1981 Southern 500 - NASCAR Race

Darlington Raceway is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina.

It was the first superspeedway built with NASCAR racing in mind and is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.

Darlington has an interesting history. When the 1.366 mile long track first opened over a half-century ago, it was not uncommon for there to be 80 or more entrants in a race; this was curtailed over the years as NASCAR adopted a more uniform set of guidelines with regard to the number of cars which could qualify for a race.

In recent years the track has been reconfigured; what was the front stretch is now the back stretch, and the turns have been renumbered accordingly. Seating has been increased to approximately 60,000; it has been limited by the proximity of a railroad track to the facility, a highway behind the back stretch, and the still-present pond.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.

1981 Southern 500 NASCAR Race Results

Below are the race results for 1981 Southern 500, in order of finishing place.