1981 Mason-Dixon 500

1981 Mason-Dixon 500
Race details
Race 12 of 31 in the 1981 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season
Date May 17, 1981 (1981-May-17)
Location Dover Downs International Speedway (Dover, Delaware)
Course Permanent racing facility
1.000 mi (1.609 km)
Distance 500 laps, 500.0 mi (804.6 km)
Weather Temperatures between 48.9 °F (9.4 °C) and 69.1 °F (20.6 °C)[1]
Avg Speed 116.595 miles per hour (187.641 km/h)
Pole position
Driver David Pearson Kennie Childers
Most laps led
Driver Neil Bonnett Wood Brothers
Laps 404
Winner
90
 Jody Ridley
 Junie Donlavey
Television
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on May 17, 1981 at Dover Downs International Speedway (now Dover International Speedway) in the American community of Dover, Delaware.[2][3]

Summary

Five hundred laps took place on a paved track spanning 1.000 mile (1.609 km).[2][3] It took four hours and seventeen minutes for Jody Ridley to defeat Bobby Allison by 22 seconds in front of 40000 live spectators.[2][4] However, this victory was controversial because Bobby Allison's team blamed a scoring error for his loss (even though Allison himself didn't actually protest the win).[5] The winner would win $22,560 in prize money ($54,478.59 in today's money) while the last place winner would take home only $5,980 ($14,440.69 in today's money).[4][6] Two cautions were given out for 24 laps and the average racing speed was 116.925 miles per hour (188.173 km/h).[2] David Pearson would acquire the pole position with a speed of 138.425 miles per hour (222.773 km/h).[2]

All of the 32 drivers on the racing grid were American-born males.[2] Benny Parsons would acquire a last-place finish on the first lap due to a crash with Dave Marcis.[2][3] The lowest finishing driver to finish the race was Cecil Gordon; who was 42 laps behind the lead lap.[2][3]

Finishing order

  1. Jody Ridley
  2. Bobby Allison
  3. Dale Earnhardt
  4. D.K. Ulrich
  5. Ricky Rudd
  6. Morgan Shepherd
  7. Buddy Arrington
  8. Terry Labonte
  9. Jimmy Means
  10. Cale Yarborough*
  11. Donnie Allison
  12. Darrell Waltrip
  13. Neil Bonnett*
  14. Tommy Gale
  15. Cecil Gordon
  16. Harry Gant*
  17. Richard Childress*
  18. James Hylton*
  19. Richard Petty*
  20. Kyle Petty*
  21. Mike Alexander*
  22. Joe Fields*
  23. J.D. McDuffie*
  24. Ronnie Thomas*
  25. David Pearson*
  26. Junior Miller*
  27. Ron Bouchard*
  28. Lowell Cowell*
  29. Elmo Langley*
  30. Bob Riley*
  31. Dave Marcis*
  32. Benny Parsons*

* Driver failed to finish race

References

  1. ^ Weather information at Almanac.com
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Racing Reference
  3. ^ a b c d 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Database Racing
  4. ^ a b 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Driver Averages
  5. ^ 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Wilson's Race Report
  6. ^ 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at NASCAR.com
Preceded by
1981 Melling Tool 420		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1981		 Succeeded by
1981 World 600