1981: Seventh heaven

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- All in all, Richard Petty would rather have a Buick, worn tires and all.

	Richard Petty

Thanks to crew chief Dale Inman's shrewd decision not to change tires on Petty's last stop of the day, the King was crowned champion of the Daytona 500 for the seventh time, bringing Buick its first Winston Cup victory since 1955.

"We just out-thunk 'em there at the end," Petty said.

Pacing himself while Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, Ricky Rudd and Dale Earnhardt diced for the lead, Petty preserved his tires for the final stretch. In fact, once he made his final stop, he turned the fastest lap of the race.

With 25 laps to go, Petty didn't appear to have much of a chance, running six seconds behind the lead pack.

But all four leaders pitted for fuel and right-side tires on 174, taking around 17 seconds. Two laps later, Petty rolled down pit road for one can of gas -- and was back out in seven seconds.

That 10-second edge was enough to allow Petty to beat Allison to the finish line by four seconds.

KNOW YOUR NASCAR  •  1981 Season Recap  •  NASCAR's 50 Greatest Drivers: Richard Petty  •  More NASCAR History    1981 Daytona 500 Top 10  1. Richard Petty  2. Bobby Allison  3. Ricky Rudd  4. Buddy Baker  5. Dale Earnhardt  6. Bill Elliott  7. Jody Ridley  8. Cale Yarborough  9. Joe Millikan  10. Johnny Rutherford

"Halfway through the race, Dale told me, 'We can do what we want the last half. The tires will make it,'" Petty said. "That was good enough for me.

"As to why they changed, I guess it was because you can go a little faster for 8 to 10 laps. I couldn't lead the race with all those other fellows in a bunch, but we could keep up, and once I got away from 'em, I could run fast."

Allison downplayed the strategy, saying the main reason he lost the race was because his car ran out of gas and slowed on the lap before his final stop.

"The car was really strong," he said. "But we ran out of gas, changed the tires, too, and never caught up again. We ran out, and that was that."

Petty also benefitted from woes that sidelined three of his main challengers. Neil Bonnett's spoiler came loose, Darrell Waltrip blew an engine and Benny Parsons suffered a punctured radiator.

"That's how you win races," Petty said. "If you can stay in there, you can figure on some of 'em falling out for one thing or another. My car was probably the seventh-fastest here, but it was first across the line."

Allison's Pontiac had appeared unbeatable all week, thundering to the pole with a lap of 194.624 mph, but Petty was fast enough when it counted. Pretty surprising for a team that had blown two engines in practice and had won just two races the previous season.

"Everybody was accusing me of sandbagging all week," Allison said. "Well, they better look for somebody else now ... the No. 1 sandbagger of all time ... that man in the No. 43. Maybe I didn't figure on him, either."

Tim Richmond finished 30th in his first Daytona 500 start while Kyle Petty ended up 32nd.

NOTE: This is one in a series of articles counting down to the 2003 Daytona 500.