Bobby Allison’s Daughter Questions NASCAR’s Genius Behind Denying the Legend’s 85th Win

Did you know there is a NASCAR race that still has no official winner to date? On August 6th, 1971, Bobby Allison took home the trophy and the winnings from a glorious outing at Winston-Salem, North Carolina. However, there is no mention of any victor of that race in NASCAR’s history books. It’s no secret that many drivers have been disqualified post-race for infringements, but Bobby Allison delivered a clean and precise drive to bring the Bowman Gray trophy home.

But even after more than half a century, the Allison family is giving it their all to restore that elusive 85th win to Bobby Allison’s iconic career. His daughter, Bonnie Allison, is selling a two-house two-garage property which was once Bobby Allison’s team’s base of operations. This is when she reflected on her father’s controversial win in 1971 with Frontstretch media, who were touring the home.

Bonnie Allison calls on NASCAR to restore her father’s notorious 85th win

Bonnie Allison was asked by Frontstretch in their YouTube video about what NASCAR restoring Allison’s 85th win officially would mean for the legend and his family. The answer? Bonnie Allison felt the family’s efforts would finally be rewarded after Bobby fails to recall due to memory loss if anyone had ever mentioned the reason for not being given the official win for that race.

His daughter added, “We’ve been asking them what is behind all of that because he obviously has the win, he had the trophy and the check… I think it’s more [of] recognition from NASCAR that he has 85 wins. Everyone else already knows he has 85 wins. So it would be very special if they could finally recognize that.”

Bobby Allison is also perhaps the last man alive to witness that event who could dispute what went down. Having the honor of getting that Myers Brothers race win recognized would be the cherry on the cake for the 86-year-old. While Richard Petty has long claimed Allison was not the rightful winner because he used a Grand American car instead of a Cup Series car, The King was not presented with the honors either, despite finishing second and the highest in a Cup car.

Currently, Bobby Allison’s 84 official wins place him ahead of seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson, who has a tally of 83. If the Allison family’s efforts are rewarded, Bobby Allison will shoot past the man he’s sharing the fourth all-time race wins position with – Darrell Waltrip. This would place him behind Jeff Gordon (93), David Pearson (105) and Richard Petty (200) and would certainly make his commitment to NASCAR feel more special.

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However, while the NASCAR community and his family are rallying behind him as a true 85-time winner, Bobby Allison still believes there was some foul play at work to keep his 1971 victory at bay.

When Bobby Allison felt the 1971 controversy could have been a personal vendetta

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The 1983 champion had long tried to get his valiant effort rewarded but had always been met with a vague answer. While Bill France Jr felt the chances of Allison’s victory being recognized were grim, the 86-year-old felt someone had to do something. He was quoted by AutoWeek in 2017, “I first thought they gave the win to Richard, and quite honestly the pope’s not gonna take a race away from Richard. But if they didn’t give it to Richard, then I won and should get credit.”

The 1971 race at Bowman Gray saw no one crowned as the winner officially, which made no sense to the man who had celebrated and been given the physical honors. He shared, “It’s gotta be a personal situation where somebody chose to punish me this way for something I did or said. I feel it was Bill Jr. who made the decision, so I’m disappointed that I did something that irritated him that bad.”

The dispute would not have been of such a large scale if other racers who had run pony cars like Bobby Allison were allowed to keep their wins in the ‘combination’ cars that season. Just take Tiny Lund for example. He won not one but two such combination races in a Grand National series Camaro out of his five Cup Series wins. Awarding Richard Petty the win for the 1971 Myers Brothers 250 race would mean NASCAR would have to overturn two big results for a heroic driver.

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It’s safe to say that Allison’s plea to NASCAR for them to recognize his 1971 victory has been heard by the community. With fans overflowing social media with requests to NASCAR to restore his win, it could be a matter of only time before we see some changes.