Earlier, this season, NASCAR fans witnessed a rare event. After finishing in the first and second positions in the Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were disqualified from the race altogether. Owing to an infraction in their vehicles discovered in a post-race inspection, the governing body stripped the drivers of their win.

However, this is not the first time that something like this happened. In 2017, NASCAR “encumbered” two monster-energy drivers after a post-race discovery. Furthermore, in several instances, the officials busted drivers like Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and Clint Bowyer after similar after-race inspections.

But they were not necessarily stripped of their wins. Even after violating NASCAR rules, the governing body did not vacate the checkered-flag results. Just like when Richard Petty remained the official winner of the 1983 race at Charlotte even after using an oversized engine and illegal tires.

But then comes the infamous 85th victory for Bobby Allison.

Infamous, because they never officially acknowledged it. On August 6, 1971, Bobby Allison won the Winston-Salem North Carolina race. After the race, they sent Allison’s Mustang for the post-race inspection as usual. And oddly, even though there was no scoring dispute, no inspection issues, and no other problems on or off track, NASCAR never really acknowledged that Allison won the 1971 Winston-Salem race.

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But why? Did NASCAR forget to acknowledge Allison’s 85th win? But how did NASCAR didn’t say anything in the past 51 years?

Here’s why NASCAR didn’t acknowledge Bobby Allison’s win

From 1968 to 1971, NASCAR dedicated itself to promoting Grand American races for charters known as pony cars. Back then, the Mustangs, Camaros, Cougars, Firebirds, and Javelins usually raced in standalone events. They had limited participation in the Cup races.

During the 1971 race, around 10 of the 29 entries were the Grand American cars. And interestingly, Bob Allison’s Mustang won ahead of Richard Petty’s Plymouth, which was a pony car back then. And, of course, this did not sit well with NASCAR or Richard Petty. In an interview, Petty said,

“I figured something like this would happen. They’ll probably win all these (combination) races. (Cup) racing isn’t supposed to be filled with Mustangs and Camaros.”

And this became a controversial topic during the early 70s. In fact, even 4 decades after the race, Petty believes that Bobby Allison shouldn’t get credit for his 1971 Winston-Salem victory.

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But doesn’t Allison have something to say about his unacknowledged 85th win? Well, sadly for Allison, much of the race’s details have been washed away from his memory. After the fatal accident that ended his career, Allison’s memory has been fickle and unreliable. Hence, leaving his technically valid but still infamous 85th victory as an interesting anecdote for NASCAR fans.