1971 Richmond 500 - Richard Petty's qualifying effort is tossed. He starts at the back and still goes on to win. Bobby Isaac and Harry Hyde get busted too but are allowed to keep Isaac's 3rd place Q run. Yet he still can't hang with the 43. Following the race, the 71 team picks up its toys and goes home for 2 weeks.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2012/03/march-7-this-day-in-petty-history.html
Anyone who thinks NASCAR "plate" racing was invented after Bobby Allison's near trip into the Talladega grandstand should read the news account you have posted of the Richmond race - winner Petty and Benny Parsons had to race with restrictor plates as a penalty for having their engines set back too far.
A small correction for the text cited from Greg Fielden in his 40 Years of Stock Car Racing - Bobby Isaac's car owner and the owner of K&K Insurance was Nord Krauskopf, not Norm as written by Fielden.
Thanks for the restrictor plate history lesson!!
DOH! Thanks for note. That's on me - not Greg. By-product of cranking through so many of these things I guess. Trying to proof them - but I'm still finding periodic typos in my stuff after entries post.
