On October 23, NASCAR driver Bobby Allison was crowned as the newest NASCAR winner – even though he’s been retired for 36 years.
Allison, a 2011 Hall of Fame Inductee, has long contested that he won 85 races in his career despite being credited 84 by NASCAR. He was adamant enough to even jokingly promise “scouts honor!” during his induction speech.
It wasn’t that a race was forgotten, or that he was misremembering, but rather NASCAR refusing to acknowledge a single race held in 1971 that, until this reversal, was the only race in stock car racing history to not have a designated winner.
The race in question was held at Bowman-Gray Stadium, located in Winston-Salem. Prior to the “modern era” that started in 1972, it was common practice for rules to be amended and changed even after the race.
While modern NASCAR race cars are (mostly) equal, this was not the case in 1971, as it was announced that there would be six events held that season that mixed the traditional “cup cars,” or cars used in the NASCAR Cup Series, with pony cars, compact, sporty performance-oriented cars, for a new series, called the Grand American series.
Bowman-Gray was the site of the first mixed race, and the advantage the Grand American cars had was quickly evident: Future Hall-of-Famer Richard Petty led for the first 112 laps before needing to pit for fuel, which allowed Bobby Allison (driving a fuel-efficient pony car) to scoot by and lead the final 138 laps of the race without needing to stop for fuel once.
According to NASCAR.com, immediately following the race, Petty and other competitors complained to officials, saying that the win shouldn’t count.
To silence this, officials scrubbed the win from history, making it “fair” for anyone not named Allison.
This amendment comes about shortly after news broke last month of the historic Bowman-Gray Stadium hosting the NASCAR Clash, a pre-season race that has been held at the also-historic L.A. Coliseum for the last three years. The three-year stint succeeded decades of the event being held at Daytona International Raceway.
This amendment also means that Allison is now the only driver occupying the title of 4th winningest in Cup Series history, after being tied with Darrell Waltrip for the position at 84 wins for the better part of 30 years.
Photo courtesy of Caitlyn Wilson on Unsplash
Originally Published at: https://www.fsuthevoice.com/nascar-declares-winner-19437-days-late/
Cameron Bebeau 
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