Backstory

SCORING SNAFU

DONNIE ALLISON WINS AT ATLANTA AFTER ALL

BY BEN WHITE

•Richard Petty edges Dave Marcis at the line.

•Donnie Allison W hile all eyes were on a spirited battle between Richard Petty and Dave Marcis for what most thought was the victory in the Dixie 500 on Nov. 5, 1978, at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Donnie Allison had already won the 328-lap race.

Driving the No. 1 Chevrolet owned by Hoss Ellington, Allison had made up nearly a two-lap deficit through two late cautions flags, but the score cards mistakenly had him fifth, one lap down, after the checkered flag. Petty beat Marcis to the start-finish line by two feet but that wasn’t the pass for the win, as Allison had actually taken the lead with two laps remaining.

After the race, Allison said angrily, “I guess NASCAR needs for Richard Petty to win a race more than they need for me to win. I’m going home.”

At that time, two scorers monitored each car with hand-written score cards, using a numbered clock system as each car passed the scoring stand. According to NASCAR officials, if one scorer missed a car, the other would catch the mistake and it would be countered by the other scorer.

No mistake initially showed on Allison’s car immediately after the race. Allison’s scorers both missed a lap within three laps and as a result, no correcting factor showed up in the count.

“I get the checkered flag, so I go to Victory Lane and Richard goes to Victory Lane.” Allison said. “Richard went to the press box and they didn’t take me to the press box until later on. My scorer wasn’t scoring me. She wanted Richard to win another race. I asked what the hell she was doing, and she told me she knew I won the race.”

Allison stood firm that he was the race winner. NASCAR was set to show him he didn’t win until an unlikely source proved he was right.

Sixteen-year-old Brian France, grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France and son of then NASCAR president Bill France Jr., showed officials where the mistake was made. Allison was declared the winner at 7:40 p.m., followed by Petty in second with Marcis third, Dale Earnhardt fourth and Benny Parsons fifth.

Allison didn’t learn about the decision until the following day.

“Clyde Bolton of the Birmingham News called me and said, ‘They gave you the race,’” Allison recalled. “ I said, ‘No, they didn’t give it to me. I won it.’”

Before leaving the track, Petty fired a parting shot, “I’m going home to celebrate second place.”

The race marked Earnhardt’s first start with team owner Rod Osterlund. He would go on to win rookie of the year in 1979 and the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1980 while driving for Osterlund.