At long last, the 1971 Myers Brothers Memorial 250 at Bowman Gray Stadium has a NASCAR Cup Series winner and it was the driver that took the checkered flag first.
Bobby Allison.
The race did not have a declared winner for 53 years as NASCAR chose not to recognize Allison as the winner of the race. The reason, back then, was that Bowman Gray Stadium was a Grand National (Cup Series) points race but NASCAR also allowed Grand American division cars into the fields to fill out races that were at risk of not having enough cars.
These Grand American cars were Mustangs, Camaros, Cougars, Firebirds and Javelins. Of the 29 cars that started that race, 10 were pony cars.
This was pre-modern era, where there were over 50 races, and no one ran a ‘full’ schedule with the eventual champion having picked and chose his races over the course of the year. The race at The Stadium did not have one of the larger purses so many teams opted to skip it.
Allison won the race over Richard Petty, but did so in the lighter and more maneuverable, Grand American car with Petty in a Grand National Plymouth.
“I figured something like this would happen,” Petty said at the time. “They’ll probably win all these (combination) races. Grand National racing isn’t supposed to be filled with Mustangs and Camaros.”
It was odd for NASCAR to have never counted Allison winning that race because Tiny Lund won twice that season, both in Grand American pony cars, and both have always shown up on the all-time wins list.
But the Myers Brothers 250 showed no winner until Wednesday when NASCAR officially credited Allison with the victory.
It’s unclear why the decision was made but Jim France, son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. and brother to longtime sport leader Bill France Jr., made the announcement in a press release.
“For 53 years, the Myers Brothers Memorial 250 was the only race run by NASCAR that did not have an official winner,” France said. “As we began preparations for the upcoming Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the topic of that August 6, 1971 race returned to the forefront. We felt it was the right thing to officially recognize Bobby’s win and honor him as an 85-time NASCAR Cup Series winner.”
Allison is 86 years old, with fading health, but NASCAR has installed him at the winner of that race just months ahead of the Cup Series returning for the first time at the Winston Salem football field since that day in 1971.
Allison now has 85 career wins, placing the seven-time most popular driver fourth on the all-time list ahead of Richard Petty (200), David Person (105) and Jeff Gordon (95) and breaking a tie at 84 with Darrell Waltrip.