"NASCAR Winston Cup Series"
"1981 Daytona 500"
February 15th, 1981
"Daytona International Raceway"
Daytona, Florida
Race 2 of 31 during the 1981 Season
"Past Winners"
1980: Dale Earnhardt
"Qualifying"
"Race"
"#11 Darrell Waltrip leads the field to take the green flag to winning his 2nd pole of the year and his 22nd career pole in his 222nd career start"
"#99 Tim Richmond, #73 Bill Schmitt and #14 Sterling Marlin get together just before the tri-oval causing the "Bit One" on lap #19."
"Richmond, Marlin, #40 D.K. Ulrich & #15 Lake Speed would be forced to retire from the race while ruining #10 Cale Yarborough, #12 Donnie Allison, #27 Benny Parsons and #2 Dale Earnhardts chances at winning 2 Daytona 500's in a row"
"#23 Bryan Dehn get's caught behind a pitting #50 Bruce Hill losing the lead pack and falling many seconds behind"
"#90 Jody Rildey makes a safe 4 wide pass on #42 Kyle Petty, #3 Richard Childress and #87 Gary Balough"
"#11 Darrell Waltrip, #7 Dick Brooks and #23 Bryan Dehn work together and make it all the way back to the lead pack"
"The top 3 qualifyers #28 Bobby Allison, #11 Darrell Waltrip and #23 Bryan Dehn all pit together when a debris caution comes out trapping the rest of the field 1 lap down"
"Seeing the pack coming up on a slow car #23 Bryan Dehn over reacts and get's into #42 Kyle Petty and #71 Dave Marcis bringing out the 3rd and final caution of the day"
"This allows #3 Richard Childress and #43 Richard Petty to get back on the lead lap"
"#28 Bobby Allison wins his 2nd career Daytona 500 in the last 4 years and is his 58th career victory in his 500th career start breaking a string of 39 races without a victory"
"Race Recap"
Everybody, but their grandma shared the lead in this one, but all, but 5 of the last 30 laps belonged to the front row starters as Bobby Allison crossed the line first for the second time in the Daytona 500. 15 different drivers lead at least 1 lap in to start off the first 18 laps of the race when the first caution flag flew. The next 30 laps would see #90 Jody Ridley, #3 Richard Childress and #6 Joe Ruttman exchange the lead back and forth amongst other drivers until the half way point in the race. Ruttman and Ridley would be joined by Allison, Waltrip and #9 Bill Elliott for the next 20 laps until lap 71 when #71 Dave Marcis would be the last drive that didn't start in the top 3 to lead a lap. Under caution #23 Bryan Dehn would lead 4 laps, but the race to the checkered flag would be between Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison with a host of lapped cars blocking the way. There was 3 cautions for 12 laps and 25 drivers exchanged the lead 62 times.
"Lap Leaders"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 1"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Laps 2 through 4"
#88 Ricky Rudd "Lap 5"
#7 Dick Brooks "Lap 6"
#44 Terry Labonte "Laps 7 through 8"
#2 Dale Earnhardt "Lap 9"
#10 Cale Yarborough "Lap 10"
#31 Billie Harvey "Lap 11"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Lap 12"
#27 Benny Parsons "Lap 13"
#87 Gary Balough "Lap 14"
#98 Johnny Rutherford "Lap 15"
#08 Bruce Jacobi "Lap 16"
#99 Tim Richmond "Lap 17"
#33 Harry Gant "Lap 18"
#28 Bobby Allison "Laps 19 through 24"
#90 Jody Ridley "Lap 25"
#3 Richard Childress "Laps 26 through 27"
#33 Harry Gant "Lap 28"
#3 Richard Childress "Lap 29"
#90 Jody Ridley "Lap 30"
#64 Tommy Gale "Lap 31"
#44 Terry Labonte "Laps 32 through 34"
#1 Buddy Baker "Lap 35"
#90 Jody Ridley "Laps 36 through 37"
#28 Bobby Allison "Laps 38 through 39"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Laps 40 through 42"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Lap 43"
#3 Richard Childress "Lap 44"
#47 Ron Bouchard "Lap 45"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Lap 46"
#3 Richard Childress "Lap 47"
#90 Jody Ridley "Lap 48"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Lap 49"
#42 Kyle Petty "Lap 50"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Lap 51"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Lap 52"
#43 Richard Petty "Lap 53"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Lap 54"
#9 Bill Elliott "Lap 55"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Lap 56"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 57"
#9 Bill Elliott "Laps 58 through 59"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 60"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Laps 61 through 62"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 63"
#3 Richard Childress "Lap 64"
#90 Jody Ridley "Lap 65"
#6 Joe Ruttman "Lap 66"
#43 Richard Petty "Lap 67"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 68"
#90 Jody Ridley "Lap 69"
#43 Richard Petty "Lap 70"
#71 Dave Marcis "Lap 71"
#28 Bobby Allison "Laps 72 through 73"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Laps 74 through 75"
#28 Bobby Allison "Lap 76"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Laps 77 through 78"
#23 Bryan Dehn "Laps 79 through 82"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Lap 83"
#28 Bobby Allison "Laps 84 through 93"
#11 Darrell Waltrip "Laps 94 through 97"
#28 Bobby Allison "Laps 98 through 100"
"Video Recap"
"#23 Bryan Dehn's Day"
After a great qualifying run I stayed up front for a few laps before falling to the back of the pack expecting the big wreck to take out half of the field. It did happen and I was able to avoid it going through the infield grass, but it only effected a few cars. I lost the pack soon after retaking the green flag and fell back to 27th, but taking only 2 tires during the next 3 pit stops and getting some luck finding the fast car of Darrell Waltrip got me back into contention and even more luck fell as Darrell, Bobby and I had passed the start/finish line on pit road before the debris caution came out leaving just the 3 of us on the lead lap even though Bill Elliott pitted with us his pit stall was before the line and had to stay behind the pace car 1 lap down and finally leading a lap with just 20 to go. I made my lone mistake of the race anticipating the group to slow down for a slower car and came down on Kyle Petty bringing out the last caution and effectively taking me out of a 3rd place finish for the 2nd week in a row. I'll still take 4th place and have finished in the top 5 in each of my 2 Daytona 500's so far, but still don't have quite the car to contend for the win. We built a Oldsmobile to run on the drafting tracks to help my lack of power at these tracks and it seemed to help as I was able to make up the 15 second difference I was behind the leaders early on.
"Race Results"
"Point Standings"
"Next Race"
Richmond 400
Richmond, Virginia
February 22nd, 1981