The 1971 Maryville 200 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series event that took place on April 15, 1971, at Smoky Mountain Raceway[1] in Maryville, Tennessee.[2] [3]
Four thousand and two hundred fans came out to see vehicles average a speed of on a paved oval track.[2] [3] Richard Petty defeated Benny Parsons by a time of eight seconds; Parsons' second-place finish came a week after coming up short at Columbia.[2] 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.[2] Friday Hassler received the pole position[1] with a speed of while qualifying on the speedway.[2] There was only one caution, which lasted for three laps.[2] [3] D. K. Ulrich ran his first Cup Series race here while E.J. Trivette retired from NASCAR after this race.[2]
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[1] [3] for winning the race, the 125th win in his NASCAR Cup Series career.[2] Notable crew chiefs for this race included Dale Inman, Vic Ballard, Lee Gordon and Mario Rossi.[4]
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.
| Grid | 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 |
Section reference: [2]
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased