1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500

1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500
Race details
Race 7 of 31 in the 1980 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season


Date April 13, 1980 (1980-April-13)
Location Darlington Raceway (Darlington, South Carolina)
Course Permanent racing facility
1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance 189 laps, 258.2 mi (415.4 km)
Scheduled Distance 367 laps, 501.3 mi (806.7 km)
Weather Temperatures reaching up to 79.9 °F (26.6 °C); wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h); exactly 0.31 inches (7.9 mm) of rain and hail interrupted the race[1][2]
Average speed 112.397 miles per hour (180.885 km/h)
Pole position
Driver Benny Parsons M.C. Anderson Racing
Most laps led
Driver David Pearson Ellington Racing
Laps 246
Winner
21
 David Pearson
 Ellington Racing
U.S. Television
Network ABC
Announcers Keith Jackson
Jackie Stewart

The 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 is a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event that was held on April 13, 1980 at Darlington Raceway in the American community of Darlington, South Carolina.

Forty-five thousand racing fans would attend the event, interrupted by 0.31 inches or 7.9 millimetres of precipitation, shortened to the shortest race in what is now the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series by percentage in Darlington history (51.50%, 189 laps, which is six laps more than an official race, which is 184 laps), as the race was shortened because of impending darkness (Darlington did not add lights until the 2004 Southern 500, the last of the great major before it was taken out by litigation imposed led by The Cochran Firm).

Summary

There were 36 American-born drivers on the racing grid for this event. A multiple-car crash where Ricky Rudd and Richard Petty collided in Turn 1 collected numerous cars, with Neil Bonnett never completing the first lap. David Pearson would earn his final victory ever as a NASCAR Cup Series driver as he gathered the strength to defeat Benny Parsons by a little more than three seconds. Lake Speed would finish in the top ten only three races after his Cup Series debut; making a similar impression on the NASCAR community that Trevor Bayne would eventually do at the 2011 Daytona 500.[3]

Most of the cars used in this racing event belonged to the Chevrolet manufacturer. The entire event took two hours and twenty-three minutes to complete. Almost the entire "top ten" grid were driving Chevrolet stock car vehicles. Harry Gant would achieve his first "top five" finish in this event; marking a precedence for more than 100 "top five" finishes. Winnings for this race varied from $21,340 for the winner ($59,460.69 in today's money) to a modest $1,800 for the last-place finisher ($5,015.43 in today's money); he never recorded an actual lap during the event.[3] The total prize purse was calculated to be $173,565 ($483,612.66 in today's money).[4]

Melvin Revis would retire from NASCAR Cup Series competition after this race while David Pearson would never win again.[5]

Finishing order

  1. David Pearson
  2. Benny Parsons
  3. Harry Gant
  4. Darrell Waltrip
  5. Dick Brooks
  6. Lennie Pond
  7. Joe Millikan
  8. Lake Speed
  9. Richard Petty
  10. Jody Ridley
  11. Sterling Marlin
  12. Cale Yarborough*
  13. Bobby Wawak
  14. Buddy Arrington
  15. Tommy Gale
  16. Roger Hamby
  17. John Anderson
  18. James Hylton
  19. Ricky Rudd
  20. Bill Elswick
  21. Richard Childress
  22. J.D. McDuffie
  23. Dave Marcis*
  24. Dick May
  25. Slick Johnson
  26. Ronnie Thomas*
  27. Buck Simmons*
  28. Jimmy Means
  29. Dale Earnhardt*
  30. Bobby Allison*
  31. Baxter Price*
  32. Terry Labonte*
  33. Melvin Revis*
  34. Cecil Gordon*
  35. Buddy Baker*
  36. Neil Bonnett*

* Driver failed to finish race

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References

  1. ^ 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 weather information at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  2. ^ Amount of precipitation that ended the 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 at The Old Farmers' Almanac
  3. ^ a b 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 racing information at Racing Reference
  4. ^ 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 racing information at Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet
  5. ^ 1980 CRC Chemicals Rebel 500 racing information at Race Database
Preceded by
1980 Valleydale Southeastern 500		 NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1980		 Succeeded by
1980 Northeastern Bank 400
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Last modified on 14 May 2013, at 02:41