Bobby Allison dominated Daytona with and without a bumper

Could a stock car without a rear bumper have a competitive advantage over the field? After Bobby Allison dominated the 1982 Daytona 500, many pointed fingers at the DiGard Racing team, claiming the rear bumper was rigged to come off in that race — thus somehow giving the Buick Regal a competitive advantage over its competitors.

It’s called Bumper Gate and folks in NASCAR circles can’t talk about the Daytona 500 36 years ago without bringing it up. The car was presumably lighter, had more horsepower and got better gas mileage than all others. No wonder the man from Hueytown won the race by 22 seconds over runner-up Cale Yarborough and drove the last 100 miles on the same tank of gas. Was it the weight? Was it drafting? Was it pure luck? It sure wasn’t a Toyota Prius, because those stock cars can guzzle gas in a hurry.