Notes:
Don Williams never recovered from injuries suffered in a crash at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, 17 February 1979, during a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division race. He remained in a semi-comatose state until his death 10 years later.

Gordon Lee Williams, Jr., who was known as "Don", was the son of Gordon Lee, Sr. and Robbie Lee Williams, née Hewitt. A native of Florida, he graduated from Florida State University and worked as a hardware salesman for a ball-bearing company.

Don Williams had been a race car driver for about seven years, driving on short tracks. Although he had never raced on a paved track, in 1979 he planned to compete in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman Division driving a yellow Chevrolet Chevelle #68. This series, later called the XFINITY Series, competed on superspeedways such as Daytona, Talladega and Charlotte as well as shorter tracks. The contests were typically held on the Saturday before the Winston Cup event on Sunday. So the Sportsman 300 was held at Daytona International Speedway on a Saturday in February of 1979. Since this was the first race of the season, it was Williams' first time on the asphalt track of a 2.5-mile (4.0-kilometer) super speedway. Don Williams had never raced on a track larger than a half-mile.

Driving proved to be hazardous because of the rains preceding the start. During the fourth lap of the race, Don Williams was involved in a fiery multi-car pile-up. It is believed that Jack Ingram in his Ford Torino #94 may have caused the accident by blowing an engine. Ingram was not involved in the accident itself, but oil from his engine made the track even slicker. As the field was rounding turn two, the #50 Mercury of Joe Frasson from Pauline, SC, hit the outside wall, collided with the Chevrolet #43 of Freddie Smith of Spartanburg, SC, and burst into flames. As Frasson was getting out of his wrecked car it was struck by Delma Cowart's #09 Chevrolet so hard that the twenty-two gallon (83.3 liter) fuel tank was ruptured and exploded. Flames billowed 100 feet (30 meters) in the air. Frasson ran to the infield, with his face and eyes burned, while other competitors narrowly missed him. Behind his mangled car there was chaos on the track.

Freddie Smith's blue car that had come to a standstill in the banked curve, was hit from behind by Don Williams, who was spinning around. There are various versions about Williams' car crashing into the wall before its rear struck Smith's car, shearing off the front of it. According to The Sarasota Herald-Tribune, issue of 18 February 1979, Williams nearly stopped in the middle of the track trying to avoid the inferno, and was slammed into by another car that didn't slow down. The Miami News, issue of 16 July 1980, indicated that Williams' car swung high and scraped the outside wall, before spinning and bouncing around. His Chevelle which was not badly damaged, came to rest into the infield amid a shower of flying debris. The other vehicles involved in the accident were Dennis Bennett's #96 Pontiac Ventura, Red Farmer's #31 Chevrolet, and Buddy Byles' #4 Mercury.

Don Williams' involvement in the crash appeared to be minor, his car had the rear window smashed out and had a crunched front fender. But the car's impacts did not seem to be hard enough to cause severe injuries, apparently the driver was hit by flying debris from one of the other vehicles. Track emergency workers found him unconscious, his goggles and helmet reportedly being still in place, bleeding profusely from his ears and nose.

Except for Williams, who was carried to an ambulance and rushed to hospital, all the other drivers were able to walk away from the crash. Joe Frasson was treated for facial burns and a contusion of his right knee, and released from the speedway's infield care center. Red Farmer of Hueytown, AL, sustained leg and ankle burns, two other drivers suffered minor injuries.

The race was slowed down for about 30 minutes while the track being cleared. Racing then resumed but the event was shortened because of rain after 172.5 miles (277.6 meters), on 69th of the scheduled 120 laps. Darrell Waltrip was declared the winner, followed by Sterling Marlin and Ray Hendrick, all driving Chevrolets.

In the accident Williams received multiple bruises, a broken arm and severe head injuries, including a frontal laceration and a hairline skull fracture. Falling into a semi-comatose state, he remained for three months in the Halifax Hospital Medical Center's intensive care unit and then was transferred to the Madison County Memorial Hospital in the North Florida town of Madison, where he resided. Later he was released to stay at his family home where he received around the clock medical attention by his parents and by his sisters Wanda and Sheryl, who lived in Atlanta, GA. He remained in this state for more than ten years, surviving a near-fatal bout with pneumonia and then a gradual failing of his health, until he passed away on Sunday, 21 May 1989, at Perry Health Facility in Perry, Taylor County, Florida.

Don Williams is buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Madison, FL, along with his father, who died a year before Don, and his devoted mother Robbie, who died three years later at age 83.

According to The Spartanburg Herald-Journal issue of 19 March 1989, the delay by NASCAR in returning Don's helmet to the family for weeks after the accident, kept Williams' mother and sisters suspicious. Even though it returned apparently undamaged, they believed that the driver was hit in the head by a flying part from another car through the rear window of his car, and doubted that the returned helmet, unmarked, was the original. It was Don's frontal laceration and fracture that family members said had left them wondering many years, for it was in a place his helmet normally would have covered.

• Florida Death Index, 1877-1998.
• U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.
• 1910 United States Federal Census.
• 1920 United States Federal Census.
• 1940 United States Federal Census.
• Magazine Autosprint, issue of 27 February 1979.
• Magazine Stock Car Racing, year 1979.
• Newspaper Florence Times Tri-Cities Daily (Florence, AL, United States), issue of Sunday, 18 February 1979, page 50, article "Rain Mars Sportsman's Race", United Press International wire story. [E2]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Sunday, 18 February 1979, page 1, article "Fiery Speedway crash!". [E1]
• Newspaper Sarasota Herald-Tribune (Sarasota, FL, United States) issue of Sunday, 18 February 1979, page 1-C, article "Driver Critically Injured In 8-Car Daytona Crackup", by Jim Achenbach. [E1]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States) issue of Monday, 05 March 1979, page 1B, article "Williams In Coma After Sportsman 300 Crash: Racing Driver's Family Keeps Vigil At Hospital Bedside", by Bob Ford. [E1]
• The Valdosta Daily Times (Valdosta, GA, United States), issue of Monday, 16 April 1979, article "Madison Driver Remains in the Daytona Hospital" by Mike Hagood.
• Newspaper St. Petersburg Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL, United States), issue of Thursday, 05 July 1979, page 4-C, article "Williams now at home", Associated Press wire story. [E1]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Wednesday, 26 September 1979, page 7-B, article "Don Williams Fund Started". [E1]
• Newspaper St. Petersburg Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL, United States), issue of Friday, 15 February 1980, page 4-C, article "Death. It put an end to a debut", by Charles Walston. [E1]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Saturday, 16 February 1980, page 4-B, article "Don Williams Still Fights For Life", by Godwin Kelly. [E1]
• Newspaper Miami News (Miami, FL, United States), issue of Wednesday, 16 July 1980, pages 1C & 2C, article "The House where sorrow lives", by Tom Archdeacon. [E2]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Morning Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Thursday, 12 February 1981, pages 3D & 18D, article "Don Williams: Two Years Later, Family Still Hopes for Miracle", by Godwin Kelly.
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Evening News (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Wednesday, 15 February 1984, pages 6D & 7D, article "Badly Injured Drivers' Conditions Unchanged: Don Williams Back At Home in Madison", by Lydia Hinshaw. [E1]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Sunday, 01 July 1984, pages 1D & 9D, article "Aftermath: His Racing Dream Became A Living Nightmare" by Lydia Hinshaw. [E2]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Evening News (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Monday, 01 July 1985, page 4C, article "'I Hope God ... Calls Him To Heaven'", by Lydia Hinshaw. [E2]
• Newspaper Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Sunday, 14 February 1988, page 8D, article "Robbie Spends a Lifetime Caring For Son", by Lydia Hinshaw. [E1]
• Newspaper The News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Tuesday, 19 July 1988, page 13A, article "Coma victim survives pneumonia", by Lydia Hinshaw. [E1]
• Newspaper The News-Journal (Daytona Beach, FL, United States), issue of Thursday, 16 February 1989, pages 1F & 3F, article "10 years to life . . . While Don lives, mom's work never done. Don's dream becomes his family's nightmare.", by Lydia Hinshaw. [E2]
• Newspaper Spartanburg Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC, United States), issue of Sunday, 19 March 1989, pages 1 & 8, article "A Decade in Silence: Driver's dream becomes his family's nightmare. While Williams lives, his mother's work is never done", by Ed Hinton. [E1]
• Website Ancestry, page http://records.ancestry.com/Gordon_Lee_Williams_records.ashx?pid=38837319. [E1]
• Website Wikipedia, page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_Series#History. [E2]
• Website Sports Illustrated, page http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/motorsports/2001/daytona500/news/2001/02/18/daytona_deaths_chart/.
• Website The Daytona Beach News-Journal, article "Racing-related deaths at Daytona International Speedway", page http://www.n-jcenter.com/newsjournalonline/speed/nextelcup/03speednext20020904.htm.
• Website Orlando Sentinel, article "Ex-Daytona driver loses 10-year Race for His Life" published on Wednesday, 24 May 1989, page http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1989-05-24/sports/8905240310_1_coma-gordon-lee-daytona-international-speedway. [E1]
• Website Ultimate Racing History, page http://www.ultimateracinghistory.com/race.php?raceid=3828. [E2]
• Website Ultimate Racing History, page http://www.ultimateracinghistory.com/racelist2.php?uniqid=7938. [E2]
• Website Find-A-Grave: Gordon Lee “Don” Williams Jr.
• Website Youtube, page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MadptkIa0kI. [E1]
• E-mail by Rick Kelly, dated 09 February 2004.
• E-mail by Rod Gerus, dated 05 April 2006.
• E-mail by Ed Kiers, dated 12 May 2010.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 05 June 2013, citing [E1].
• E-mail by Eman, dated 01 August 2013.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 29 August 2013, citing [E2].
• E-mail by Eman, dated 06 September 2013.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 28 January 2014.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 06 June 2014.
• E-mail by Eman, dated 18 June 2014.