1980 Richmond 400

1980 Richmond 400
Race details
Race 3 of 31 in the 1980 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season

Richmond International Speedway
Date February 24, 1980
Location Richmond Fairgrounds (Richmond, Virginia)
Course Permanent racing facility
0.542 mi (0.872 km)
Distance 400 laps, 216.8 mi (348.9 km)
WeatherTemperatures up to 66 °F (19 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)[1]
Average speed 67.703 miles per hour (108.957 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Darrell Waltrip DiGard
Most laps led
Driver Darrell Waltrip DiGard
Laps 148
Winner
No. 88
 Darrell Waltrip
 DiGard
Television in the United States
Network untelevised
Announcers none

The 1980 Richmond 400 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that took place on February 24, 1980, at Richmond Fairgrounds Raceway (now Richmond International Raceway) in Richmond, Virginia, U.S.A.[2]

By 1980, 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. Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.

Summary

There were 35 American-born male drivers on the grid. Darrell Waltrip defeated Bobby Allison by 1.2 seconds in front of 17,000 people.[2][3] Nine caution flags were waved for 72 laps along with 19 different lead changes resulted in a race that lasted three hours and twelve minutes.[2][3]

While Waltrip would earn the pole position with a qualifying speed of 93.695 miles per hour (150.787 km/h) in his #88 Chevrolet Malibu vehicle, the average speed of the actual race was 67.703 miles per hour (108.957 km/h)[3] - a difference of 25.992 miles per hour (41.830 km/h) between the pole position speed and the actual speeds of the race.[2] Baxter Price achieved the last-place finish of the race due to a crash on lap 45 out of the 400 laps being done that day.[2][3] Richard Childress (racing for himself at Richard Childress Racing) would be the last driver to actually finish the race.[2][3] He would drive an Oldsmobile as opposed to the Chevrolet vehicles that he would own today.[2][3]

Tommy Houston would make his NASCAR debut here while Joey Arrington would retire here. Joe Booher would make his best career finish here before dying years later.

Top ten finishers

  1. Darrell Waltrip – #88
  2. Bobby Allison – #15
  3. Richard Petty – #43
  4. Dave Marcis – #71
  5. Dale Earnhardt – #2
  6. Buddy Arrington – #67
  7. James Hylton – #48
  8. Cecil Gordon – #24
  9. J.D. McDuffie – #70
  10. Bobby Wawak – #74

Standings after the race

Pos Driver Points[2]
1 Dale Earnhardt 490
2 Bobby Allison 459
3 Richard Petty 433
4 Darrell Waltrip 413
5 Terry Labonte 387

References

  1. ↑ Weather information for the 1980 Richmond 400 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 1980 Richmond 400 racing information at Racing Reference
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 1980 Richmond 400 racing information at Race Database
Preceded by
1980 Daytona 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1980 		Succeeded by
1980 Carolina 500