1981 Winston Western 500 (November)

1981 Winston Western 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 31 of 31 in the 1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season

Layout of Riverside International Raceway
Date November 22, 1981 (1981-November-22)
Official name Winston Western 500
Location Riverside International Raceway (Riverside, California)
Course Permanent racing facility
2.700 mi (4.345 km)
Distance 119 laps, 311.8 mi (501.7 km)
Weather Temperatures up to 72 °F (22 °C); wind speeds up to 7 miles per hour (11 km/h)
Average speed 95.288 miles per hour (153.351 km/h)
Attendance 46,000[2]
Pole position
Driver
Junior Johnson & Associates
Most laps led
Driver Bobby Allison Ranier Racing
Laps 49
Winner
No. 28 Bobby Allison Ranier Racing
Television in the United States
Network Untelevised
Announcers None

The 1981 Winston Western 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that was held on November 22, 1981, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.

Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day. Road courses were one of the more attractive features for NASCAR during the 1981 Winston Cup Series season. NASCAR would develop a liking for mile and a half tracks by the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

Summary

During the preceding season, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore. This race and two others of this kind at Riverside during the 1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season were probably used to make-up for the loss of Ontario Motor Speedway. It had been the season finale in previous years while Riverside had the opening date in January and the race in June. Then they changed it leaving the June Riverside race and putting the other race as the final from 1982 to 1986 before Atlanta got the finale until 2000. Riverside kept its two races until 1988 when they ran the last race in June 1988 and the later date went to Phoenix. Then they added a second Pocono race in 1982 but then lost Texas World Speedway.

It took three hours and sixteen seconds for Bobby Allison to defeat Joe Ruttman by a time of 0.24 seconds in front of 46000 live spectators while driving Harry Ranier’s No. 28 Hardee’s Buick.[2][3] Richard Childress would make his final racing appearance here before devoting his career to running Richard Childress Racing.[2] Former Formula One racer Bob Bondurant would retire from the NASCAR Cup Series after this race.[2] Seven cautions were given out for 33 laps on this road course that spanned 2.620 miles (4.216 km) per lap; for a grand total of 311.8 miles (501.8 km).[2] Darrell Waltrip qualified for the pole position with a speed of 114.981 miles per hour (185.044 km/h) while the average race speed was 95.288 miles per hour (153.351 km/h).[2] Out of the entire 40-driver grid, 38 drivers were American while Roy Smith and Gary Kershaw were Canadians.[2][4]

Ricky Rudd would receive the last-place finish with an engine problem on the second lap in his Buick vehicle; earning only $6,150 in prize winnings ($16,034.57 when inflation is taken into effect).[2][5][6] J.D. McDuffie would finish in 11th place;[2] a rarity for a driver with the most last-place finishes in NASCAR history. Joe Millikan would make his final "top five" finish in this race.[2]

Finishing order

  1. Bobby Allison (No. 28)
  2. Joe Ruttman (No. 2)
  3. Terry Labonte (No. 44)
  4. Dale Earnhardt (No. 3)
  5. Joe Millikan (No. 5)
  6. Darrell Waltrip (No. 11)
  7. Richard Petty (No. 43)
  8. Harry Gant (No. 33)
  9. Jody Ridley (No. 90)
  10. Ron Bouchard (No. 47)
  11. J.D. McDuffie (No. 70)
  12. Gary Kershaw (No. 74)
  13. Morgan Shepherd (No. 24)
  14. Bill Schmitt (No. 73)
  15. Don Waterman (No. 38)
  16. Lake Speed (No. 17)
  17. James Hylton (No. 48)
  18. Bob Bondurant (No. 69)
  19. Gary Balough (No. 75)
  20. Tim Richmond (No. 37)
  21. Don Puskarich (No. 13)
  22. Gene Thonesen (No. 7)
  23. Mark Stahl (No. 85)
  24. Buddy Arrington (No. 67)
  25. Dave Marcis* (No. 71)
  26. Tommy Gale* (No. 64)
  27. Benny Parsons* (No. 15)
  28. Chuck Pettinger* (No. 1)
  29. Scott Miller* (No. 51)
  30. Roy Smith* (No. 0)
  31. Terry Herman* (No. 99)
  32. Jim Robinson* (No. 78)
  33. Neil Bonnett* (No. 21)
  34. Pat Mintey* (No. 35)
  35. Don Whittington* (No. 93)
  36. Jim Bown* (No. 16)
  37. Kyle Petty* (No. 42)
  38. Hershel McGriff* (No. 1)
  39. Richard Childress* (No. 41)
  40. Ricky Rudd* (No. 88)

* Driver failed to finish race

Standings after the race

Pos Driver Points[2] Differential
1 Darrell Waltrip 4880 0
2 Bobby Allison 4827 -53
3 Harry Gant 4218 -662
4 Terry Labonte 4052 -828
5 Jody Ridley 4002 -878
6 Ricky Rudd 3991 -889
7 Dale Earnhardt 3978 -902
8 Richard Petty 3883 -997
9 Dave Marcis 3510 -1370
10 Benny Parsons 3452 -1428

References

  1. ↑ Weather for the November 1981 Winston Western 500 at the Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1981 Winston Western 500 information at Racing Reference
  3. ↑ Tracks of Yesterday - Riverside International Raceway information at Inside Racing News
  4. ↑ 1981 Winston Western 500 information at Database Racing
  5. ↑ 1981 Winston Western 500 information at Driver Averages
  6. ↑ 1981 Winston Western 500 information at ESPN
Preceded by
1981 Atlanta Journal 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1981-82 		Succeeded by
1982 Daytona 500
Preceded by
January 1981		 Winston Western 500 races
1981 		Succeeded by
1982
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/8/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.