NASCAR Messed With What 40 Years Ago on July 4th???
Stock Car Racing History
40 years ago, beginning with the 1973 July 4th Firecracker 400 at Daytona, NASCAR restricted carburetors. It all came to a head at Charlotte in October. If you thought things were interesting at Charlotte in October 1983 when Richard Petty was busted in Victory Lane, wait until you read what happened during and following the 1973 National 500, ten years earlier.
One top team pulled out mid-race and refused to let NASCAR inspect their car. There were protests following the event and counter protests. An eyewitness crewman for another team claimed he saw the Pettys cheating on their carburetor. His team had already had their pole winning qualifying time disallowed because of a cheater carburetor plate.
Charlotte promoter Richard Howard promised fans that NASCAR would let him know the official race results by 10:00 a.m on Monday morning following the Sunday Charlotte race.
Let it be stated that the NASCAR records 40 years later show the top 3, all involved in the protests and tear downs, as Cale, Richard and Bobby. Still special to be able to set a race finish 40 years later using just first names isn't it?
Read the full account of the race end at this newspaper link:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1_tNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4234,959655&dq=richard+howard+charlotte+motor+speedway&hl=en
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
