‘Seventh Heaven’: How Richard Petty’s improbable 1981 Daytona 500 triumph came to be

By every conceivable measure, the 1981 Daytona 500 was Bobby Allison’s to lose. 

The 1978 Daytona 500 winner and his infamous No. 28 “Gray Ghost” were the duo to beat in Daytona Beach during the 23rd iteration of Speedweeks. Allison bested the field in qualifying for the race and took home the victory in his 125-mile duel race later in the week. 

After the former driver and CBS pit reported Ned Jarrett wished Allison luck on the starting grid, Allison led second-place starter Darrell Waltrip and the rest of the Winston Cup Series field into Turn 1 to begin the Daytona 500. 

The eventual 1981 Winston Cup champion in Waltrip cleared Allison for the lead entering Turn 1, but Allison regained the top spot, leading the first circuit over Neil Bonnett. 

For much of the afternoon, all the pundits who predicted Allison and the No. 28 team as the favorites were the smartest people in eastern Florida. Allison’s dominant car held serve for lap after lap, and it seemed as if he was well on his way to his second Daytona triumph. 

In the closing laps, however, Allison sacrificed a half-lap of speed after running out of fuel. With green flag pit stops approaching, the No. 28 team was forced to watch as other leaders flew by. A 15-second two-tire stop took place, with Allison going back out onto the track after losing a considerable amount of time to the drivers he was racing. Allison was reportedly forced to pit five to six laps earlier than anticipated. 

Allison’s pit stop handed the race lead to six-time Daytona 500 winner and seven-time Winston Cup Series champion Richard Petty. Petty’s last Daytona triumph had come at the expense of Allison and Cale Yarborough’s crash on the final lap in 1979, and while Petty was in a position for a top-five finish late, it would take another stroke of bad luck on Allison’s behalf for Petty to reach victory lane. 

“Like old times, Richard Petty is out in front of the Daytona 500,” CBS lap-by-lap announcer Ken Squier said on the television broadcast. 

A few laps after Allison’s vehicle crawled to pit road, Petty’s No. 43 made its way to the pits under full power. Like most other drivers pitting during the final green flag cycle of the day, Petty was expected to take on new right-side tires. 

That was until crew chief Dale Inman made one of the gutsiest pit calls in NASCAR history, with Petty only taking on gas in a blazing-fast 6.8-second pit stop. 

Despite the tire disadvantage Petty was at, he held off Allison to take his seventh — and most improbable — Daytona 500 win. 

“The tires were no problem,” Petty said in victory lane. “If there had been a caution, it would’ve been a heck of a race.” 

“Well, Ned, we kinda had it planned for a while,” Inman told Jarrett when asked about the strategic gamble. “The other guys slipped in (pit road) on us before we were ready. We hoped we could catch them changing tires.”

In an ironic twist of fate, the 1981 Daytona 500 would be Inman’s final race with Petty Enterprises for nearly five years. After being a key piece in the team growing into a NASCAR powerhouse, Inman left to call the shots for another seven-time champion, Dale Earnhardt. Inman won his eighth championship as a crew chief with Terry Labonte in 1984 before returning to Petty Enterprises in 1986. 

While Petty won seven more Cup Series races, his final Daytona 500 win would be his last major NASCAR victory.