1971 Islip 250

Two hundred and fifty green flag laps were done on a paved oval track spanning .200 miles (0.322 km).^[5] However, the race was shortened by twenty laps to 230 laps due to an error with the scoring system.^[5] At the time, Islip Speedway had a scoring system that looked like a Rolodex card system that would flip down cards with minutes (with numbers from 00 to 99) and seconds (with numbers from 00 to 59) on them.^[5] This would give the time elapsed in the race with some manual output; similar to the scoring system used at the very first Daytona 500 because electronic scoring would be decades away from being a reality. The first column would count the number of minutes elapsed with the second column would count the number of seconds elapsed. It would be rare to see a race last for more than ninety-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds (approximately 1.6 hours) until NASCAR started lengthening their races in the 1970s.

The time of the race was fifty-five minutes and seventeen seconds.^[5] Speeds were considered to be 49.925 miles per hour (80.346 km/h) for the average and 46.133 miles per hour (74.244 km/h) for the pole.^[5] Richard Petty managed to defeat Friday Hassler by out-lapping him twice.^[5] Frog Fagan was the lone Canadian in the race making his final start in a Cup Series vehicle.^[5]

Fagan would race for a single lap before quitting in Neil Castles' #06 Dodge vehicle.^[5] In addition to leading the race, Richard Petty led all 230 laps of the race.^[5] Ken Meisenhelder's vehicle overheated on lap 27 just like Pete Hamilton's vehicle would overheat on lap 36.^[5] John Sears noticed the axle on his vehicle was acting weirdly on lap 48 while the ignition on Bill Champion's vehicle stopped working on lap 71.^[5] Bobby Mausgrover noticed that his vehicle's brakes stopped working on lap 102 while battery problems would relegate Ed Negre to the sidelines on lap 106.^[5]

Bill Seifert noticed that his vehicle's transmission was developing problems on lap 113 while Jerry Churchill blew his engine on lap 119.^[5] J.D. McDuffie had to leave the race due to a missing vehicular rear end on lap 132 while Larry Baumel's vehicle would be cursed with transmission problems on lap 142.^[5] Henley Gray would notice that his vehicle's brakes stop working on lap 200; forcing his premature exit from the race.^[5]

Benny Listman would do his only NASCAR Cup Series race here.^[5] Four automobile manufacturers were predominant during this race: Ford, Dodge, Plymouth and Mercury.^[6] Notable crew chiefs that participated in the event were Lee Gordon, Vic Ballard, Dale Inman and Wesley Wiltshire.^[7]

The winner would receive a prize bounty of $1,500 ($11,646 when adjusted for inflation) while the last place finisher would receive a paltry $10 ($78 when adjusted for inflation) prize bounty.^[5] Total winnings for this track would be $8,685 ($67,432 when adjusted for inflation). This would be the final race in NASCAR's top series for this track; the track would be demolished in 1984 to become a cookie factory. All races shorter than 250 miles would be axed by the NASCAR organization;^[3] in the sport's modernization process.

† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased
* Driver failed to finish race