Why the 426 Hemi was Banned From Nascar

The 426 Hemi started its journey on the oval tracks in Nascar. After its first year, the 426 Hemi was banned from Nascar, but why?

The 426 Hemi was banned from Nascar in 1965 and 1971 due to Nascar’s newly imposed rules. In 1965 Nascar mandated all engines competing in races must be available in a production vehicle. The Hemi Engine wasn’t produced in Chrysler vehicles at the time forcing Nascar teams not to use them.

In 1971 the 426 Hemi was again banned from being used in their winged aero cars, the Dodge Daytona and Plymouth Superbird. New Nascar rules mandated all aero race cars be limited to an engine no larger than 305 cubic inches. The 426 Hemi was 426 cubic inches banning it from being used in the winged aero race cars.

This article will dive deeper into these two events. In addition, find out why Nascar decided to impose the two rules.

The following specifications and facts were learned from my personal experience and research, Mopar manuals, webinars, videos, books and articles.

A 426 Hemi race car shortly after the ban.

The 1965 426 Hemi Ban

After the 1964 season, Nascar imposed new rules mandating any engine used for racing must be in a production vehicle available to the public. Therefore, the 426 Hemi was banned due to its unavailability in Chrysler production vehicles.

Why did Nascar impose the new rule which banned the 426 Hemi?

The ban of the 426 Hemi for 1965 was imposed for three reasons:

The Hemi equipped race cars were too dominating creating a competitive imbalance.
Complaints from the rival Ford Motor Company and their race teams.
Complaints from the Automobile Manufacturers Association the cars were too fast for safety.

Here’s What Lead to it

Competitive Imbalance

Prior to 1964, the 426 wedge engine wasn’t performing up to the standards of Chrysler. Knowing the limitations of the engine, executives pushed for a new alternative.

This leads to the development of the 426 Race Hemi. The year was 1964 and Ford was dominating in races over 500 miles long, until now.

The Hemi was put into action for the Daytona 500 and won four out of the top five winning positions. Plymouths took the top three spots in the race. Here is the top 10 finishers that day:

Position	Start	#	Driver	Car
1	2	43	Richard Petty	Plymouth
2	6	54	Jimmy Pardue	Plymouth
3	1	25	Paul Goldsmith	Plymouth
4	9	21	Marvin Panch	Ford
5	10	5	Jim Paschal	Dodge
6	21	1	Billy Wade	Mercury
7	11	16	Darel Dieringer	Mercury
8	14	29	Larry Frank	Ford
9	3	3	Junior Johnson	Dodge
10	19	17	Dave MacDonald	Mercury

1964 Daytona 500 Results

Finally, Ford had some stiff competition for the 1964 season. The Hemi won 26 of 62 races for the year and most of the drivers finishing in the top 10 for the season drove either a Dodge or Plymouth.

Not bad considering the introduction of the Hemi at the Daytona 500 was already the 8th race of the season.

The following is the top 10 standings for the 1964 Nascar season:

	Driver	Points	Cars Driven
1	Richard Petty	40,252	Plymouth
2	Ned Jarrett	34,950	Ford
3	David Pearson	32,146	Dodge
4	Billy Wade	28,474	Dodge/Mercury
5	Jimmy Pardue	26,570	Pontiac/Plymouth
6	Curtis Crider	25,606	Mercury/Ford/Plymouth
7	Jim Paschal	25,450	Dodge/Plymouth
8	Larry Thomas	22,950	Dodge/Plymouth/Ford
9	Buck Baker	22,366	Pontiac/Plymouth/Dodge
10	Marvin Panch	21,480	Ford

The top 10 Standings for the 1964 Nascar Season

Ford’s Role

Ford wasn’t happy with the new competition. After all, they were dominating prior to the Hemi’s introduction. It wasn’t only complaints from Ford leading to the ban.

Ford developed a race engine of their own to compete with the mighty elephant. They engineered new heads with hemispherical chambers for their 427.

The engine also had single overhead cams. They went to Nascar for approval. Unfortunately, they were informed the new engine was a race engine unavailable to the public.

For 1965, Ford and Chrysler were informed their race engines would have to be offered as a production option to the public.

Chrysler boycotted the start of the 1965 season. Although Ford continued to race and recaptured their racing domination with the absence of the Hemi.

The ban of the Hemi ended towards the end of the 1965 season. Although they returned with a destroyed 404 cubic inch Hemi engine.

Find out about the mythical 426 Hemi DOHC and its Nascar connection in my article, The 426 Hemi Dual Overhead Cam Engine – The “Doomsday Hemi”

The 1971 426 Hemi Ban

After the 1970 season Nascar imposed a new rule change limiting an aero car to 305 cubic inches. This banned the 426 cubic inch Hemi from being raced in a winged aero car but not from Nascar.

The rule change didn’t ban a winged or aero car but almost every Chrysler and Ford team stopped racing them. This enabled them to keep racing the larger displacement engines.

Brooks was the only driver who continued to race using a winged car, a Dodge Daytona.

The following cars were banned from using an engine larger than 305 cubic inches:

Dodge Daytona
Plymouth Superbird
Ford Torino Talladega
Mercury Spoiler ll
Dodge Charger 500

Why did Nascar impose the 305 cubic inch limits on aero cars?

Nascar wanted to keep the quick evolving top speed advancements under control. The introduction of the aero cars increased top speeds drastically in a short time frame.

Find out the real reasons why it’s called the elephant engine in my article, Why the 426 Hemi is Called the Elephant Engine.

Here’s What Lead to the 1971 Rule Change

Ford started to race their versions of aero cars first in 1969. The Ford Torino Talladega and the Mercury Cyclone Spoiler ll. The aerodynamics was much better than Dodge Chargers and swayed Richard Petty over to Ford.

Ford was once again dominating the ovals with these slick cars. Dodge attempted to counter with the Charger 500. It corrected many of the failed aerodynamics of the regular Charger.

Even though Dodge saw an improvement, it wasn’t enough and they weren’t finished trying. Later in 1969 they came out with the first winged car, the Dodge Daytona.

Although it was too late to salvage the whole racing season, Dodge won seven of the last eleven races. Chrysler, the winged cars and the Hemi were once again dominating.

In 1970 Plymouth produced their winged warrior, the Plymouth Superbird. This was enough to sway Richard Petty back to Plymouth once again.

Dodge and Plymouth won 19 consecutive races in 1970 and dominated the season standings shown below.

	Driver	Points	Cars Driven
1	Bobby Isaac	3,911	Dodge
2	Bobby Allison	3,860	Dodge/Plymouth
3	James Hylton	3,788	Dodge/Plymouth/Ford
4	Richard Petty	3,447	Plymouth
5	Neil Castles	3,158	Dodge
6	Elmo Langley	3,154	Ford/Mercury
7	Jabe Thomas	3,120	Plymouth
8	Benny Parsons	2,993	Ford
9	Dave Marcis	2,820	Dodge/Chevy/Ford
10	Frank Warren	2,697	Plymouth

The Top 10 Standings for 1970 Nascar Season

In 1970 Buddy Baker was the first to set an official lap speed record over 200 mph while driving a Dodge. Towards the end of the year, Bobby Isaac set a new speed record of 201.104 mph also with a Dodge winged car.

Here’s a video of Buddy Baker below.

Buddy Baker breaking 200 mph for the first time.

Let’s settle the score about which one is faster in my article, The 426 Hemi vs The 440 Six pack: Which is Faster?

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