1966 Daytona Firecracker 400 ticket and Story

nascarticketstubs

This is the ticket that got it all started for me. This ticket to the 1966 Daytona Firecracker 400 is signed by race winner, Sam McQuagg. 1st and only career Nascar win.

Long story, but here it goes.

My dad grew up in a small country town, Spanishburg, WV. He was in the high school band and they were invited to play in the infield during the 1966 Firecracker 400. This was the very 1st race that he attended. Can you imagine a young high school boy who followed racing as much as he could (magazines, newspaper articles and whatever mention of it on TV) getting to attend a real Nascar race in Daytona? And even more so, getting to play in the marching band before the race right there in the grass at the track? Hearing him tell me the story is so fun... Stopping and eating McDonalds at the time was a big deal in 1966.

Fast forward many years and many many races that he (and later on, we) attended later. He always wanted to find his ticket to this race. I can remember many family gatherings at his old home place, he would finish eating thanksgiving dinner and go out in the old storage building beside the house and desperately look for his ticket, going through books, and possessions that his mom had stacked out there. To no avail.

Then finally after many years of searching, he finally remembered. They didn't have tickets to the race. They were allowed in to the track as guests playing in the band and nobody on that band trip had a ticket. He laughed it off and it was just another cool story that was recited from time to time while we would fish on the lake or walk through the woods on an adventure when I was a little kid.

Fast forward again, years later during my freshman year at college in 1999. I'm trying to find the ultimate gift for christmas for my dad so I get on Ebay (still pretty new at the time) and do some searching. For whatever reason I started looking for memorabilia from the 1966 Daytona race, never expecting to find anything. Amazingly, I find this ticket to the race, signed by race winner Sam McQuagg. I end up buying it for him and hold it for the entire rest of the year, dying to show him, but somehow keeping my mouth shut until christmas.

You have to understand, this man collected everything in the Nascar collecting craze in the 1980's-1990's. Patches, cards, sets, everything. He saved all of his programs and all of his ticket stubs from races he attended, but this was one of a few tickets that he didnt have from a race that he attended. If you could have seen the look on his face when he opened his gift from me and saw that it was a ticket to that race, you would have smiled. Years later as my collection grew, he donated it, as well as tickets to races that he attended to my collection. That's why the collection is so personal to me -- a lot of the tickets in my collection have a very personal story. Tickets to races he attended, my sister attended, her husband, etc. It's part of the reason that makes it so fun, just getting to add a ticket from a race that a family member or myself went to.

Anyways, like I said, it's a long story. Just thought I'd share it.

Tedw9

What a great story!! It's always so much more fun when you can share your collecting passion with someone you love. Awesome story, thanks for sharing!

Ironmanfan

cool story, now if only your dad's name was Glenn........

IMF