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1971 Maryville 200

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1971 Maryville 200
Race details[1]
Race 13 of 48 in the 1971 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Date April 15, 1971; 53 years ago (1971-04-15)
Official name Maryville 200
Location Smoky Mountain Raceway, Maryville, Tennessee
Course Permanent racing facility
0.520 mi (0.836 km)
Distance 200 laps, 104 mi (167.3 km)
Weather Mild with temperatures of 70 °F (21 °C); wind speeds of 13 miles per hour (21 km/h)
Average speed 88.697 miles per hour (142.744 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Friday Hassler
Most laps led
Driver Richard Petty Petty Enterprises
Laps 134
Winner
No. 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1971 Maryville 200 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series event that took place on April 15, 1971, at Smoky Mountain Raceway[2] in Maryville, Tennessee.[3][4]

Race report

[edit]

Four thousand and two hundred fans came out to see vehicles average a speed of 88.697 miles per hour (142.744 km/h) on a paved oval track.[3][4] Richard Petty defeated Benny Parsons by a time of eight seconds; Parsons' second-place finish came a week after coming up short at Columbia.[3] These were his second and third runner-up finishes in NASCAR, but he'd finally break through with his first career win a month later in South Boston.[3] Friday Hassler received the pole position[2] with a speed of 91.464 miles per hour (147.197 km/h) while qualifying on the 0.520 miles (0.837 km) speedway.[3] There was only one caution, which lasted for three laps.[3][4] D. K. Ulrich ran his first Cup Series race here while E.J. Trivette retired from NASCAR after this race.[3]

Smoky Mountain Raceway closed forever after this race due to the changes in the sport during the Winston Cup era that aimed to modernize it. Abbreviation of the Cup Series schedule was the order of the day in the 1970s as the new sponsors wanted NASCAR to have a schedule that was structured closer to that of the National Football League.

Richard Petty won $1,000[2][4] for winning the race, the 125th win in his NASCAR Cup Series career.[3] Notable crew chiefs for this race included Dale Inman, Vic Ballard, Lee Gordon and Mario Rossi.[5]

The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore.

Qualifying

[edit]
Grid[3] No. Driver Manufacturer
1 39 Friday Hassler '69 Chevrolet
2 43 Richard Petty '71 Plymouth
3 06 Neil Castles '70 Dodge
4 22 Dick Brooks '70 Dodge
5 72 Benny Parsons '70 Ford
6 48 James Hylton '70 Ford
7 64 Elmo Langley '70 Ford
8 49 G.C. Spencer '69 Plymouth
9 2 Dave Marcis '69 Dodge
10 38 Charlie Glotzbach '70 Dodge
11 10 Bill Champion '69 Ford
12 24 Cecil Gordon '69 Mercury
13 19 Henley Gray '69 Ford
14 30 Walter Ballard '71 Ford
15 8 Ed Negre '69 Ford
16 4 John Sears '69 Dodge
17 7 Dean Dalton '69 Ford
18 45 Bill Seifert '69 Ford
19 56 E.J. Trivette '71 Chevrolet
20 79 Frank Warren '69 Dodge
21 70 J.D. McDuffie '71 Chevrolet
22 26 Earl Brooks '69 Ford
23 58 Robert Brown '71 Chevrolet
24 34 Wendell Scott '69 Ford
25 67 Dick May '69 Ford
26 25 Jabe Thomas '70 Plymouth
27 28 Bill Hollar '69 Ford
28 74 Bill Shirey '69 Plymouth
29 41 D.K. Ulrich '70 Ford
30 02 Jimmy Crawford '69 Plymouth

Finishing order

[edit]

Section reference: [3]

* Driver failed to finish race
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "1971 Maryville 200 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
  2. ^ a b c "1971 Maryville 200 information (third reference)". Everything Stock Car. Archived from the original on 2011-07-10. Retrieved 2010-12-20.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "1971 Maryville 200 information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2010-12-02.
  4. ^ a b c d "1971 Maryville 200 information (second reference)". Ultimate Racing History. Retrieved 2010-12-29.
  5. ^ "1971 Maryville 200 crew chiefs". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2018-08-12.
Preceded by NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1971
Succeeded by
Preceded by Richard Petty's Career Wins
1960-1984
Succeeded by