1971 Space City 300


The 1971 Space City 300 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on June 23, 1971, at Meyer Speedway in Houston, Texas. While Houston was considered to be one of the epicenters of stock car racing during the 1950s and 1960s, the local passion for the motorsport died out starting in the 1970s.
Even though Meyer Speedway was bumpy enough to loosen the bolts off a typical NASCAR vehicle, it put on pretty good races there over its history.
With only 14 cars entering the 1971 Space City 300, this event was one of many in 1971 that contributed to significant changes demanded by new series sponsor Winston for the 1972 season, when the number of races was reduced from 48 to 31, all dirt tracks were removed from the schedule, and a minimum race distance of 250 miles was established for oval tracks. While NASCAR's top series had a successful 48 race schedule in previous years, by 1971 the reduced sponsorship money being given out by the "Big Three" automobile companies made it difficult for race car drivers to justify driving their "stock" race cars under their own power to events offering only small prize money.

Race report

defeated James Hylton by at least two laps after two hours and two minutes of racing 300 laps on a paved track); marking Allison's fifth consecutive win. The entire track was considered to span a distance of for a grand total of. There were no cautions given out by NASCAR; making this a perfect race alongside the 1959 Daytona 500, the 1969 Motor Trend 500, the 1971 Asheville 300 and the 2002 EA Sports 500; which became the final oval course race that had gone the entire distance without a single caution flag.
Nine thousand people would watch a 14-car grid of American-born drivers perform speeds of up to. Pete Arnold would make his only start here and record the race's last-place finish due to a steering issue on lap 58. Fred Hill would make his only NASCAR Cup Series start here; ending his day with a rear end issue on lap 116. Walter Ballard finished third to claim his best career NASCAR finish. Richard Petty qualified in second place and managed to dominate 38 laps before the halfway point. Petty's vehicle developed problems with its distributor. More than 10 minutes were lost and 28 laps went by in the race before Petty was able to get his vehicle back on the track. Miraculously, he gained back 7 of his lost laps and salvaged a top-10 finish.
The NASCAR Cup Series has never again come close to having a field this small. Even for the rest of 1971, they only once had fewer than 29 cars and that was a 22 car field. Definitely a race from a dying era at the time this happened which makes the era of luck-based strategies in modern day NASCAR seem like a thriving time in comparison. Hill and Arnold make their only cup starts in this debacle of a NASCAR Cup Series event. Ronnie Chumley, who lasted a bit longer, only started six other career Cup races. The motivation to stop here on the way back across the country from Riverside was not strong as most drivers did not put their best effort forward.
Frank Warren's Pontiac was the only General Motors product on the racing grid. The next NASCAR Winston Cup Series race to lack a major manufacturer would be the 1982 Daytona 500; which excluded all Chevrolet vehicles. Lee Gordon, Vic Ballard and Dale Inman were the three notable crew chiefs that participated in the event.
Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day. This event would become Meyer Speedway's only NASCAR Cup Series racing event; with the description of being the newest racing track that is "no longer under the schedule." There would be less than 15 cars in the entire racing event; a rarity during the early 1970s. After this race, there would be at least 20 cars that qualified each and every time.
The winner would receive $2,200 in winnings while the last-place finisher would walk away with $340. Most of the teams that raced at Meyer Speedway went straight back to the Southeastern United States due to the meager prize money that was handed out at this racing event.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Timeline

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