1977 Firecracker 400

Race details
Race 16 of 30 in the 1977 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
1977 Firecracker 400 program cover
Date	July 4, 1977 (1977-July-04)
Official name	Firecracker 400
Location	Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
Course	Permanent racing facility 2.500 mi (4.023 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643 km)
Weather	Extremely hot with temperatures of 90.9 °F (32.7 °C); wind speeds of 12 miles per hour (19 km/h)[1]
Average speed	142.716 miles per hour (229.679 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Neil Bonnett	Jim Stacy Racing
Most laps led
Driver	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
Laps	95
Winner
No. 43	Richard Petty	Petty Enterprises
Television in the United States
Network	ABC (tape delay)
Announcers	Keith Jackson

The 1977 Firecracker 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place on July 4, 1977, at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

For the first time since 1949, three women raced in an official NASCAR Cup Series race: Italian Lella Lombardi, Belgian Christine Beckers, and American Janet Guthrie. Lella Lombardi was the only woman to score points in F1 and NASCAR. Lombardi is actually the only F1 driver ever to have a career total of less than one point. One driver scored one-seventh of a point in one season (for sharing a fastest lap, recorded only down to the second, with six others) but scored 51 more in other years.

A racing grid of 41 drivers competed in this race; including Belgian driver Christine Beckers and Italian Lella Lombardi. D.K. Ulrich would finish last due to an engine problem on the fourth lap. Janet Guthrie was the only American-born female driver on the grid. While A. J. Foyt, Cale Yarborough, Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip would lead the opening laps of the race, Donnie Allison and Richard Petty would fight it out for supremacy in the crucial final laps.^[2]

Lombardi and Beckers were invited by NASCAR with the idea to pit the three women against each other on the track. Lella Lombardi and Christine Beckers raced as teammates in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, finishing just outside the top-10 in their Ford-powered entry, three weeks before this race then raced against each other here.

Richard Petty would go on to defeat Darrell Waltrip by 18 seconds in front of 65,000 people; marking the final win for Richard Petty in his trusty 1974 Dodge Charger. Engine problems knocked most of the drivers out of the race. Neil Bonnett would win the pole position with a qualifying speed of 187.191 miles per hour (301.255 km/h) while the speed of the race was 147.216 miles per hour (236.921 km/h).^[2]

There was two-hour rain delay two laps before halfway. There was a storm covering from the tri-oval over the first and second turns for about two hours while the third and fourth turns were in sunshine due to the incessant hot and humid weather of Florida during the summer months.

Most of the vehicles at this event were Dodge or Chevrolet with some Ford vehicles and a single entry by an AMC Matador.^[2] Winnings for this race ranged from $19,075 ($95,909 when adjusted for inflation) for the winner to $1,390 for last-place. ($6,989 when adjusted for inflation).^[3] Ramo Stott would retire from professional stock car racing after this event.^[4]

Pos	Driver	Points[2]	Differential
1	Cale Yarborough	2630	0
2	Richard Petty	2613	-17
3	Benny Parsons	2426	-206
4	Darrell Waltrip	2315	-315
5	Buddy Baker	2196	-434
6	Dick Brooks	1992	-638
7	Cecil Gordon	1933	-697
8	Richard Childress	1851	-779
9	David Pearson	1809	-821
10	James Hylton	1726	-904