Top 25 Lowe's Motor Speedway moments: Bobby Allison's 1971 World 600 victory
NASCAR legend Bobby Allison has his car worked on in the pits during the 1971 World 600 at what was then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway. // Mark Sluder, NASCAR Scene
The 1971 World 600, now the Coca-Cola 600, was perhaps the most anticipated race of the season.
Chevrolet was coming back.
Chevy hadn’t been a part of what is now the NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit in years. General Motors sat back and watched Ford and Chrysler win everything.
Thing about it was, Chevrolet was the most popular car in America.
Richard Howard, the wily promoter of what was then known as Charlotte Motor Speedway, the forerunner of Lowe’s Motor Speedway, knew that.
He reasoned that if a competitive Chevrolet were entered in the 600-mile race, attendance would soar.
He was right.
But Chevrolet didn’t win.
Instead, the victory went to a Mercury driver.
This month, SceneDaily is looking at 25 of the top moments at Lowe’s Motor Speedway as the track celebrates the 25th running of the All-Star Race and the 50th Coca-Cola 600. To mark the moment, LMS made available highlight videos of top moments at the track here. Among the top 25 moments SceneDaily selected is the 1971 Coca-Cola 600 win by Bobby Allison.
Howard contacted noted team owner Junior Johnson, a Ford man for years, and asked him if he could build a Chevy for the 600. Johnson agreed.
Charlie Glotzbach was selected to drive the car, and he won the 600 pole.
Howard’s hunch was right. The grandstands were filled with 78,000 fans – most of them thrilled with the prospect of watching Chevy race again.
However, the powerful Holman-Moody team hired Allison just two weeks prior to the 600. The race would be only his second start with the organization, and after qualifying, he joined Glotzbach on the front row.
Sure enough, the lead-footed Glotzbach got the Howard-Johnson Chevy out front. He led four times for 87 laps.
But while running second on lap 234 of 400, Glotzbach crashed down the frontstretch while trying to avoid Speedy Thompson, who inadvertently blocked Gotzbach.
Glotzbach fell out of the race and was credited with a 28th-place finish.
Allison, who was leading when Glotzbach crashed, had it all his way thereafter. He went on to win by a whopping 33.9 seconds over his brother, Donnie.
Bobby Allison won the 600 for the first time in his career.
“Getting the ride with Holman-Moody is the best thing that has ever happened to me,” he said. “I look for some good things to happen the rest of the year.”
Even he couldn’t have known what would happen.
After the 600, Allison went on to win four more races – at Dover, Michigan, Riverside, Calif., and Houston – for a remarkable streak of five consecutive victories.
Allison won 11 races in 1971, eight of them with Holman-Moody, and finished third in the final point standings.
As successful as he was, Allison’s relationship with the team soured as the season progressed and he was without a ride at the end of the year.
But he returned to racing in 1972 with new owners and car.
Ironically, they were Howard, Johnson and Chevrolet.
