Controversial Pocono victory helped fuel Waltrip’s charge to first championship
By Steve Waid
Thursday, July 31, 2008
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TURN ONE COMMENTARY
Darrell Waltrip badly wanted to win a Winston Cup championship entering the 1981 season. He’d had plenty of success already, including 27 series victories, and four straight finishes in the top five in the final Winston Cup standings.
But in 1981, Waltrip saw his best chance yet to reach the pinnacle of the sport, as he joined Junior Johnson’s powerhouse team, which had won three consecutive championships with driver Cale Yarborough from 1976-78.
No wonder Waltrip was salivating like a starving man looking at a dinner buffet.
Yet Waltrip stumbled a bit coming out of the gate that year. In fact, by early June, he was 341 points behind leader Bobby Allison, who drove for Harry Ranier.
But Waltrip began to make up ground. At the midway point of the season, marked by the Firecracker 400 at Daytona – where Allison fell out with engine problems and Waltrip finished 10th – Waltrip closed the gap to 206 points.
In the next race, at Nashville, Waltrip and Allison finished 1-2. Allison’s points lead shrunk to 196.
On July 26 in the Mountain Dew 500 at Pocono International Raceway – the only Winston Cup event held in 1981 at the 2.5-mile triangular track – Waltrip won his second consecutive race.
Or did he?
The finish was the most controversial in Pocono’s history.
When the checkered flag fell, Yarborough was in front of Waltrip. Thinking he had won the race, Yarborough went to victory lane. But so did Waltrip. As the two staged a tug-of-war with their cars, NASCAR told Yarborough to leave. Waltrip was the winner.
Fuming, Yarborough questioned NASCAR’s ruling. How could he be in front of Waltrip at the checkered flag and not be the winner?
The unusual outcome began with just five laps remaining in the race. At the time, Waltrip was ahead of Richard Petty by 3.2 seconds.
Yarborough was running with the lead pack but he was a lap behind.
Then James Hylton crashed to bring out the final caution period.
Waltrip quickly pitted and so did Yarborough. He shouldn’t have done that. He came onto pit road too early; he didn’t make up his lost lap.
Yarborough didn’t know that.
When the race resumed, Petty had the lead. Yarborough passed him on the white-flag lap, but so did Waltrip. And Waltrip’s pass was the decisive one.
Naturally, Yarborough thought otherwise. He maintained he was the rightful winner.
An irate Yarborough said that NASCAR could pretty much give the victory to whomever it wanted. And since the race sponsor was also the financial backer for Johnson’s team, it wanted Waltrip to win.
M.C. Anderson, Yarborough’s team owner, was permitted to see the scorecards – there was no electronic scoring in those days – and he came away satisfied that Waltrip was indeed the winner. NASCAR got it right.
Allison encountered more problems at Pocono. He fell victim to mechanical woes halfway through the race and finished 25th. His points lead over Waltrip fell to 104.
After Pocono, Waltrip continued his rampage. In all, he won seven times over the final 14 races, finished second five times and was third once.
Once 341 points behind Allison in early June, Waltrip took the points lead with a runnerup finish at Dover in September.
Waltrip wasn’t finished. Through late September and early November, he won four consecutive races – at Martinsville, North Wilkesboro, Charlotte and Rockingham.
With 12 wins in 31 races, Waltrip won his first Winston Cup championship by 53 points over Allison.
It was a season in which Waltrip won a race that he really did not – at least in one rival’s opinion.
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