1981 Mason-Dixon 500

1981 Mason-Dixon 500

Race details[1][2]
Race 12 of 31 in the 1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Layout of Dover International Speedway
Date	May 17, 1981
Official name	Mason-Dixon 500
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 reaching up to 69.1 °F (20.6 °C); wind speeds up to 8 miles per hour (13 km/h)
Average speed	116.595 miles per hour (187.641 km/h)
Attendance	40,000[3]
Pole position
Driver	David Pearson	Kennie Childers
Most laps led
Driver	Neil Bonnett	Wood Brothers Racing
Laps	404
Winner
No. 90	Jody Ridley	Donlavey Racing
Television in the United States
Network	Mizlou
Announcers	Mike Joy

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 city of Dover, Delaware.

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

Background

Dover Downs International Speedway, now called Dover International Speedway, is one of five short tracks to hold NASCAR races; the others are Bristol Motor Speedway, Richmond International Raceway, Martinsville Speedway, and Phoenix International Raceway.^[4] The NASCAR race makes use of the track's standard configuration, a four-turn short track oval that is 1 mile (1.6 km) long.^[5] The track's turns are banked at twenty-four degrees, and both the front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the backstretch are banked at nine degrees.^[5]

Summary

Five hundred laps took place on a paved track spanning a distance of 1.000 mile or 1.609 kilometres per lap.^[3][2] It took four hours and seventeen minutes for Jody Ridley to defeat Bobby Allison by 22 seconds in front of 40,000 live spectators.^[3][6] However, this victory was controversial because Allison's team blamed a scoring error for his loss (even though Allison himself did not actually protest the win).^[7]

The winner would win $22,560 in prize money ($58,720.41 when adjusted for inflation) while the last place winner would take home only $5,980 ($15,565.07 when adjusted for inflation).^[6][8] Two cautions were given out for 24 laps and the average racing speed was 116.925 miles per hour (188.173 km/h).^[3] David Pearson would acquire the pole position with a speed of 138.425 miles per hour (222.773 km/h).^[3]

All 32 drivers on the racing grid were American-born males.^[3] Benny Parsons would acquire a last-place finish on the first lap due to a crash with Dave Marcis.^[3][2] The lowest finishing driver to finish the race was Cecil Gordon; who was 42 laps behind the lead lap.^[3][2] The tenth-place driver would finish 20 laps down from the lead lap drivers. In today's NASCAR, he would have finished more towards the middle of the pack. There was a "communications meltdown" on lap 480 which put the race in jeopardy. Ridley's win was considered controversial because Allison claimed to have "won the race"; according to NASCAR team owner Harry Ranier.

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
† signifies that the driver is known to be deceased

Timeline

• Start of race: David Pearson had the pole position to start things off
• Lap 42: Neil Bonnett took over the lead from David Pearson
• Lap 58: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Neil Bonnett
• Lap 59: Neil Bonnett took over the lead from Cale Yarborough
• Lap 84: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Neil Bonnett
• Lap 85: Neil Bonnett took over the lead from Cale Yarborough
• Lap 100: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Neil Bonnett
• Lap 104: Richard Petty took over the lead from Cale Yarborough
• Lap 107: Neil Bonnett took over the lead from Richard Petty
• Lap 191: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Neil Bennett
• Lap 196: Neil Bonnett took over the lead from Cale Yarborough
• Lap 460: Cale Yarborough took over the lead from Neil Bennett
• Lap 481: Jody Ridley took over the lead from Cale Yarborough
• Finish: Jody Ridley was officially declared the winner of the event

Standings after the race

Pos	Driver	Points[3]
1	Bobby Allison	1900
2	Ricky Rudd	1733
3	Darrell Waltrip	1694
4	Harry Gant	1576
5	Jody Ridley	1559

References

1. Weather information for the 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
2. 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Database Racing
3. 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Racing Reference
4. "NASCAR Race Tracks". NASCAR. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on 12 September 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
5. "NASCAR Tracks—The Dover International Speedway". Dover International Speedway. Archived from the original on 21 September 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2010.
6. 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Driver Averages
7. 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at Wilson's Race Report
8. 1981 Mason-Dixon 500 information at NASCAR.com