Date June 27, 1970; 46 years ago (1970-06-27) Location Greenville-Pickens SpeedwayGreenville, South Carolina, USA Course Permanent racing facility0.500 mi (0.804 km) Distance 200 laps, 100 mi (160 km) Weather Warm with temperatures approaching 82 °F (28 °C); average wind speed of 5.18 miles per hour (8.34 km/h) | ||
The 1970 Greenville 200 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on June 27, 1970, at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Summary
Seven thousand racing fans were in attendance to see Bobby Isaac defeat Bobby Allison by ½ of a lap. The pole position was earned by the eventual race winner with a qualifying speed of 82.372 miles per hour (132.565 km/h) while the average speed of the race was 74.345 miles per hour (119.647 km/h). It took one hour and thirty-three seconds for the race to reach its conclusion. All twenty-nine competitors were born in the United States of America with no foreign-born drivers unlike today. Carburetors were still in wide use in both passenger automobiles and with the NASCAR vehicles during the early 1970s; requiring plenty of physically-intensive labor from the people who would maintain the vehicles between races.
Notable drivers in the field included: Richard Petty, Benny Parsons, Elmo Langley (died of a heart attack after driving the pace car at an exhibition race in Japan), Roy Tyner (murdered in his vehicle), and J.D. McDuffie (killed after colliding with turn 5 at the 1991 Budweiser At The Glen race at Watkins Glen International). The winner's purse was considered to be $1,500 ($9,250.64 when adjusted for inflation).
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.
Finishing order
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race