[Racer Duck]

Johnny Rutherford is a familiar name to American race fans as a three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, 1980 CART champion and 27-time winner in Indy-car racing competition. But while he made his name racing IndyCars, the current driver of the IndyCar Series pace car got his break at the 1963 Daytona 500.

Smokey Yunick owned and prepared the 1961 and 1962 Daytona 500-winning Pontiacs for Marvin Panch and Fireball Roberts from his "Best Damn Garage" in Daytona Beach, Fla. The garage legend has it that the mechanical genius felt his cars were so good, he could win the Daytona 500 with an unknown driver behind the wheel.

Of course, Yunick did his homework before calling the 24-year-old Texan, who raced IMCA and USAC Sprint Cars in 1962.



"Smokey watched me at some of my sprint car races and he liked what he saw," Rutherford said. "He called me and said he wanted an unknown to drive his car at Daytona. I was a sprint car racer then, coming out of IMCA sprint cars, and I had never been in a late model before or on a track bigger than a mile."

Johnny Who? quickly made a name for himself when he ran the fastest lap in qualifying for the Daytona 500 with a record lap of 165.183 mph. Starting the second 100-mile qualifying race from the fifth row, he ran down 1960 NASCAR champion Rex White with five laps remaining to win in his first NASCAR start.

"It was quite an experience for this young Texan to go to Daytona and race," Rutherford said. "Of course, I had Smokey Yunick's Chevrolet, and that gave me a little bit of an edge. I won a 100-miler qualifying race, that's something I'm very proud of. I'm one of six drivers to win the first race they ran in the history of NASCAR."

Rutherford played a waiting game in the Daytona 500, running on the lead lap. A wind gust caught his car late in the race and he grazed the Turn 2 wall, resulting in a pit stop that cost him four laps. He hung on to finish ninth.

"That was a great experience," Rutherford said. "It boosted my stock. It got me a test at Indianapolis."

The rest, as they say, is history — but it might not have happened if not for a gamble by a legendary mechanic and a solid performance at Daytona for an "unknown" Texan.