In the fledgling 1960s and 1970s, when motorsports was a sport for people deviled by a passion for danger, Dan Gurney carved himself out as a hero for the American racing dream. Feared by his rivals, revered by his competitors, and outliving almost all his contemporaries, he passed away in 2018 at the age of 86. He left behind a legacy of excellence in every racing discipline he touched, but probably his best was at the revered Riverside Raceway in California.
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The 20th of January marks the 62nd anniversary of his first-ever NASCAR Cup Series (called the Grand National Series back in the day) win at the grueling road course. Gurney ran only 16 NASCAR races in his storied career and won five — achieving every single one of them at the Riverside Raceway.
62 years ago today, Dan Gurney won the 1963 Riverside 500, Gurney’s 1st NASCAR Grand National (Cup) win. pic.twitter.com/N5wnMqlQQx
— Andrew (@Basso488) January 20, 2025
But what allowed him to make one of NASCAR’s most dangerous tracks his playground? “Some people just are good. You can learn to do things, but you have to have some knack for it other than just saying I’m going to do it and don’t know whether you can or not,” said Glen Wood, Gurney’s former team owner.
To put Gurney’s prowess behind the wheel of a Stock Car around Riverside into perspective one only has to look at the lives the track had claimed. While Gurney went on to master every nook, camber, and corner, the likes of Joe Weatherly — a two-time NASCAR champion — found the barriers and succumbed.
Maybe Gurney just had the knack of cheating death and finding the top step of the podium along the way. Or maybe, Gurney was blessed with the god-given right and talent to muscle roaring beasts as a gladiator.
“After all the experience I’ve had over the years watching him and listening to him, that’s so true. You’ll see a guy overdrive, and he pays for it coming off the corner. It’s so important to back off at the right place and get back on the throttle at the right place. He just knew how to do that so well,” adds Wood which proves the latter hypothesis.
One of his contemporaries, and arguably the greatest F1 driver ever, Jim Clark once called him the only driver he feared. And his fear was very well-founded. Today, Gurney stands as one of the first men to win across all the four major racing series in the world: F1, IndyCar, Sports Cars, and NASCAR.
