On This Day June 8, 1980 Riverside International Raceway

The Warner W. Hodgdon 400 turned out to be a barn burner between Darrell Waltrip & Neil Bonnett over the last 5 laps with Waltrip getting by Bonnett off turn 9 on the last lap edging Bonnett at the line by 0.3 seconds

5th Place, Dale Earnhardt:

Pole sitter & 4th place finisher Cale Yarborough leads the field into Turn 6 on lap 1

3rd Place, Benny Parsons

The last lap battle between Waltrip & Bonnett:

A long way off, but under the Goodyear sign Waltrip crosses the finish line just ahead of Bonnett:

Cool down lap

2nd Place, Neil Bonnett:

Mid race shot of Winner, Darrell Waltrip:

great report Scott. thank you very much.

Qualifying was held on D-Day, June 6th. As Scott referenced, Cale Yarborough nabbed the pole - his 5th consecutive one of the 1980 season. - Gadsden Times

In a situation rarely seen anymore, Riverside had a double header on June 8th. The Cup 400 race was accompanied by the Sharon 200 Grand American race. Joe Ruttman won the pole on Saturday June 7th, and Ron Esau won the race. I'm not sure which race was run 1st. I suspect the Cup race ran 1st followed by the GA race because I can find nothing on Esau's win. I'm presuming the media was focused on filing stories for the Cup race vs. keeping up with the the progress of Esau's run. - Spartanburg Herald Journal

Waltrip in victory lane

Race report published in Spartanburg Herald Journal (click to make article larger)

Thank you Bill!

Chase:

The Sharon Hodgdon 200 started at 11:00am and the 400 started at 1:30pm

A long hot day in the stands

Ron Esau:

Awesome!! Miss those days!

A Baker bump

Great Scott photos