| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 4 of 48 in the 1971 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season | |||
This is a picture of a battle going on between Pete Hamilton (in the #6 vehicle) and Dick Brooks (in the #22 vehicle) at the 1971 running of the Daytona 500. |
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| Date | February 14, 1971 | ||
| Location | Daytona Speedway (Daytona Beach, Florida, USA) | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.000 mi (3.218 km) |
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| Distance | 200 laps, 500 mi (800 km) | ||
| Weather | Partly cloudy with a high of 54 °F (12 °C);[1] wind speed 13.23 miles per hour (21.29 km/h)[1] | ||
| Avg Speed | 144.462 miles per hour (232.489 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | A. J. Foyt | Wood Brothers | |
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Richard Petty | Petty Enterprises | |
| Laps | 69 | ||
| Winner | |||
| 43 |
Richard Petty |
Petty Enterprises | |
| Television | |||
| Network | ABC | ||
| Announcers | Chris Economaki (color commentator) Keith Jackson (lap-by-lap announcer) |
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The 1971 Daytona 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event held on February 14, 1971 at the Daytona International Speedway spanning 500 miles (800 km) on a paved oval track. All of the racing action commenced during daytime hours and ended prior to dusk since there was no lighting available until at least the 1998 season. It was considered to be the first Daytona 500 in the Winston Cup era of NASCAR. During this time, Richard Petty (the winner of the race[2] and the eventual winner of the 1971 NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship) was becoming one of the most winningest veterans on the NASCAR circuit.[3]
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The manufacturers that were involved on the twelfth running of the Daytona 500 included Chevrolet,[2] Mercury,[2] Ford,[2] Plymouth,[2] and Dodge.[2] All the vehicles were manufactured directly from the same Detroit factories that made normal passenger automobiles as opposed to the specialized stock car production facilities of today (which are mostly made in South Carolina). Out of the 500 miles it takes to make a complete race, the average speed achieved at the 1971 Daytona 500 was 144.462 miles per hour (232.489 km/h).[4] Today's Sprint Cup vehicles can only go up to 185 miles per hour (298 km/h) at today's Daytona 500 races[5] and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series pickup trucks can do up to 190 miles per hour (310 km/h)[5] (and they don't need restrictor plates due to their horsepower disadvantage). As a result, the NASCAR trucks have the capability to go faster than the Sprint Cup cars.[5]
Overall, the maximum qualifying speed for the 1971 Daytona 500 time trials was more than 190 miles per hour (310 km/h) [5] compared to Jimmie Johnson's top speed of 185.831 miles per hour (299.066 km/h) to get the pole position at the 44th running of the Daytona 500 that took place on February 17, 2002.[5] Forty cars were lined with legends like A. J. Foyt and David Pearson eventually acquiring top five finishes at the end of this prestigious race.[2]
Note: All participants were born in the United States of America except for Pedro Rodríguez.
† Driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race
The winner's purse for the 1971 Daytona 500 was considered to be $45,450 in American dollars ($246,471.64 when inflation is taken into effect).[2] Even the last place finisher received $1,000 ($5,422.92 with inflation) in take-home pay.[2] Richard Petty would go on to win four more Daytona 500 races after this one (1973, 1974, 1979, and 1981).[3] There were seven cautions involving forty-four laps of yellow flag racing and zero laps of red flag racing.[2]
Attendance for the 1971 Daytona 500 reached 80,000 spectators;[2] outnumbering the maximum attendance possible at Soldier Field by 18,500 people. Expansion in the next eighteen years would bring attendance up to 180,000 people (even when considering the increased television and Internet coverage that today's NASCAR Sprint Cup races experience). ABC's Wide World of Sports televised the race during an era where televised NASCAR programming was restricted due to its mostly regional appeal with citizens of the Southern United States. Commentary was done by the legendary Chris Economaki who did the Daytona 500 races in the 1970s. NASCAR would not see a significant growth in their "northern audience" until at least the 1990s. Today, NASCAR can be found nearly seven days a week through digital satellite television channels like ESPN, Speed, and TNT from Hawaii to Maine (while their Canadian counterpart TSN makes the events accessible for cable and satellite customers from British Columbia to Newfoundland).
Darrell Waltrip often complained in his early racing career that NASCAR should have been televised more. It could be said that Darrell Waltrip would have accomplished racing as a young man in the 1990s as opposed to the more company-oriented days of the 1970s. He would race in the next year's Permatex 300 Sportsman race for his first Daytona start in a car once driven by Mario Andretti. Oftentimes, it was only the Daytona 500 and a few major Grand National/Winston Cup events that were televised during the 1970s and 1980s when NASCAR was predominantly a "Southern sport."
Most of the vehicles utilized during that running of the Daytona 500 were manufactured between 1969 and 1971.[2] Since each and every driver was still expected to compete in the same passenger vehicle that he commuted to the race course in, not all drivers had the same model year of vehicle. Deviation of up to two or three model years was expected because parity wasn't enforced by NASCAR during that era and different teams had different budgets from each other.
This tradition would finally end at all NASCAR events where passenger stock cars were involved because of the 1973 oil crisis. In the ensuing panic, homologation rules would finally be discontinued, allowing vehicles that are specifically designed for racing (i.e., not street legal). Detroit's role in the sport would later be relegated to engine parts and decals as seen by the looks of today's "stock car" automobiles. Famous drivers that raced in this running of the Daytona 500 included Coo Coo Marlin (father of Sterling Marlin and grandfather of Steadman Marlin),[2] Donnie Allison,[2] Bobby Allison,[2] Cale Yarborough,[2] and Benny Parsons.[2] Out of the forty racers competing in the 1971 Daytona 500, thirty-nine were American and only one was Mexican. The only Mexican competitor (who would finish in thirteenth place) would have an asphalt racing course named after him after he died six months later in Germany during an open wheel race (along with his older brother Ricardo Rodríguez).
On a side note, Dick Brooks would be the final driver to make a competitive run with a winged vehicle. After this race, NASCAR would return to the rear spoiler until 2008 where it failed again. Eventually, the rear spoiler was reinstated again in the middle of the 2010 NASCAR season.
| Preceded by 1970 Daytona 500 |
Daytona 500 races 1959-present |
Succeeded by 1972 Daytona 500 |
| Preceded by 1971 Motor Trend 500 |
NASCAR Winston Cup Season 1971 |
Succeeded by 1971 Miller High Life 500 |
| Preceded by 1970 Georgia 500 |
Richard Petty's Career Wins 1960-1984 |
Succeeded by 1971 Richmond 500 |
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