On This Day June 14, 1981 Riverside International Raceway

This race produced a battle between Darrell Waltrip (1st), Dale Earnhardt (2nd), Richard Petty (3rd), and Neil Bonnett (4th) with Ricky Rudd finishing in 5th Kyle Petty (6th) and Jody Ridley finishing in 7th after starting in the 25th spot

Green Flag:

Mid Race action with Neil Bonnett leading Benny Parsons, Bobby Allison, and Darrell Waltrip:

Darrell Waltrip leads Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, and Neil Bonnett:

Jimmy Means had a hard crash in turn 6:

7th Place, Jody Ridley:

6th Place, Kyle Petty:

5th Place, Ricky Rudd:

4th Place, Neil Bonnett:

3rd Place, Richard Petty:

2nd Place, Dale Earnhardt:

The Winner, Darrell Waltrip:

Race preview - with focus on Waltrip racing a Buick built specifically for Riverside's road course - still a rarity in that era. - Gadsden Times

Race report from Palm Beach Post

Oh, how I remember this race. We watched Junior Johnson walk down to the Richard Childress pit and voila... the next lap RC "took one for the team - Junior's that is." We watched in amazement as RC gently grazed the wall in the final sweeping turn at Riverside and stopped, bringing out the caution that let DW close the gap on our Wrangler/Earnhardt car.

Dave:

Great bit of info.

Junior: "R.C. y'all want any more them used parts I got?"

I suspect you got the conversation pretty close, Scott. Of course, ironically, before the year was over we were sponsoring RC with Earnhardt driving.

Dave - did you ever hear a 'jab' conversation where Dale not so subtly reminded RC of that race?

I did not Chase... but I'd bet he did... many times!

Bump

Film footage from the June 14, 1981 Riverside Cup race is included in the 1981 Wrangler Racing production about Dale Earnhardt that we produced for television: