1980 FIA Cup Championship

[slorydn1]

In 1980, sophomore driver Dale Earnhardt squeaked by 3 time Champion Cale Yarborough by just 19 points to grab the first of his record tying 7 Winston Cup Championships. Dale used a commbination of of winning and consitency to get it done. His 5 wins were second best to Cale's 6, and he had 19 top 5's (to Cale's 19) and 24 top 10's (to Cale's 22).

Lets see how the FIA points stack up:

001 Cale Yarborough........353
002 Dale Earnhardt.........340
003 Darrell Waltrip........289
004 Benny Parsons..........272
005 Bobby Allison..........258
006 Richard Petty..........243
007 Neil Bonnett...........193
008 Buddy Baker............184
009 Harry Gant.............150
010 Terry Labonte..........132
___________________________
011 Dave Marcis............099
012 Jody Ridley............091
013 David Pearson..........084
014 Donnie Allison.........055
015 Lennie Pond............051

42 drivers have scored at least 1 point this year. This was the first year that the championship changed hands in this deal. Cale Yarborough wins his 4th Championship in 5 years, and Dale has wait a little longer to get his first championship. Cale averaged 11.4 ppr, and the group as a whole avg'd 7.1 ppr, tying 1977 for the best in that category. The group also avg'd starting 26.3 races out of the 31, and 1980 is the ONLY year that all the poles were in the top 15. I'm not sure what that means, though, without looking into it further. It may mean that 1980 was the only year they got all the qualifying sessions in. The groups avg start is 8.7, which is the best of the study, and their avg finish was 13.9. Reliabilty numbers plummetted, with the group avg RAF down to 17.8, and the avg DNF climbed to 8.5 races. I will note that this period from 1980-1982 was the time frame that nascar was phasing out the old car and phasing the then new car which alot of us fell in love with. 1980 was the last full year of the "long wheelbase" car. 1980 was the year that saw the highest win and top 5 percentage with the group average being 7.85% and 37.22 % respectively. The avg Lead Lap Finish of the group climbed again to 6.8 races out of 31, or 25.82 %. All 31 of the race wins are in the top 15, with 30 of those in the top 10 again (David Pearson won the spring race at Darlington).

The Bud Pole Award goes to Cale Yarborough with 14 poles!!!!

Congrats to Dale Earnhardt, the 1980 Winston Cup Champion
Congrats to Cale Yarborough the 1980 FIA Cup Champion

[call_me_andrew]

That championship couldn't have come down to 19 points; there was no chase to create false parity.

[slorydn1]

That championship couldn't have come down to 19 points; there was no chase to create false parity.

LOL

Earnhardt had 4661 points to Cale's 4642, a difference of 19....Benny Parsons, who finished P3 only scored 4278, or 383 points back.