|| *Comments on the 1980 Los Angeles Times 500:* View the most recent comment <#30> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Paul posted: 06.04.2005 - 12:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the last race run at Ontario Motor Speedway. 2. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.19.2006 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (1) (6) If there was a chase in 1980, Dale Earnhardt wouldn't have won his first title until 1986. Cale Yarborough would have won his fourth in a five-year span, and the first of four in a row for Junior Johnson. Had there been a chase format from 1976 to 1985, Junior Johnson's famed 11 car would have won eight of those titles. Four by Yarborough, four by Darrell Waltrip. 3. mcmurrayfan posted: 06.19.2006 - 3:35 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Drivers that ran all 9 races at Ontario: Bobby Allison, Cecil Gordon, James Hylton, J.D. McDuffie, Benny Parsons, and Richard Petty. 4. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 5:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale's final race in Junior Johnson's #11. 5. MegaRacer posted: 02.26.2007 - 2:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This also marked the last season that Cale ran the full schedule. 6. troy posted: 07.17.2007 - 5:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was at this race as part of a pit crew for Ron O'dell car #69. Ron later died in a off track accident and i was looking for mabye any video or pictures or anything for this race thanks troy 7. MegaRacer posted: 09.02.2007 - 5:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great article about OMS. http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/opinion/09/01/dcaraviello.ontario.ghosts/index.html 8. RaceFanX posted: 11.25.2007 - 7:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I think this was also the last ever Cup race for a Mercury. It was at least the last race for the Wood Brothers with a Mercury, end of an era for the #21. 9. RaceFanX posted: 02.11.2008 - 4:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was Dale Earnhardt's first race for longtime sponsor Wrangler Jean. Driving with the blue and yellow colors on his #2, #15, and #3, Earnhardt would prove to be, as Wrangler's slogan was at the time, One Tough Customer 10. DaleSrFanForever posted: 02.26.2008 - 5:30 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) The first of 7 championships by The Man. This in just his second year. To this day he is the only driver ever to do that. To be just a second year driver going against the seasoned veteran, 3-time Winston Cup champ Cale Yarborough, winner of 80+ races eventually and truly one of NASCAR's greatest ever, was quite an accomplishment. Also he and his fairly new team, and extremely young team beat the powerhouse: Junior Johnson. This was the sign that he would be one of the best ever. Even with the Cha$e no second year driver has done this. And the chances of Juan Problem Montoya or David Ragan (especially) winning it this year is practically zero. 11. Ryan posted: 12.16.2008 - 2:21 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wow, what an accomplishment. I bet people was like, "Who is Dale Earnhardt?" Dale beat Cale! Wow! 12. Ryan posted: 01.18.2009 - 8:47 pm Rate this comment: (5) (1) Who cares about if there was a Chase! No one was thinking Chase then! That's when the France's were intelligent! Dale beat myself and Cale! 13. Ryan posted: 01.18.2009 - 8:48 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) Once again it's Dale! He never relequished the points led from the Daytona 500 on! 14. Ryan posted: 03.28.2010 - 10:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) clip from the last race here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgIfRfnlLIM 15. 18fan posted: 06.03.2010 - 1:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Fitting that Cale started on the pole since he sat on a modern-era record 14 poles in 1980. 16. CBASS posted: 12.12.2012 - 9:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsor updates #24 Norm Pressley's Truck Center #74 Louise Smith Special 17. zuel660 posted: 12.14.2012 - 11:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Always wished some team would've raced a Mercury after 1980. I think an '83 Cougar would have made for a cool stock car, and would have been competitive, especially at intermediate tracks. 18. kidracer posted: 03.24.2016 - 2:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) So Im guessing Benny Parsons stole this win. Cale and DW led the majority of the race. Interestingly enough, they were both in their last races for their teams. DW with DiGuard and Cale with JJ. 19. kup posted: 11.15.2017 - 1:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) UPS: universal points system. Driver's UPoints = Miles / Aver.Finish 1980 UPS _ Driver = Miles / AF 1358 _ Dale Earnhardt 11136 / 8.2 1224 _ Cale Yarborough 11015 / 9.0 885 _ Jody Ridley 10976 / 12.4 880 _ Benny Parsons 10035 / 11.4 867 _ Richard Petty 10147 / 11.7 763 _ Darrell Waltrip 9763 / 12.8 722 _ Richard Childress 10692 / 14.8 659 _ Terry Labonte 9951 / 15.1 640 _ Bobby Allison 9027 / 14.1 628 _ Dave Marcis 9790 / 15.6 & TOTAL: UPS! 32 years 1949-1980: Richard Petty 7 in: '63, '64, '67, '71, '72, '75, '79. Lee Petty 5 in: '50, '52, '54, '58, '59. David Pearson 4 in: '66, '68, '69, '76. Cale Yarborough Buck Baker 2 in: '56, '57. Rex White 2 in: '60, '61. Bill Blair 1 in: '49. Fonty Flock 1 in: '51. Herb Thomas 1 in: '53. Tim Flock 1 in: '55. Joe Weatherly 1 in: '62. Ned Jarrett 1 in: '65. Bobby Isaac 1 in: '70. Benny Parsons 1 in: '73. Dale Earnhardt 1 in: '80. 20. Mattj posted: 11.25.2017 - 1:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) For the second season in a row, Darrell Waltrip won the first race of the year at Riverside while Benny Parsons won the last race of the year at Ontario. 21. Spen posted: 03.04.2018 - 2:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Zuel660: Cale Yarborough Racing actually tested a Mercury in '93, but ultimately decided not to make the switch. 22. Brandon posted: 04.01.2018 - 12:15 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) A total of 7 manufacturers raced in the 31 races in 1980, here is how many races each showed up to. Buick: 25 Chevrolet: 31 Chrysler: 1 Dodge: 31 Ford: 31 Mercury: 23 Oldsmobile: 31 23. RaceFanX posted: 04.03.2018 - 10:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Confirming earlier thoughts this indeed was the final NASCAR Winston Cup race to feature a Mercury car in competition, specifically Neil Bonnett's #21 Mercury Montego (a model that was already out of production anyway). Mercury's had been racing in the NASCAR Strictly Stock/Grand National/Cup series since its very first race back in 1949 but after the move to downsized cars in 1981 all of the Ford-backed teams went with the now legal Thunderbird instead. The Wood Brothers had been racing Mercurys since 1968 and had run them exclusively since early 1969, minus a single one off with a Ford in 1972. The #21 team remained with FoMoCo for 1981 and onward but switched permanently to the Blue Oval brand. While this marked the end of Mercury's involvement in the Cup series it did continue to see racing action in other series. There were a good number of Mercury's in NASCAR's Baby Grand/Goody's Dash series (one of Dale Jarrett's earlier high level race cars was a Capri in that series) and the company later had a factory-backed IMSA road racing team. With the demise of the Merkur XR4Ti after the 1988 season Roush Racing switched over to racing tube-frame Mercury Cougars XR-7s in IMSA's GTO class for 1989 and 1990, winning the manufacturer's title both years, before it dropped them for Ford Mustangs in 1991. The Mercury Cougar was the badge engineered sibling of the Ford Thunderbird and it was legalized for NASCAR Cup competition up until its 1997 demise although without factory backing they were never raced. Cale Yarborough team's built and tested a Cougar Cup car in mid-1993 with driver Derrike Cope, thinking it could be a good car for Talladega, but ultimately never raced it (nascarman has a great blog on this site about it). 24. Spen posted: 04.03.2018 - 3:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A #22 Mercury Couger also ended up being used by Axel Folly in Bill Elliott's NASCAR Challenge in 1990. 25. Gray Gaulding's Distant Cousin posted: 05.11.2018 - 1:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Additional DNQs (Going off the Entry List) #08 Frank Freda Protector Dodge (Dottie Freda) #14 Dick Kranzler C&M Electric Chevy (Dick Kranzler) #17 Harry Goularte GO-en Racing (Patty Goularte) #19 John Anderson Gray Racing Chevy (Henly Gray) #22 St James Davis Engine Dynamics Dodge (LaDonna Davis) #31 Billie Harvey Graf Lear Jets Chevy (Fast Lane Ltd) #33 Gary Balough Draime Race Engines Chevy (Phil Howard) #53 Slick Johnson #80 John Callis Bo Laws Auto Ford (Tom Callis) 26. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 08.26.2018 - 6:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: #40 spun turn 3 Caution 2: #25 stalled turn 1 Caution 3: #93 accident turn 3 Caution 4: debris Caution 5: #88 engine Caution 6: #48 engine 27. RaceFanX posted: 06.20.2019 - 9:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Benny Parsons went winless through most of 1979 but won two of the last four races down the stretch. He'd win both of the last two NASCAR races held at the Indianapolis of the West in Ontario, having never finished better than a third in 1976 during any of the prior races here. 28. RaceFanX posted: 06.20.2019 - 9:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @27 Whoops, wrong race. For this one... BP and M.C. Anderson's Melling Tool squad go back-to-back in Ontario during the track's last two years of operation. The combination netting three wins in 1980, all on superspeedways, with this being the its last outing together before BP and Melling left to join Bud Moore's #15 team for 1981. This was the last outing for the Anderson team as a full-time outing although the #27 remained quite competitive in 1981 after recruiting Cale Yarborough as its new driver and Valvoline as its new sponsor for Yarborough's part-time campaign. This was the last race for any series at the Ontario Motor Speedway, the real estate branch of the Chevron Oil Company having already purchased the Big O and it would soon be torn down to make way for new development. The NHRA held its World Finals here from 1970 to 1980, holding quarter-mile drag races on the oval's pit road, with its final event here having come about a month earlier. 29. Jordan posted: 03.31.2020 - 10:11 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Its really to bad both Ontario and Texas World Speedway dropped from the schedule in successive years. I certainly would prefer to see both tracks over the likes of Chicago, Kansas or Kentucky. Of course if they both still existed neither California (Fontana) nor TMS in Forth Worth would exist. Side Note: Benny Parsons won the last race at both OMS & TWS. 30. rateus posted: 02.12.2021 - 4:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Wawak qualified for Henry Jones. John Anderson is listed here as both a starter and a non-qualifier, he definitely qualified in his starting position so maybe the Henley Gray entry was a late withdrawal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: