According to an old saying : “A picture is worth 1,000 words.”
In this particular instance, this photo was worth more than 1,000 words to Lee Petty.
This picture meant Petty was the winner of that very first Daytona 500 in 1959.
And the photo, which proves Petty was the winner, was taken by T. Taylor Warren, working for Daytona Int’l Speedway at the time.
“I know I wasn’t the only one taking pictures that day of the finish of that race,” Warren, a native of Martinsville, Va., says. “Tippen Davidson of The Daytona (Beach, Fla.) News-Journal was there and so was a photographer by the name of Tom Kendall from Florence, S.C.”
About the finish of that race, Warren, who has continued to photograph NASCAR Nextel Sprint Cup races since then and still does so today, remembers those were the three there at the start-finish line.
“Also down there, out on the track, flagging that finish was Big Bill (William H.G. France, Sr., who had built the 2.5-mile oval as a replacement for his old beach course) and Johnny Bruner, Sr. (the backup flagman).
“Imagine a couple of people standing beside one of these interstates today with all the traffic coming by. That’s what it was like then.
“Well, pretty much none of us could tell who had won that race.
“Bill and Bruner were just as confused.”
Petty was driving the No. 42 Oldsmobile and was hooked up with Johnny Beauchamp, in the No. 73 Thunderbird, down below Petty.
On the high side was Joe Weatherly in the No. 48 Chevrolet. Weatherly was not a factor in the finish, however. He was two laps down.
“Well, right away,” said Warren, “France let us know he wanted our photos of that finish so he and his people could study them. It was so close, I couldn’t tell and the angle you had or were looking from might also be distorting the finish.       
“I sent my photo in. I don’t know who else might have sent photos of the finish to NASCAR.”
Three days later, France, Sr. had his answer.
Lee Petty was declared the winner of that first Daytona 500.
Today, Warren’s photo is a part of the history of NASCAR, on display at the Daytona USA show room at Daytona Int’l Speedway.
T. Taylor Warren has that photo on display for his friends at his house in Martinsville and also at the one in Florence, S.C.
It was finishes like that one which inspired Ken Squier, a television-radio announcer, to later start referring to the Daytona 500 during a CBS television broadcast as the Great American Race.
It’s truly a photo that was worth 1,000 words.