This was Nascar's version of "The Day the Music Died". I can remember exactly where I was as a kid of fourteen when the news came over my brand new pocket transistor radio. The Clown Prince of Stock Car Racing ( 2 time champion Joe Weatherly)and the sport's first superstar, both gone within a six month period.
Wonder how different racing would have become if Bill France hadn't made Ralph Moody tear out that first "fuel cell" tank in '64 because it wasn't "stock" while leaving those non-production Hemis in the Mopars because he knew what a Chrysler boycott would do to the "gate". Sad thing is that is happened anyway the next season.