1970 Greenville 200

1970 Greenville 200
Race details[1]
Race 23 of 48 in the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season
Date June 27, 1970 (1970-06-27)
Official name Greenville 200
Location Greenville-Pickens Speedway
Greenville, South Carolina, USA
Course Permanent racing facility
0.500 mi (0.804 km)
Distance 200 laps, 100 mi (160 km)
Weather Warm with temperatures approaching 82 °F (28 °C); average wind speed of 5.18 miles per hour (8.34 km/h)
Average speed 75.345 miles per hour (121.256 km/h)
Attendance 7,000[2]
Pole position
Driver
K&K Insurance Racing
Most laps led
Driver Bobby Isaac K&K Insurance Racing
Laps 190
Winner
No. 71 Bobby Isaac K&K Insurance Racing
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1970 Greenville 200 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on June 27, 1970, at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina. The series is now referred to as the Sprint Cup Series.

Summary

Seven thousand racing fans were in attendance to see Bobby Isaac defeat Bobby Allison by ½ of a lap.[2] The pole position was earned by the eventual race winner with a qualifying speed of 82.372 miles per hour (132.565 km/h) while the average speed of the race was 74.345 miles per hour (119.647 km/h).[2] It took one hour and thirty-three seconds for the race to reach its conclusion. All twenty-nine competitors were born in the United States of America with no foreign-born drivers unlike today.[2] Carburetors were still in wide use in both passenger automobiles and with the NASCAR vehicles during the early 1970s; requiring plenty of physically-intensive labor from the people who would maintain the vehicles between races.[3]

Notable drivers in the field included: Richard Petty, Benny Parsons, Elmo Langley (died of a heart attack after driving the pace car at an exhibition race in Japan), Roy Tyner (murdered in his vehicle), and J.D. McDuffie (killed after colliding with turn 5 at the 1991 Budweiser At The Glen race at Watkins Glen International).[2] The winner's purse was considered to be $1,500 ($9,155.53 when adjusted for inflation).[2]

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.

Finishing order

  1. Bobby Isaac† (No. 71)
  2. Bobby Allison (No. 22)
  3. Dick Brooks† (No. 32)
  4. James Hylton (No. 48)
  5. Benny Parsons† (No. 72)
  6. Elmo Langley† (No. 64)
  7. Jabe Thomas† (No. 25)
  8. Bill Champion† (No. 10)
  9. Ed Negre (No. 8)
  10. Ken Meisenhelder (No. 04)
  11. Wendell Scott† (No. 34)
  12. J.D. McDuffie† (No.70)
  13. Ben Arnold (No. 76)
  14. Neil Castles* (No. 06)
  15. Bill Seifert (No. 45)
  16. Lee Gordon (No. 97)
  17. Johnny Halford* (No. 57)
  18. Roy Tyner† (No. 92)
  19. Richard Petty* (No. 43)
  20. Dave Marcis (No. 30)
  21. Raymond Williams* (No. 47)
  22. Frank Warren* (No. 79)
  23. Henley Gray* (No. 19)
  24. John Sears*† (No. 4)
  25. Earl Brooks* (No. 26)
  26. Cecil Gordon*† (No. 24)
  27. Pete Hazelwood* (No. 12)
  28. Bill Shirey* (No. 74)
  29. John Jennings* (No. 82)

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race

Timeline

References

  1. ↑ "1970 Greenville 200 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2011-08-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "1970 Greenville 200 information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
  3. ↑ Maintaining a vehicle for the 1970 Greenville 200. Google Books. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
Preceded by
1970 Kingsport 100		 NASCAR Grand National races
1970 		Succeeded by
1970 Firecracker 400
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