NASCAR awards Bobby Allison an 85th victory 53 years after he took the checkered flag at Bowman Gray Stadium
Allison's win in the 1971 race had never been officially recognized by NASCAR until Wednesday
Bobby Allison now has 85 career NASCAR Cup Series wins.
NASCAR announced Wednesday that Allison would have an additional win added to his career total from the 1971 Myers Brothers Memorial 250 at Bowman Gray Stadium.
Allison has never been officially recognized as the winner of the race despite finishing first. The race at the North Carolina short track happened with cars from both the NASCAR Grand National — currently the Cup Series — and Grand American Series.
Allison drove a Grand American Series Ford to victory and drivers in Grand American cars finished in eight of the top 10 spots. In today’s terms, that’s like if NASCAR ran a race with both Cup Series cars and Xfinity Series cars and drivers in Xfinity Series cars dominated the top 10.
One of the drivers in a Grand National car was Richard Petty, the winningest driver in NASCAR history. He was less than enthused about the mixed field and was not the only one.
Since the field contained both types of cars, NASCAR had never officially recognized a winner from the race until Wednesday.
“For 53 years, the Myers Brothers Memorial was the only race run by NASCAR that did not have an official winner,” NASCAR chairman Jim France said in a statement. “As we began preparations for the upcoming Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium, the topic of the 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. We are grateful for Bobby’s lifetime contributions to NASCAR.”
NASCAR is set to run the season-opening exhibition Clash race at Bowman-Gray in February.
The victory moves Allison, 86, into a solo fourth place on NASCAR’s all-time wins list. Petty tops that list at 200, while David Pearson is second at 105 and Jeff Gordon is third with 93 wins. Allison had been tied with Darrell Waltrip for fourth at 84 wins. Jimmie Johnson is a win behind Waltrip in sixth with 83. He’s tied with Petty and Dale Earnhardt for the most Cup Series titles ever at seven.
Allison is the only one-time Cup Series champion among the five winningest drivers in Cup Series history. He won the 1983 Cup Series title after Waltrip had won the Cup Series the previous two seasons.
