|| *Comments on the 1981 Budweiser NASCAR 400:* View the most recent comment <#38> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Darrell posted: 12.25.2005 - 3:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last race at Texas World Speedway. 2. Darrell posted: 03.05.2006 - 9:52 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) ...and first start for Kirk Shelmirdine. 3. Dalejrfan14 posted: 03.14.2006 - 8:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (14) HA!he quit after 2 laps!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!along with Prince after1 lap!HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!And Ulrich after 4!HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! 4. Bill posted: 05.25.2006 - 8:19 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Dalejrfan, why is that funny? the guy is underfunded as it is.....and its not like he hasnt forever left his mark in cup racing....and im not talking about as a driver 5. Steve posted: 06.11.2006 - 7:48 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Can anybody who has been a fan of NASCAR (before it became NA$CAR) since the late 70's or early 80's describe this track? I've heard that the Ontario Speedway was just like Indy; was this track similar to Michigan? And Dalejrfan 14, his last name is PRICE, not Prince. 6. Thomas posted: 07.31.2006 - 10:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I have a tape of the 1993 ARCA/Winston West race from Texas World Speedway. It looks like a combination of Michigan and Kentucky. The frontstretch is D-shaped just like Michigan, but it is more narrow than Michigan and has 8 degrees of banking. The backstretch is long and flat with a backstretch wall that looks like the one Jeff Fuller hit at Kentucky. The turns are wide and sweeping, and banked at 22 degrees. If I recall, turns 1 and 2 at TWS look like Kentucky and turns 3 and 4 look like Michigan. 7. Steve posted: 10.17.2006 - 12:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Thanks for the info, Thomas. Notables: Texas native H.B. Bailey's best finish of 1981 (15th) Rick Baldwin's debut (21st) Dale Earnhardt's best finish of 1981 (2nd, also at Riverside) Cecil Gordon's 425th start (18th) Roger Hamby's final Winston Cup start (27th; 68th start) Randy Ogden's best Winston Cup finish at the time (he finished 15th at Riverside the following week) Baxter Price finished last in his debut and his final race (34th; 90th start) Darrell Waltrip's last non-Top 10 finish in 1981 (in the final 17 races, he had 8 wins, 14 Top 5s, 17 Top 10s, and an average finish of 2.59) 8. Bill posted: 10.27.2006 - 5:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Skip Barber Racing School still uses the track. 9. Thomas posted: 12.15.2006 - 9:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yep, Skip Barber, the SCCA, and several other pro and teaching divisions use it for leisure and pro events. The Barber Dodge Pro Series ran some races there in the late 90s and IMSA (now American Le Mans) ran a race there in 1996 using one of the many infield road course layouts. 10. Steve M posted: 03.13.2007 - 6:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) the only track in the United States thats 2 Miles or longer not being used by the Nextel Cup series 11. Darrell posted: 06.24.2007 - 9:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the track that was closed because the grandstands were falling apart correct? 12. Bill posted: 07.06.2007 - 11:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Correct Darrell. That and everything else 13. Bill posted: 08.11.2007 - 11:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This whole place was a mess. I pulled a tape recently of what the track look like in the early 90's....it was pathetic. 14. Destiny posted: 09.20.2007 - 4:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Five drivers had their last set at College Station: Bobby Allison, Cecil Gordon, James Hylton, Benny Parsons and Richard Petty. 15. Destiny posted: 09.20.2007 - 5:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I meant 8 races. 16. RaceFanX posted: 02.11.2008 - 4:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kirk Shelmerdine's entry was the very first time car owner Richard Childress fielded a car for a driver other than himself, although that would become much more common later in the season. It was also the first time he fielded a two-car effort. 17. Mark O. posted: 06.03.2008 - 6:24 pm Rate this comment: (6) (0) Dalejrfan14 gets an F in reading...for the surname of the last place driver is "Price" not "Prince". These kids don't understand who these old timers are, don't care, and shouldn't allowed to post. 18. Ryan D posted: 08.11.2008 - 10:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I agree with you Mark O. I am 16 and know alot about NASCAR back in these days. Back to the Kirk Shelmerdine deal, the car was white with Chrome like numbers and McDonalds was written in yellow. It was the same paint scheme that Richard Childress raced at the Riverside race earlier in the year. Also for those who have never seen Randy Ogden's car, it is one of my favorite paint schemes of all time. It was red, white and blue with red, white and blue numbers. 19. hyltonfan08 posted: 02.01.2009 - 11:44 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I don't understand what Dalejrfan14 thinks is so funny? It seems a lot smarter to me to at least show up at a race to show sponsors you're around, as Morgan Shepherd has done, than sit dormant and go bankrupt, like Morgan-McClure. If starting and parking is what it takes to build a viable race team, I'm OK with it. 20. The Real Thomas posted: 05.08.2009 - 5:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Here is a link to Randy Ogden's car: http://www.pbase.com/cannondaledave/image/66827095 Here's Childress' McDonald's scheme: http://www.pbase.com/cannondaledave/image/66850057 21. Jim posted: 06.14.2009 - 6:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The track was so rough in turns 1 & 2 it jarred Benny Parsons radiator loose. He was lucky to win that one. I first went there in Nov.82 and watched Ricky Rudd win a USAC stock car race for Childress. It was a #3 Piedmont sponsored Pontiac. Other notables in that race were Terry Labonte and Bay Darnell. If anybody was still wondering yes it was a sister track to Michigan, built the sam time frame, 1968-69. In the 80's it hosted the Texas Race of Champions a race for late model stocks. Before turn 1 the cars would dive into a mile of road course and the get back on the superspeedway in turn 3. Drivers like Terry Labonte, Bobby Allison, and Freddy Fryar always showed up. The track was purchased in 1990 by a Japenese co. and repaved. It hosted some Arca races from 1991- 1995. 22. Clayton posted: 08.30.2009 - 7:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sirus Radio is broadcasting this race right now! OH BABY! This is awesome! 23. Clayton posted: 08.31.2009 - 1:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The finish was excellent. Parsons drafted Earnhardt for the latar part of the race. Parsons was told to do so by his team because they didn't want to race Bobby Allison at the end. Parsons then battled Earnhardt for the last ten laps and pulled away from Earnhardt at the end. Then there was a battle for fifth between Dave Marcis and Jody Ridley. Marcis and Ridley swapped the fifth position three or four times on the final lap. Marcis just nipped him at the line. MRN Radio had the race. Mike Joy, Barney Hall were in the booth. On the turns were Eli Gold and another guy who I can't remember the name. ANd in the pits was Ned Jarrett. 24. Mattswad posted: 04.21.2010 - 6:53 pm Rate this comment: (1) (6) I think what dalejrfan was laughing at is Kirk Shelmerdine's pathetic "career" of stealing money by taking advantage of the system/rules & disrespecting the former sport by starting & parking for ca$h. I've always found it disgustingly ironic that his first career start as a driver, so many years before he soiled the series with his disgrace that was the 2004 season, would be a start & park effort sponsored by McDonalds for Richard Childress. (who also re-introduced the former sport to that practice in final race of 1993 by parking Neil Bonnett in a second RCR car to ensure Dale SR would win the championship) Not to mention that Jimmy Means did so as well with the #50. Another owner who continues to disgrace the former sport with his start & park scams in NWS currently. 25. AutoRockinRacing94 posted: 09.20.2010 - 10:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Speaking of that...how did he got McDonald's sponsoring Kirk in this race? They didn't become primitive in the sport until about 1993 with minor decals with Earnhardt and Bonnett. Then later on in 1995 with Bill Elliott and now with McMurray. 26. 00andJoe posted: 09.26.2010 - 10:46 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) As I recall, the "scam" of Kirk starting-and-parking here was because otherwise there wouldn't have been a full field of cars, and thus Childress rolled his backup car off the trailer, right? (For the ultimate example of "roll off the backup and take the hair-dryers to the number decals", see the Busch series races at Pikes Peak...) 27. Greg G posted: 02.28.2011 - 9:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track is just like Michigan with a little more banking. The turn 1 and 2 areas were having problems the shifting foundations. The grandstand also needed a lot of work the last time I was there in 1996 for a ARCA race. The scoreboard didnt work until about lap 50 and the PA system sucked.. It was like the track sisn't try anything out until the race started. The road courses in the infield still has races almost every weekend with SCCA and driving schools.. Chumpcar is running a 18 hour enduro the this summer. 28. Jim posted: 02.18.2012 - 10:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eddie Bierschwale won an ARCA race there in April 92 passing Clifford Allison on the last lap. 29. Steve posted: 07.13.2012 - 2:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Eventual champion Darrell Waltrip was 341 points behind Bobby Allison. I don't believe anyone has erased a bigger gap to the leader on their way to the Winston Cup championship (CHA$E years excluded). 30. RaceFanX posted: 03.20.2015 - 6:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the last NASCAR Cup race at Texas World Speedway but not the end of its Cup activity. The track became a favorite testing location for NASCAR teams in the late 2000s-early 2010s when NASCAR ban testing at tracks it sanctioned during the season. The track is scheduled to close in June 2015 after which point it will be demolished to make room for a housing development. 31. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 11.08.2015 - 2:14 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 35-43: #42 spun turn 1 Caution 2: Lap 46-52: #20 accident turn 3 Caution 3: Lap 125-130: #88 engine Caution 4: Lap 133-137: #44,66,71 accident turn 3 Caution 5: Lap 165-168: #24,40,77 accident turn 1 32. Carl posted: 04.18.2016 - 11:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I have been to this track before it is fun and is 2 miles long I saw the race on tv and it was fun especially when benny won. I wanted Earnheart to win.oh well. I wish NASCAR would rebuild the track and the grandstands so it will race at it again still it kept slipping in and out of the race radar. I been to the track in 2010 its weird I cant believe it they should race at it again the 2mile track deserves another race at it. especially with the new cars. LETS GO TEXAS WORLD SPEEDWAY 33. Rob posted: 03.22.2017 - 2:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) IIRC, there was no live nor tape delayed telecast of this race. On the other hand, it was probably the best race ever for NASCAR's premier series at this track. Unfortunately, the race probably drew the smallest crowd of any series race there. 34. Josh posted: 05.22.2018 - 12:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The late Benny Parsons' penultimate victory as a full-time driver and his third-to-last victory overall. The member of the MRN team in Turns 3-4 was Woody Carson. I just listened to the classic broadcast of this race thanks to MRN. The track was evidently in horrible shape even then. It had rained non-stop for the two days prior to the race, and a couple of drivers slid and got stuck in the mud, notably Kyle Petty due to a blown engine early in the race. The wreckers couldn't even get to him for fear of getting stuck; they had to get Kyle and at least one other out via tether tied to the wrecker. The surface was in such bad shape that drivers kept cutting tires during the race. Joe Ruttman cut down 2-3 different tires in a row within only a few laps during the middle portion of the race. Some drivers were saying Dale Earnhardt was exacerbating the situation by taking a low groove and kicking up dirt and pebbles onto the racing groove. Fan favorite Terry Labonte sat on the pole and put on a good show for the hometown faithful, leading a few laps and running up front with the leaders for most of the race. Just before his unfortunate crash, he had put on a darting move to barely beat leaders Parsons and Earnhardt to the line to get back on the lead lap. There were 35 total lead changes, many of which occurred under green. For all the problems competitors faced and the resulting separation of the field at the finish, there was still tight competition for the lead throughout the entire race. 35. Travis Simpson posted: 05.24.2018 - 12:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Final winner at South Boston for Cup: Benny Parsons 1971 Final winner at Ontario: Benny Parsons 1980 Final Winner at Texas World: Benny Parsons 1981 Final Winner at Nashville Fairgrounds: Geoff Bodine 1984 Final Winner at Riverside International Raceway: Rusty Wallace 1988 Final Winner at North Wilkesboro Speedway: Jeff Gordon 1996 Come on BP, you let me down not winning the last Cup race at tracks you have won at in the past. LOL. I know he was doing TV for the last race at North Wilkesboro and finished a respectable 13th at Riverside. Two positions ahead of NASCAR Hall of Famer Rick Hendrick. 36. Ryan posted: 06.17.2018 - 3:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Awesome battle between Benny Parsons and Dale Earnhardt over the last 90 laps the lead was traded between them 16 times with Parson coming out on top. 37. 1995z71 posted: 07.21.2019 - 8:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) So Kirk Shelmerdine was still the crew chief of Earnhardt during this race. Shelmerdine could not run the whole race because he had to be on the pit box in time for the first pit stops. The car was Childress's backup. Childress had an extra car and they only did it because the field was not full. The sponsorship was not from the McDonald's corporation, rather it was from a local McDonald's franchise. Hope that clears some stuff up. 38. 1995z71 posted: 07.21.2019 - 8:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sorry meant to say that Shelmerdine was still Childress's crew chief, not Earnhardt's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: