Official name Yankee 400 | ||
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Date August 15, 1971 (1971-August-15) Location Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Michigan Course Permanent racing facility
2.000 mi (3.218 km) Distance 200 laps, 400 mi (643 km) Weather Warm with temperatures approaching 80.1 °F (26.7 °C); wind speeds up to 10.1 miles per hour (16.3 km/h) | ||
The 1971 Yankee 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race that took place at the Michigan International Speedway on August 15, 1971. The entire purse that the racers competed for in this event was $51,015 ($301,688.54 when adjusted for inflation). Maynard Troyer's only finish in the "top five" was recorded at this event.
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During this era, Michigan International Speedway was a Mercury-dominated track. It was also a track that suited a smooth driver or a driver that could change his driving tactics for Michigan International Speedway.
Background
Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long. Opened in 1968, the track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the 3,600-foot-long front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees. The back stretch, has a five degree banking and is 2,242 feet long.
Summary
There were 26,000 fans on attendance for this two-hour-and-forty-minute race in the American community of Brooklyn, Michigan (compared to the 103,000 fans who attended the 2009 Carfax 400). There were two cautions for twelve laps and the victory margin was three seconds. Average speed was 149.862 miles (241.180 km) per hour while the pole speed was 161.901 miles (260.554 km) per hour. All forty competitors in this race were born in the United States of America. 197 laps were undertaken on a paved oval track spanning 2.040 miles (3.283 km).
Manufacturers involved in this race included Mercury, Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, and Plymouth. Pontiac failed to provide a racing vehicle in this series and only American manufacturers were allowed to race during this era after seeing foreign models dominate the 1950s and most of the 1960s.
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