1971 Maryville 200

Race report

Four thousand and two hundred fans came out to see vehicles average a speed of 88.697 mi/h on a paved oval track. Richard Petty defeated Benny Parsons by a time of eight seconds; Parsons' second-place finish came a week after coming up short at Columbia. 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. Friday Hassler received the pole position with a speed of 91.464 mi/h while qualifying on the 0.520 mi 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. Notable crew chiefs for this race included Dale Inman, Vic Ballard, Lee Gordon and Mario Rossi.

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.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference:

1. 43-Richard Petty
2. 72-Benny Parsons†
3. 39-Friday Hassler†
4. 64-Elmo Langley†
5. 22-Dick Brooks†
6. 48-James Hylton†
7. 38-Charlie Glotzbach
8. 49-G.C. Spencer†
9. 24-Cecil Gordon†
10. 10-Bill Champion†
11. 19-Henley Gray
12. 30-Walter Ballard
13. 25-Jabe Thomas
14. 79-Frank Warren
15. 7-Dean Dalton
16. 28-Bill Hollar*†
17. 70-Bill Seifert*
18. 26-J.D. McDuffie*†
19. 26-Earl Brooks*
20. 67-Dick May*
21. 2-Dave Marcis*
22. 58-Robert Brown*
23. 4-John Sears*†
24. 34-Wendell Scott*†
25. 56-E.J. Trivette*
26. 06-Neil Castles*
27. 8-Ed Negre*
28. 74-Bill Shirey*
29. 41-D. K. Ulrich*
30. 02-Jimmy Crawford*† ** Driver failed to finish race*

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

References

before = 1971 Greenville 200 | after = 1971 Gwyn Staley 400| title = NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season| years = 1971 |

References

1. "1971 Maryville 200 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac.
2. "1971 Maryville 200 information (third reference)". Everything Stock Car.
3. "1971 Maryville 200 information". Racing Reference.
4. "1971 Maryville 200 information (second reference)". Ultimate Racing History.
5. "1971 Maryville 200 crew chiefs". Racing Reference.