Things changed drastically in NASCAR in 1971. Bill France Sr. handed control of NASCAR to his son Bill Jr. It was considered to be the first Daytona 500 in the Winston Cup era of NASCAR. R.J. Reynolds tobacco was coming on as sponsor of the entire NASCAR Grand National season, which was being shortened drastically from 50 or 60 races to something like 29 or 30. And it hadn't been officially announced yet, but everyone knew Ford and Chrysler were set to pull the plug on their respective racing programs.
For A.J. Foyt, who had the dominant car all month long, the 13th annual Daytona 500 was the pits. The Indy-car veteran had the fastest car by far, winning the pole and leading 36 laps, but Foyt ran out of gas on lap 162. By the time his Wood Brothers team had refueled the car, Foyt was down a lap to eventual winner Richard Petty. After the race, a rag was found in the fuel tank in the Wood Brothers Mercury and Foyt claimed sabotage. For Petty, it was an unprecedented third Daytona 500 victory and fourth for the Petty family, coming in front of a Valentine's Day crowd estimated at more than 92,000.
To read more, go to the Racers Reunion website.
To learn more about Richard Petty, go to ESPN.