It made NASCAR executives nervous and it turned engineers and drivers into generals at war. Ford and Chrysler both wanted NASCAR track dominance, and both were hell-bent on getting there one way or another. Neither were above trickery. Both manufacturers had absolute hammers for engines…Ford had the 429 and Ma Mopar had the Hemi. But there was more at play than sheer horsepower and a desire to put the other team six feet under in the name of glory, prize money and sales on Monday. Both Ford and Chrysler had figured out aerodynamics and were putting the witchcraft of air flow to good use. 1970 would be the last year that the Aero Wars would be going in full-force…nervous about the speeds that cars were reaching and concerned for driver’s safety…yeah, that’s it…NASCAR clamped down hard on aero-tweaked homologation specials for 1971, limiting their engines to 305 cubic inches. Dick Brooks tried his best to work with a Daytona, but by 1972 it was evident that most would rather give up the aero advantage for the brute force of the bigger engines.

We tell the tales, we know the cars, we’ve even elevated Richard Petty’s Superbird to being the star of a kid’s movie as a more-or-less caricature of himself. But actually seeing Wing Cars and Talladegas in action is gone by about a half-century at this point. Let’s go back to when the wars were in full swing with this clip of action at the 1970 Motor State 400 in Michigan. Note how the Mopars seem to be right up front and playing by their lonesome, excepting Cale Yarborough, who is working the race from a technical standpoint: