None of the leaders late in the Mason-Dixon 500 on May 17, 1981, at Dover Downs International Speedway could catch a break.

Well, almost none of them.

Neil Bonnett blew an engine while leading with 41 miles to go. The lead then went to Cale Yarborough, who'd trailed Bonnett by two laps, but then his engine let go about 20 circuits later. Five laps behind Yarborough was Jody Ridley, a longtime short-track driver in just his second season with Cup owner Junie Donlavey.

Ridley was scored the leader and eventually would be credited with a 22-second victory over Bobby Allison, who along with car owner Harry Ranier insisted the victory should've went to Allison. Scoring, done exclusively by hand at the time, had gotten out of whack in a big way somewhere along the line.

"I know we won the race," Ranier was quoted as saying in the May 21, 1981, issue of Grand National Scene. "There is no question about it."

Information passed out to the media in the late stages added to the confusion. The line "scoring communication difficulty" appeared on official rundown sheets instead of an actual order of cars, a problem that plagued officials even before Bonnett's trouble. Later, on Lap 480, there was no rundown at all.

Ten laps from the end, D.K. Ulrich was shown running fourth, 14 laps down. He was still fourth at the end of the race, but only nine laps back.

For all the uproar, even Allison admitted that he was happy to see Ridley and Donlavey as the winners. Donlavey, one of the most likable men ever to grace a NASCAR garage, would field cars for more than 50 years. In 863 starts, Dover marked his only win as a car owner.

"If Bobby thinks he won it, fine," Ridley said last week. "I don't know how he would know. He'd be just like me. He wouldn't know who was a lap down and who wasn't. I have no idea. As a matter of fact, even at the time, I didn't know if they'd even protested the thing. [The controversy] doesn't take anything away from me. We were just lucky enough to win it. Whatever ... if they took it away, that'd be fine. It really doesn't matter to me."

Don't think for a second, however, that Ridley doesn't have an opinion in the matter. He does. He won the race, fair and square.

"My opinion is that they went back and checked it, and if they checked it and they found that we won it, that's the way it was," Ridley continued. "I don't feel like they would give it to us if we didn't. I feel like they did the right thing, whatever it was."

Ridley lives in his native Chatsworth, Ga. He's still involved in racing, but at his pace. He's currently serving as a consultant for Hooters Pro Cup driver Justin Wakefield, and has also fielded a car for a couple of young relatives. He's helping a grandson with his go-kart, and he's also restoring a 1966 Ford Fairlane GT.

He has not driven since about 2000.

"I'm a retired driver ... and everything else," Ridley said with a laugh. "It just got to where it wasn't a lot of fun any more. I'd did it for 38 years. I just got a little bit tired of it. That's a long time to do anything."

At age 38, Ridley won the Cup circuit's rookie of the year honor with Donlavey. He would stay with the Richmond, Va.-based outfit for three years, which he calls "three of the best years I ever had racing."

"There wasn't a lot of pressure, especially like it is now," Ridley continued. "Junie ... had a little [sponsorship] help, not much. Everybody was a volunteer. If we had a good day, good. If we had a bad day, there wasn't any problem. I don't think we had a cross word the whole time we raced together. He's just a good guy. That whole bunch was good guys."

Ridley left Donlavey only because he thought he had a shot at a deal with Hoss Ellington, an opportunity he felt at the time might afford him the "chance to win a race or two." There was no problem with the Donlavey, none whatsoever; the grass was just greener on the other side of the garage stall.

The last race of the 1982 season came and went, and Ridley was to have signed a contract to drive for Ellington on the following Tuesday. For whatever reason, the deal fell through, and Dick Brooks already was in Donlavey's car. Ridley would run limited Cup schedules the next two seasons in cars fielded by Bobby McEntyre, his longtime short-track owner, and a handful of events in 1986 with Rahmoc Enterprises.

"I wanted to stay in Cup," Ridley said. "[McEntyre's operation] was really a good deal for me, because I'd learned some things. I ran the team and Bobby built the shop and furnished the money. We really done well with it. We just never could come up with a sponsor. ... We almost made it."

After Cup was no longer a viable option, he ran the All-Pro circuit, where he would eventually win six championships. Since relief driving for Bill Elliott in the first couple of races of the 1989 season, Ridley has been back to just a few Cup races.

"My whole career in Cup was basically racing short-handed," Ridley said. "We were a low-buck on everything we did, and when I went back to the All-Pro Series, I had what the other people had.

"I never went back [to visit the Cup garage]. I was busy. ... If you go back, that'll be what you want to do again so we kinda stay away from it. That's the way I looked at it. You can't do it, so don't worry about it. We won six championships after I left in '86, so we did alright."

Related:
• Busch Series 25th Anniversary: Where are they now?
• ONMC member Ridley played key role in rescue effort