1. and that's why they introduced brakes for the following season
2. rest good don.....:(
3. @Culiver51 I thought it was Madison, Florida. There is a chapter of this incident in Ed Hinton's book, Daytona.
4. @mkl62 Idk they were pretty safe for what they had back then. But you gotta remember he had a car goin 200 mph hitting him going through 1.5" tubing rupturing a .125" thick fuel cell full of racing gas.
5. @bmak07 being kept alive by machines.
6. @germanshepard44 no, there wasn't, in-car radio didn't come about til 82.
7. Crazy nascar drivers! Even with 342 crashing cars in front of it, they dont stop pushing!
8. rip
9. Oh my god, that was terrible. What a huge impact. You could think, the incoming driver was blind as he hits the car, which he should have see. Sad to hear, the injured driver was in vegetated state for ten years. No one´s live should have an end this way.
10. Also this was the beginning of the race and the cars were full of fuel when the incident happened. Now these days those race cars have fuel cells, bladders and lines that prevented such fires as the one back in 1979.
11. nope
12. It wasnt the car the exploded. in the extended video you see him get out of the car. It was another car the hit the wall behind all of this
13. Williams was not one of the main cars you see in the video, according to commentary on another video, his car hit the wall behind the explosion while trying to avoid it and entered the grass area (it can be seen above the car that 2 wheels on top of another, his car is going backwards, at about the :19 - :20 area of this clip)
14. Were there no spotters back then
15. ummmm... not on the straightaway where there is less to no banking lol. Regardless... this was in a much different time in racing. It is likely the caution wasn't even out yet when this happened because only one or two cars were involved. Up until the mid 90s, it took more than a car or two spinning to bring out the yellow. They usually had to be obviously disabled, or debris had to be on the track.
16. Yes he was, he was my moms brother.
17. So you are saying Don was youre uncle?!
18. He was in a vegetated state for 10 years. We do not know if he was aware of what happen to him. I can only pray he didn't. He lived at my grandparents house in a hospital bed with a full time nurse. He basically died that day, doing what he loved!! Now the love of racing lives on in my children.
19. no you lay on the gas and take the high side because theoretically gravity pulls the crash to the bottom due to the bank at speedways
20. was he in a coma????? How did he die 10 years later
21. well yes now its a rule in NASCAR that as soon as a wreck happens the field is frozen. but back then they were allowed to finish the lap before taking the yellow. the rules in place now to prevent things like this. just for the record this wreck reminds me of tetsuya ota's wreck at fuji
22. was he in a coma?
23. Gosh aren't you supposed to slow down when you see a wreck not keep going the same speed and try to avoid it?
24. he died 10 years later, wtf?
25. Absofreakinglutely, the more space between the cars (as in the faster cars being able to pass and move away) the less chance of 10-20 car pile ups, ummm, yeah, less people in each accident=less numbers added into chance of death equation, freak accidents can and will allways happen, if the driver has the guts to push a car past it's limits let him, thats what racing is akll about

1979 NASCAR DonWilliams Huge crash

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17.Feb.1979 NASCAR Sportsman Race. Sportsman 300 (Daytona International Speedway) He died from this accident after ten years(21.May.1989). ** The comment column was corrected ** SeanPuffyCombs9 Redneck13Leon13 Thanks!
Tags: 1979 nascar crash don williams daytona