1981 FIA Cup Championship
In 1981, Darrell Waltrip used the "If ya can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy by moving from the DI-Gard #88 Gatoraide car to the Junior Johnson #11 Mountain Dew car and clinched his first of 3 Winston Cups by beating Bobby Allison by 53 points. Darrell turned in a dominating performance, by putting up a league leading 12 wins, 21 top 5's, and 25 top 10's (which was actually 2nd to Allison's 26 top 10's). Junior Johnson was the Hendrick Motorsports of his day. DW led the most laps (2571) or 26.29% of the laps he completed.
Lets see how the FIA Cup Standings shook out:
Code:
001 Darrell Waltrip........470
002 Bobby Allison..........386
003 Harry Gant.............220
004 Richard Petty..........217
005 Ricky Rudd.............210
006 Benny Parsons..........176
007 Dale Earnhardt.........160
008 Terry Labonte..........155
009 Neil Bonnett...........131
010 Jody Ridley............123
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011 Cale Yarborough........118
012 Buddy Baker............088
013 Morgan Shepard.........087
014 Ron Bouchard...........084
015 Kyle Petty.............064
45 drivers scored at least 1 point this year. As you can see, ole DW pounded the competition into submission by 84 points, more than a 3 race margin. DW averaged 15.2 PPR, and went on a run that would make Jimmie Johnson blush, getting a podium finish in every race from the Busch Nashville 420 (race #18, at the old Nashville Speedway) through the Atlanta Journal 500 in race #30 in Atlanta. All but 1 of those podiums were either P1, or P2. The lone P3 in that run came in the Wrangler Sanfor-Set 400 at Richmond (race #24). In fact he won 4 in a row between Martinsville and Rockingham (races 26-29)... Bobby Allison had a "what do I hafta do?!?!?!?" moment, finishing P2 to DW 3 in a row (races 27-29). Neil Bonnett, who only competed in 22 races, led 1549 laps which was a staggering 31.5% of the laps he completed!!! :eek: The top 15 group as a whole averaged only 6.4 ppr, the lowest it had been up to this year. The group avg'd 27.8 races run out of the 31. 1981 was the last year they ran more than 30 races untill the 1994 season. The groups avg start was 10.4, and avg finish was 14.2. All 31 race wins came from the top 15, but only 27 came from the top 10 (Cale Yarborough had 2 wins; Morgan Shepard and Ron Bouchard each had 1 win a piece. Reliability numbers for the group stayed down, with the RAF avg 17.9 races of 31 (64.51%) and the group averaged 9.9 DNF's, the second worst of the Modern Era. BUT, with all that going on, the groups Lead Lap Finsh avg went UP to 7.9 of 31 (28.3%).
The Bud Pole Award goes to Darrell Waltrip, with 12 poles.
:beer: :beer: Congrats to Darrell Waltrip, the 1981 Winston Cup, and FIA Cup Champion!
