, the Dayton 500 was presented as the highlight of the racing season.  The first Dayton 500 was held in 1953; the last was held September 25 - 26, 1981.

     Casual race fans who watch the NASCAR Cup gang do 500 laps at Bristol or Martinsville probably won't appreciate what an endurance event the Dayton 500 became towards the end of the track's life.  The track surface was less than perfect and many of the race cars had much more than a few seasons of use when the green flag fell.

     On this page I hope to tell the story of the Dayton 500 events.  Your memories of the event as fan or competitor or track worker are welcome.  You can contact me here.

                                                    ----Mickey 

     The photos here were taken and were provided to DSL by Scott McIlwain.  You can read Scott's story of his visit to Dayton Speedway to see the 500 (it was his one and only visit to the track) here.

     The FODS Nation has answered the call and identification of some of the entrants for the 1979 500 have come in.

     The white car with the blue stripe #15 is Steve Stout, according to Paul Holley whose stepdad Bill Whitmarsh was Stout's mechanic.

     Lee (payback66@aol.com) says that the maroon #0 is Moose Meyers (FODS Gene Ingram agrees) and the red, white, and blue #71 is Bobby Jacks.

     Jon Fannin (jonandsteph8407@aol.com) believes that the #0 is Scott Stovall, the #45 is Dave Jackson, and the #22 is Mick Miller.

     Lee Raymond, Earl Isaacs, Jerry Wahl, and Steve Knisley all have confirmed that the #0 is definitely Scott Stovall in these pictures.

     Jerry Wahl is certain that the gold and white #50 was driven by Ken McEldowney.

     Ron Verash (verash.1916@sbcglobal.net) has helped fill in some of the missing names:

        "The Gold #34 is Fred Reed, Niles, Michigan. The Yellow #1 is Larry Moyer, Fort Wayne. The #30 Spinning is Rudy Stynoski, Chicago. The Brown #10 is Vern Schrock, Middlebury, In. The #70 in the same shot is Larry Brooks, Indy. #19 is Wayne Lensing, Rockford, Ill. Thanks, Ron Verash."

     Thanks, Ron!      Mickey   December 24, 2008

     [Note:  FODS- Your help is needed to identify the competitors in these photos so that I can caption them properly!  Send your answers to me here.  Thanks!   ---Mickey]

     (Above)  That's Cincinnati native Dave Jackson in the orange #45 leading two competitors through the Dayton banking.