NASCAR makes big change to its all-time winners list, ending 53-year controversy
NASCAR legend Bobby Allison finally captured his 85th NASCAR Cup Series win … 53 years after the race. Nick DeGroost.
For more than half a century, controversy and debate surrounded a NASCAR Cup Series race at Bowman Gray Stadium on August 6, 1971.
It was one of six races that year that featured a mixed field of Cup cars and the smaller Grand American cars. Bobby Allison chose to drive a ’70 Ford Mustang Grand American that day and ended up beating all the Cup stars, leading 138 of the 200 laps with Richard ‘The King’ Petty just seconds behind in second place.
While Allison went to Victory Lane and lifted the trophy like every other week, the win was never recognized in the record books. In fact, no one won the Cup for this race, despite it being an official part of the 1971 calendar The fact that he had not driven a Cup car in the mixed field meant that he was not credited as a winner of the Cup Series.
Allison, who won the NASCAR Cup Series title in 1983, was also inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2011.
This also comes at an interesting time as Bowman Gray – the site of that controversial result – returns to the schedule for the Cup in. 2025. Winston-Salem Historic District in North Carolina will host The Clash in 2025, which will serve as the unofficial kickoff of the new season.