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Dale Earnhardt Jr has claimed that the 1979 NASCAR season was the most important season in the sport's history. Junior based his arguments on the perfect storm of events that occurred during the year which is significant for American stock car racing.
One of the milestone events of the season was the Daytona 500, which went down in history books as the first-ever televised NASCAR race. At the same time, a snowstorm on the east coast kept most people indoors further increasing the viewership for the event.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. elucidated that this perfect scenario introduced NASCAR to a much larger audience than ever before. Speaking about the significance of the historic event, the Hall of Famer said on his podcast Dale Jr Download:
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"The 1979 NASCAR season was the most important season in NASCAR history. This snowstorm on the east coast that has everybody stuck in the house. The first flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500 on a network television. You had what three channels? Every third house was on the street at least was on the Daytona 500."
"They had 16 million or something people watch that race. It was just this perfect sort of scenario, all the dominoes set up perfectly and all fell perfectly." he added.
Richard Petty won the milestone race, while another gripping storyline captured the audience's attention. The heated battle between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison on the track transformed into a violent altercation in the infield where Bobby Allison joined to aid his brother.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also has a personal connection to this particular season as his father was in his rookie year.
"And dad's having his very first year, you know dad's a rookie. We know what kind of career he had. The King Richard Petty is winning the Daytona 500 and Cale Yarborough is trying to win his fourth championship in a row and you have 'JAWS' Darrell Waltrip just... so many cool things happening all at once." he further added.
As with many other sports, live TV coverage made NASCAR more accessible to the people, bringing in a new audience for the racing series.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. reveals his 2023 Cup Series championship favorites
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has backed JGR veteran Martin Truex Jr. over William Byron for this year's championship. Despite Byron having double the wins of the #19 Toyota driver, Junior believes Truex Jr. has a better shot at the title at this point in time.
"Um, that’s the question I think we need to ask is if you know William Byron… If he’s not the champion favorite then who is? I’ll be honest with you man in my opinion it’s Martin Truex Jr…" he said on his podcast.
However, Dale Earnhardt Jr. still has confidence in his early season pick Ryan Blaney to win the title.
"I picked, we picked Ryan Blaney to win the championship and I still am not ready to change my mind. Just yet." Junior added.
It will be interesting to see how this prediction fares at the championship this year.
