MEYER SPEEDWAY - HOUSTON TX
Houston was considered to be one of the epicenters of stock car racing during the 1950s and 1960s, and many raced were held at Meyer Speedway. NASCAR made it's only visit there in 1971. With Houston TX being a central location of NASA, the race was named the Space City 300. The track was a paved 1/2 mile long oval. Meyer Speedway was bumpy enough to loosen bolts off of a typical NASCAR vehicle. With only 14 cars entering the 1971 Space City 300, this event was one of many in 1971 that contributed to significant changes demanded by new series sponsor Winston for the 1972 season, when the number of races was reduced from 48 to 31, all dirt tracks were removed from the schedule, and a minimum race distance of 250 miles was established for races on oval tracks. 9,000 people showed up to see the race. Frank Warren's Pontiac was the only General Motors product on the racing grid. Not a single Chevrolet name plate to be found anywhere. The
next NASCAR Winston Cup Series race to lack a major manufacturer would be the 1982 Daytona 500; which excluded all Chevrolet vehicles. In this race, Richard Petty would start second, and lead the first four laps. Bobby Allison led for four laps before Petty retook the lead. The after 34 laps out front, Petty's vehicle developed problems with its distributor. More than 10 minutes were lost, and 28 laps went by in the race before Petty was able to get his vehicle back on the track. Miraculously, he gained back seven of his lost laps and salvaged a top-10 finish. Allison would lead 253 of the final 264 laps to get the win by more than two laps over James Hylton. Walter Ballard was third. Elmo Langley and Frank Warren made up the rest of the top five. The NASCAR Cup Series has never again come close to having a field this small. Even for the rest of 1971, they only once had fewer than 29 cars and that was a 22 car field.
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