See the Grand National aero warriors go to war in this recap of the 1970 NASCAR National 500 at Charlotte. 

It’s interesting to reflect that one of the most memorable eras in stock car racing lasted barely two years. The age of the NASCAR  “aero warriors,” as they came to be known, began in the 1969 season when the Ford Motor Company rolled out two aerodynamically enhanced, limited-production models, the Torino Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II, and Chrysler introduced the Dodge Charger 500 with similar aerodynamic tricks. Chrysler soon escalated the competition with the radical Charger Daytona, featuring a long, pointy nose and a towering rear wing, followed by a Plymouth variation one year later called the Road Runner Superbird.

NASCAR boss Big Bill France, fearing that stock car racing was losing the plot, placed tough new technical restrictions on these radically restyled machines, effectively ending the epoch of the aero warriors after only two seasons. (Though there was one last gasp at the 1971 Daytona 500.)  While we tend to think of the giant ovals at Daytona and Talladega as the  venues for the aero warriors, they were effective at other tracks as well. For example, at Charlotte in the National 500 in October of 1970—which, as things turned out, was one of the final battles for the NASCAR aerodynamic specials. On this day, the big-winged Mopars faltered and Lee Roy Yarbrough, driving a Mercury for Junior Johnson, collected the victory. This nicely edited five-minute summary (a vintage Falstaff Beer production, it appears) covers the the high points. Video below.