Sunday, January 21, 2018

Mark Donohue Wins "NASCAR Winston Western 500" At Riverside - January 21, 1973

January 21, 1973
Mark Donohue
Indycar and road racing star Mark Donohue drove an AMC Matador with a set of disc brakes - new for racing at the time - and led 138 laps en route to the win. It was the first NASCAR wins for AMC and Donohue. David Pearson won the pole but never led and fell out with clutch failure, while Richard Petty started fifth and led 39 laps before his engine failed while leading on Lap 95. Bobby Allison finished second driving a self-fielded Chevrolet following a surprise divorce from the Richard Howard team. Cale Yarborough, new driver for Howard's team with the cars renumbered to #11, fell out with transmission failure.

That race was Penske's first NASCAR win in a long history of NASCAR participation and remains to this day, the last non-regular (non-full schedule) driver (road course ringer) to win a NASCAR Winston Cup road race.

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