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1983 Daytona 500
Race details
Race 1 of 30 in the 1983 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
1983 Daytona 500 program cover
1983 Daytona 500 program cover
Date February 20, 1983 (1983-02-20)
Location Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, Florida
Course Permanent racing facility
2.5 mi (4.02336 km)
Distance 200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Weather Temperatures of 70 °F (21 °C); wind speeds of 13 miles per hour (21 km/h) [1]
Average speed 155.979 miles per hour (251.024 km/h)
Attendance 115,000 [2]
Pole position
Driver Richard Childress Racing
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner Dale Earnhardt Bud Moore Engineering
Duel 2 Winner Neil Bonnett RahMoc Enterprises
Most laps led
Driver Joe Ruttman Benfield Racing
Laps 57
Winner
No. 28 Cale Yarborough Ranier-Lundy
Television in the United States
Network CBS
Announcers Ken Squier and David Hobbs
Nielsen Ratings 8.7/26
(11 million viewers)

The 1983 Daytona 500, the 25th running of the event, was held February 20 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida as the first race of the 1983 NASCAR Winston Cup season.

Summary

Cale Yarborough was the first driver to run a qualifying lap of more than 200 miles per hour (320 km/h) at Daytona in his #28 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. However, on his second of two qualifying laps, Yarborough crashed and flipped his car in turn four. The car was destroyed in the crash, and Ranier-Lundy did not have a back up car for Yarborough to race. Thus, the team had to scramble to find a replacement and eventually found a Hardee’s restaurant displaying a Pontiac LeMans painted like the #28 and used for promotional purposes; that car was brought to Daytona and restored to racing condition, with Yarborough starting it from the eighth position.

Ricky Rudd wound up with the pole, driving Richard Childress' Chevrolet in what would become a breakthrough season for the longtime independent driver Childress. The early laps were a battle between Geoff Bodine, Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Kyle Petty, and a resurgent Dick Brooks. Richard broke away from the field before his engine failed after 47 laps and the race became a showdown between Bodine, Yarborough, Joe Ruttman, Brooks, Neil Bonnett, Buddy Baker, and Bill Elliott, while former Talladega 500 winner Ron Bouchard was also in contention. [2]

On Lap 63, the engine on the Bud Moore Engineering Ford driven by Earnhardt failed. As the race went on the lead bounced back and forth, and Bobby Allison, who'd lost a lap, crowded the leaders most of the day. Past halfway Kyle Petty blew his engine and a tire issue dropped Bonnett off the lead lap; when Mark Martin hit the wall Ruttman swerved to stop Bonnett from getting his lap back as they raced through a group of lapped cars. Bonnett got his lap back later but blew his engine in the final twenty laps while Brooks cut a tire and lost a lap.

On the final lap, Baker led Yarborough, Ruttman, and Elliott. Cale stormed past Baker on the backstretch and Ruttman drafted into second; Baker dove under Ruttman and Elliott snookered them both on the high side in a three-abreast photo finish for second. The win was Cale's third in the 500 and was also the first time that an in-car camera of a car went into victory lane before a national CBS Sports audience.

Waltrip-Brooks incident

With Brooks as the leader, the field slowed down coming back to the yellow. Two cars, though, tried to get their lap back by beating the leader back to the finish line, a practice banned subsequently in 2003 - Lake Speed passed Brooks in Turn Four and then moved into his path; Brooks braked and Darrell Waltrip spun to avoid hitting Brooks; Waltrip's Chevrolet struck the inside guardrail and flew backward back onto the racetrack, nearly collecting Yarborough, Bodine, and Ruttman.

Waltrip suffered a concussion, resulting in an overnight hospitalization. He returned the next week at Richmond, which would be prohibited under a 2014 rule change. Waltrip admitted in his biography DW: A Lifetime Going Round in Circles (published in 2002) that it was a life-changing crash: when he heard drivers and fans joking that the crash would "knock him conscious" or "finally shut him up", he realized for the first time how unpopular he was and resolved to clean up his image. Waltrip often referenced the crash when asked to be a keynote speaker at national events.

The practice of allowing lapped cars to attempt passing the leader at the finish line when taking the caution was prohibited after the 2003 Sylvania 300 at Loudon, NH when after Dale Jarrett crashed and numerous cars nearly struck Jarrett's disabled car on the race to gain a lap back, leading to the development of the current beneficiary rule. The concussion protocol was adopted in 2014 after Dale Earnhardt Jr. took himself out of two races in the 2012 season after two concussions—one in August (Kansas tire test) and in October (Talladega race crash).

Did not qualify

Drivers who failed to qualify for this event include Blackie Wangerin, Joe Millikan, Connie Saylor, Morgan Shepherd, Rusty Wallace and David Simko. [2]

• This would be the only time Rusty Wallace ever failed to qualify for a race in his 25-year career.

Finishing Order

Pos Grid No. Driver Car Make Laps Status Laps
led
Points
1 8 28 Cale Yarborough Pontiac LeMans 200 Running 23 180
2 17 9 Bill Elliott Ford Thunderbird 200 Running 6 175
3 5 21 Buddy Baker Ford Thunderbird 200 Running 35 170
4 11 98 Joe Ruttman Chevrolet Monte Carlo 200 Running 57 170
5 10 90 Dick Brooks Ford Thunderbird 199 Running 15 160
6 41 44 Terry Labonte Chevrolet Monte Carlo 199 Running 0 150
7 22 53 Tom Sneva Chevrolet Monte Carlo 199 Running 0 146
8 15 16 David Pearson Chevrolet Monte Carlo 198 Running 0 142
9 35 22 Bobby Allison Chevrolet Monte Carlo 198 Running 0 138
10 18 84 Jody Ridley Buick Regal 197 Running 0 134
11 9 14 A. J. Foyt Chevrolet Monte Carlo 197 Running 0 130
12 39 51 Lennie Pond Buick Regal 197 Running 0 127
13 32 66 Phil Parsons Buick Regal 196 Running 0 124
14 42 52 Jimmy Means Buick Regal 196 Running 0 121
15 27 89 Dean Roper Pontiac Grand Prix 194 Running 0 118
16 34 67 Buddy Arrington Chrysler Imperial 194 Running 0 115
17 36 41 Ronnie Thomas Pontiac Grand Prix 192 Running 0 112
18 20 6 Jim Sauter Chevrolet Monte Carlo 191 Running 0 109
19 28 26 Ronnie Hopkins Buick Regal 191 Running 0 106
20 30 04 Rick Baldwin Dodge Mirada 188 Running 0 103
21 40 10 Clark Dwyer Chevrolet Monte Carlo 188 Running 0 100
22 4 75 Neil Bonnett Chevrolet Monte Carlo 187 Running 9 102
23 29 48 James Hylton Chevrolet Monte Carlo 184 Running 0 94
24 1 3 Ricky Rudd Chevrolet Monte Carlo 182 Camshaft 1 96
25 16 1 Lake Speed Chevrolet Monte Carlo 178 Engine 0 88
26 23 47 Ron Bouchard Buick Regal 162 Engine 0 85
27 25 64 Tommy Gale Ford Thunderbird 149 Engine 0 82
28 12 2 Mark Martin Buick Regal 136 Crash 0 79
29 37 70 J. D. McDuffie Pontiac Grand Prix 132 Engine 0 76
30 2 88 Geoffrey Bodine Pontiac Grand Prix 106 Engine 14 78
31 38 0 Delma Cowart Buick Regal 102 Crash 0 70
32 21 71 Dave Marcis Chevrolet Monte Carlo 100 Piston 0 67
33 7 7 Kyle Petty Pontiac Grand Prix 99 Engine 9 69
34 33 17 Sterling Marlin Chevrolet Monte Carlo 69 Piston 0 61
35 3 15 Dale Earnhardt Ford Thunderbird 63 Engine 2 63
36 31 11 Darrell Waltrip Chevrolet Monte Carlo 62 Crash 0 55
37 13 33 Harry Gant Buick Regal 56 Engine 0 52
38 6 43 Richard Petty Pontiac Grand Prix 47 Engine 29 54
39 26 32 Bosco Lowe Buick Regal 36 Crash 0 46
40 19 23 Elliott Forbes-Robinson Buick Regal 36 Engine 0 43
41 24 27 Tim Richmond Pontiac LeMans 24 Engine 0 40
42 14 55 Benny Parsons Buick Regal 8 Push Rod 0 37
Source [3]

References

  1. ^ "Weather of the 1983 Daytona 500". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Archived from the original on 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2013-06-24.
  2. ^ a b c "1983 Daytona 500 racing information". Racing Reference. Archived from the original on 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2013-06-24.
  3. ^ "Race Results".
Preceded by NASCAR Winston Cup Series Season
1982-83
Succeeded by