Official name Maryville 200 | ||
Date April 15, 1971; 45 years ago (1971-04-15) 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 reaching a maximum of 70 °F (21 °C); wind speed were recorded up to 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) | ||
The 1971 Maryville 200 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that took place on April 15, 1971, at Smoky Mountain Raceway in the American community of Maryville, Tennessee.
Summary
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. Richard Petty defeated Benny Parsons by a time of eight seconds. Friday Hassler received the pole position with a speed of 91.464 miles per hour (147.197 km/h) while qualifying on the 0.520 miles (0.837 km) speedway.
There was only one caution, which lasted for three laps. D. K. Ulrich ran his first Cup Series race here while E.J. Trivette retired from NASCAR after this race. 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 for winning the race, the 125th win in his NASCAR Cup Series career. 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.