1971 Kingsport 300


The 1971 Kingsport 300 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on May 23, 1971, at Kingsport Speedway in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Race report

There were 25 drivers on the starting grid; 13 drivers would fail to finish the race. Bill Hollar would finish in last-place on the first lap due to an issue with his clutch. Bill Champion received his second straight top-five finish. Richard Childress would be involved in a fire during the race while a crash would take D.K. Ulrich out of the race. 300 laps were performed in front of 3,800 live spectators. Bobby Isaac and Richard Petty were exchanging the lead for the entire race.
Isaac would go on to defeat Elmo Langley after more than 90 minutes of racing action; with Harry Hyde as the winner's crew chief. Isaac's qualifying speed of earned him the pole position for this race. Notable crew chiefs for this race were Harry Hyde, Dale Inman, Vic Ballard and Lee Gordon.
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. 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

Timeline

Section reference:
  1. Bobby Isaac†
  2. Elmo Langley†
  3. James Hylton†
  4. Cecil Gordon†
  5. Bill Champion†
  6. Wendell Scott†
  7. Walter Ballard
  8. Jabe Thomas†
  9. Bill Shirey
  10. Bill Seifert
  11. Frank Warren
  12. John Sears*†
  13. Ed Negre†
  14. Dick May*†
  15. Ken Meisenhelder*
  16. D.K. Ulrich*
  17. Richard Petty*
  18. Neil Castles*
  19. Charlie Roberts*
  20. Henley Gray*
  21. Earl Brooks*†
  22. Richard Childress*
  23. Benny Parsons*†
  24. J.D. McDuffie*†
  25. Bill Hollar*†
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race