The ''1970 Greenville 200'' was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Grand National Series The name NASCAR Grand National Series refers to former names of the following NASCAR series: *National-level stock car series: **NASCAR Cup Series (known as NASCAR Grand National Series between 1950 to 1970, then the NASCAR Winston Cup Grand Nation ...

event that was held on June 27, 1970, at

Greenville-Pickens Speedway Greenville-Pickens Speedway is a race track located in Easley, South Carolina, just west of Greenville, South Carolina. The track hosted weekly NASCAR sanctioned races. Several NASCAR touring series have raced at the track in prior years, includi ...

Greenville, South Carolina Greenville (; locally ) is a city in and the seat of Greenville County, South Carolina, United States. With a population of 70,720 at the 2020 census, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. Greenville is located approximately halfway be ...

Race report

Seven thousand racing fans were in attendance to see

Bobby Isaac Robert Vance Isaac (August 1, 1932 – August 14, 1977) was an American stock car racing driver. Isaac made his first NASCAR appearance in 1961, and quickly forged a reputation of one of the toughest competitors of the 1960s and 1970s. He was most ...

defeat

Bobby Allison Robert Arthur Allison (born December 3, 1937) is a former American professional stock car racing driver and owner. Allison was the founder of the Alabama Gang, a group of drivers based in Hueytown, Alabama, where there were abundant short track ...

by ½ of a lap. Bobby Allison had to borrow his son Davey's car because he wrecked his car during the previous week. The pole position was earned by the eventual race winner with a qualifying speed of while the average speed of the race was . 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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

with no foreign-born drivers, unlike today. Five notable crew chiefs were recorded as participating in the event; including Lee Gordon,

Dale Inman Dale Inman (born August 19, 1936) is a retired NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series crew chief from Level Cross, Randolph County, North Carolina. He is best known for being the crew chief of Richard Petty at Petty Enterprises during three de ...

and

Harry Hyde Harry Hyde (January 17, 1925 – May 13, 1996) was a leading crew chief in NASCAR stock car racing in the 1960s through the 1980s, winning 56 races and 88 pole positions. He was the 1970 championship crew chief for Bobby Isaac. He inspired t ...

. 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. Notable drivers in the field included:

Richard Petty Richard Lee Petty (born July 2, 1937), nicknamed "The King", is an American former stock car racing driver who raced from 1958 to 1992 in the former NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series (now called the NASCAR Cup Series), most notabl ...

Benny Parsons Benjamin Stewart Parsons (July 12, 1941 – January 16, 2007) was an American NASCAR driver, and later an announcer/analyst/pit reporter on SETN, TBS, ABC, ESPN, NBC, and TNT. He became famous as the 1973 NASCAR Winston Cup Series champion, and ...

Elmo Langley Elmo Harold Langley (August 21, 1928 – November 21, 1996) was a NASCAR driver and owner. Langley primarily used the number 64 on his race cars during his NASCAR career. Racing career Langley began his racing career racing modified cars in Vir ...

(died of a heart attack after driving the pace car at an exhibition race in Japan),

Roy Tyner William Leroy "Roy" Tyner (January 3, 1934 – February 23, 1989) was a Native American ''NASCAR Grand National'' driver from Red Springs, North Carolina, United States. NASCAR career Driver Tyner participated in the 1968 Fireball 300 in add ...

(murdered in his vehicle), and

J.D. McDuffie John Delphus McDuffie Jr. (December 5, 1938 – August 11, 1991) was an American racing driver. He competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series from 1963 to 1991, collecting 106 top-10 finishes during his career, despite never finishing on the lead ...

(killed after colliding with turn 5 at the 1991

Budweiser At The Glen Stock car racing events in the NASCAR Cup Series have taken place at Watkins Glen International in Watkins Glen, New York on the road course annually since 1986. Since 2018 the 90-lap, race has been known as Go Bowling at The Glen for sponsor ...

race at

Watkins Glen International Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the hom ...

). The winner's purse was considered to be $1,500 ($ when adjusted for inflation). 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 Homologation (Greek ''homologeo'', ὁμολογέω, "to agree") is the granting of approval by an official authority. This may be a court of law, a government department, or an academic or professional body, any of which would normally work fr ...

(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.

Qualifying

Finishing order

Section reference: # Bobby Isaac† (No. 71) # Bobby Allison (No. 22) #

Dick Brooks Richard Brooks (April 14, 1942 – February 1, 2006) was an American NASCAR driver. Born in Porterville, California, he was the 1969 NASCAR Rookie of the Year, and went on to win the 1973 Talladega 500. Brooks held off veteran Buddy Baker b ...

† (No. 32) #

James Hylton James Harvey Hylton (August 26, 1934 – April 28, 2018) was an American stock car racing driver. He was a two-time winner in NASCAR Winston Cup Series competition and was a long-time competitor in the ARCA Racing Series. Hylton finished second i ...

(No. 48) #

† (No. 72) #

† (No. 64) #

Jabe Thomas Cerry Ezra "Jabe" Thomas (May 12, 1930 – June 4, 2015) was a NASCAR Grand National/Winston Cup Series driver who competed from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s. His son Ronnie was also a NASCAR Cup Series driver; competing from 1977 to 1989 ...

† (No. 25) # Bill Champion† (No. 10) #

Ed Negre Ed Negre (July 16, 1927June 4, 2014) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver who raced from 1955 to 1979.''E ...

(No. 8) #

Ken Meisenhelder Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in t ...

(No. 04) #

Wendell Scott Wendell Oliver Scott (August 29, 1921 – December 23, 1990) was an American stock car racing driver. He was one of the first African-American drivers in NASCAR and the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's h ...

† (No. 34) # J.D. McDuffie† (No.70) # Ben Arnold (No. 76) #

Neil Castles Henry Neil Castles (October 1, 1934 – August 4, 2022) was an American NASCAR Grand National and Winston Cup Series driver. He raced from 1957 to 1976, and won the NASCAR Grand National East Series in 1972. Early life Castles was born in Ma ...

* (No. 06) #

Bill Seifert William John Seifert (born July 2, 1939 - Skyland, North Carolina) is a retired NASCAR Sprint Cup Series who raced from 1966 to 1979.Johnny Halford* (No. 57) # Roy Tyner† (No. 92) # Richard Petty* (No. 43) #

Dave Marcis David Alan Marcis (born March 1, 1941) is an American former professional stock car racing driver on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit whose career spanned five decades. Marcis won five times over this tenure, twice at Richmond, including his final ...

(No. 30) #

Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...

* (No. 47) # Frank Warren* (No. 79) #

Henley Gray Clarence Henley Gray Jr. (born January 12, 1933) is a retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver whose career spanned from 1964 to 1977. Career Out of the 76045 laps committed in his career, Gray only led two of them. Gray's total career earnings ...

* (No. 19) # John Sears*† (No. 4) #

Earl Brooks Earl Lee Brooks (August 11, 1929 – July 21, 2010) was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver whose career spanned from 1962 to 1979. His career came at a time where NASCAR was less organized than it is today and drivers independently owned their v ...

* (No. 26) #

Cecil Gordon Cecil Gordon (June 21, 1941 – September 19, 2012) was an American stock car racing driver. A competitor in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series between 1968 and 1985, he competed in 449 events without winning a race. NASCAR Career as driver Gordon d ...

*† (No. 24) # Pete Hazelwood* (No. 12) #

Bill Shirey Bill Shirey (born February 28, 1932) is a retired NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver. Career Shirey accomplished three finishes in the "top ten" ( 1970 Richmond 500, 1971 Asheville 300, and 1971 Kingsport 300) and has driven for 9588 laps - the eq ...

* (No. 74) #

John Jennings John Jennings may refer to: Politicians * John Jenyns (1660–1717), MP * John Jennings (Burton MP) (1903–1990), British Conservative Party politician * John Jennings (American politician) (1880–1956), U.S. Representative from Tennessee, 1939 ...

* (No. 82) ''† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased''
''* Driver failed to finish race''

Timeline

Section reference: * Start of race: Bobby Isaac started the race with the pole position. * Lap 3: John Jennings managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 10: Bill Shirey managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 23: Oil pressure issues managed to put Pete Hazelwood out to pasture for the day. * Lap 34: Transmission issues forced Cecil Gordon to quit racing for the rest of the day. * Lap 37: Earl Brooks managed to abuse his brakes, forcing him to exit the race too soon. * Lap 40: Steering issues got the best of John Sears. * Lap 46: Henley Gray managed to overheat his vehicle. * Lap 63: Raymond Williams managed to overheat his vehicle; Frank Warren managed to lose the rear end of his vehicle. * Lap 124: Richard Petty takes over the lead from Bobby Isaac. * Lap 125: Bobby Allison takes over the lead from Richard Petty. * Lap 134: Bobby Isaac takes over the lead from Bobby Allison. * Lap 137: Richard Petty had a terminal crash, causing him not to finish the race. * Lap 163: Johnny Halford developed problems with his oil pressure, forcing him out of the race. * Lap 175: The rear end of Neil Castles' vehicle fell off, ending his day on the track. * Finish: Bobby Isaac was officially declared the winner of the event.

References

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Greenville 200 Greenville-Pickens Speedway is a race track located in Easley, South Carolina, just west of Greenville, South Carolina. The track hosted weekly NASCAR sanctioned races. Several NASCAR touring series have raced at the track in prior years, includi ...

NASCAR races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway