It's not every day there is a reference to Dukes related stuff in a newspaper so I was surprised to see a picture of Cale Yarborough on the front page of the sports section of our local paper (Erie Pa) today. 40 years ago today NASCAR changed forever by going mainstream with the first ever race to be broadcast in its entirety on television. It was the 1979 Daytona 500 and since there was major blizzard up north a lot of folks we're sitting inside watching TV and got exposed to NASCAR for the first time. There were over 15 million viewers. Cale attempted to pass Donnie Allison on the last lap and a crash occured. At the time they were in first and second place. A muddy and bloody fight happened between Cale and Donnie's brother Bobby. The drama couldn't have been better for NASCAR since EVERYBODY was talking about it. That was the day NASCAR went from a southern sport to a national one.