|| *Comments on the 1981 Talladega 500:* View the most recent comment <#36> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Dave posted: 01.08.2005 - 9:08 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) The infamous finish where Darrell and Terry were battling for the win side by side; Bouchard slipped underneath them both 3 wide and won his only Winston Cup race. 2. HomeDepotKid posted: 01.09.2005 - 1:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) In addition to Bouchard winning his lone race this day, this was also the last of the "It's the Talladega 500, where you'll see a different winner each year" deal. For the first thirteen Talladega 500s, there were thirteen different winners. Darrell Waltrip became the first driver to win the event twice(1979) when he won in 1982. 3. billy posted: 02.10.2005 - 12:02 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) good race 4. MASH_guy posted: 08.15.2005 - 4:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the final event for Richard Childress as a driver, in a car backed by Ronnie Steele. Two weeks later at Michigan, the car had Wrangler Jeans on the quarterpanels and Dale Earnhardt behind the wheel. 5. Jeff posted: 11.26.2005 - 8:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe Bouchard's father was watching the race at home and the TV died when they got to the finish,so he didn't know who had won the race. 6. Chicago posted: 03.08.2006 - 2:51 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Harry Gant won the pole in his Skoal Bandit Buick but it was monopolized by Bobby Allison, leading over a hundred laps despite being pressed hard by Waltrip, Labonte and Bouchard throughout the day, but with less than ten laps to go his motor started to give out. Waltrip took the lead with Labonte and Bouchard in his draft, and they stayed in that order until the white flag ... through the trioval of the last lap, Labonte went high on Waltrip and Waltrip moved to put the block on him ... Bouchard saw his opportunity and swept underneath both of them and beat them by about a foot to the flag. When Waltrip realized Bouchard had beat both of them, he is said to have remarked, "Where'd he come from anyway?" I also vividly remember this race losing the television feed late in the going, and so no one was quite sure what was going on. Definitely a NASCAR classic - and the sum of achievement for New England's own Ron Bouchard, always a threat on the big superspeedways but always beset by some mechanical gremlin. Despite this, he definitely made his name known in the sport and was a pioneer along with Pete Hamilton for other Northeasteners to try their hand at stock car racing. 7. Anonymous posted: 11.24.2006 - 7:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was also Stan Barrett-- father of current independent Stanton Barrett's best career finish, a ninth. 8. Paul MacInnis posted: 12.28.2006 - 2:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Being from Massachusetts I was so happy to see Ron Bouchard win this race. 9. myself posted: 02.14.2007 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last of the "13 Races, 13 Faces" Talladega 500 saga. 10. James W. McLaughlin posted: 04.12.2008 - 10:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Pardon me, but what is this "13 races, 13 faces" thing, anyway? 11. Spen posted: 04.28.2008 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) James, as HomeDepotKid said, the "thirteen races, thirteen faces" thing was because the first thirteen Talladega 500s had a different winner each time. 12. Steve.M. posted: 05.21.2008 - 5:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) kinda like how at Texas Motor Speedway they didnt have a repeat winner till Jeff Burton won his 2nd race there in 2007 13. bj posted: 11.02.2008 - 8:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Many of the drivers that won this race never won another race or it was their first win. 14. Sébastien posted: 09.07.2009 - 12:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hylton #48 was a Pontiac, not a Buick. 15. Steve posted: 01.05.2010 - 4:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bouchard's win was the first by a non-Southeastern driver in 143 races! Every Winston Cup Grand Naional races since Atlanta in the fall of 1976 (won by Wisconsin's Dave Marcis) had been won by a driver from a Southeastern state (including Texas Terry). In 2007, Jeff Burton and Denny Hamlin with one win each were the only Southeastern drivers to win a Cup race. 16. Doc posted: 05.20.2010 - 4:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Always was a fan of Ron Bouchard. He was better than the shortness of his career indicates. 17. zuel660 posted: 03.04.2011 - 4:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rick Wilson crashed at least 4 times in this race before finally finishing his Oldsmobile off later in the going. 18. pit crewman posted: 07.21.2011 - 9:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) according to the site Childress raced to the end of the 1981 season. 19. myself posted: 01.23.2012 - 11:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) 17. zuel660 posted: 03.04.11 - 4:39 pm Rick Wilson crashed at least 4 times in this race before finally finishing his Oldsmobile off later in the going. There's a shocker there! 20. Anonymous posted: 06.26.2013 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (5) (0) Him and Pete Hamilton are the only winners from Massachusetts. I hope to become the third and the first from Western Massachusetts! Hope you see me by 2020. 21. mkl62 posted: 02.21.2014 - 11:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Earnhardt's last race in the #2 car. The reason that the feed was lost was because a bulldozier doing some work severed a cable nearby. The cameras were rolling but the signal wasn't going out. 22. Mark posted: 04.12.2014 - 11:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best Dega finish ever,and that's saying alot! 23. John Paulson posted: 05.29.2014 - 7:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) CBS did show the finish of the race the following weekend on the CBS Sports Saturday moniker. Video quality isn't the greatest now but at least it exists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mBc5SdaAu8 And IIRC CBS didn't show the WHOLE race live. They showed the start, went to a golf tournament they had rights to and then joined the race in progress as they did a lot in those days. 24. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.02.2015 - 12:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Caution 1: Lap 61-64: #12 engine failure Caution 2: Lap 85-90: #27,62 accident turn 2 Caution 3: Lap 103-105: debris backstretch Caution 4: Lap 107-110: #15 spun turn 1 Caution 5: Lap 115-118: #3 engine failure Caution 6: Lap 140-143: #62 accident turn 3 Caution 7: Lap 150-155: #62 accident turn 1 Caution 8: Lap 168-176: #66 spun turn 2 25. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.02.2015 - 12:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Correction caution 8 was from Lap 171-176 26. saltsburgtrojanfan posted: 07.02.2015 - 12:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Check that again Caution 8 was from Lap 172-176 27. Anonymous posted: 12.10.2015 - 3:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) RIP Ron Bouchard 28. RaceFanX posted: 03.04.2016 - 5:48 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This race shared its weekend with an ARCA race the prior day. Mark Martin, a young buck ASA racer from Arkansas, made his only ARCA start and won the race in pretty dominant fashion, recording the first win of his career on a track bigger than the Milwaukee Mile. Joe Ruttman took second with Tim Richmond, Jim Hurlbert, and Bobby Tinkham rounding out the top-5. Can-Am racer Danny Sullivan (yup, THAT Danny Sullivan) took sixth in his only ARCA start. Phil Parsons was seventh. 29. Dylan posted: 03.14.2017 - 7:26 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The loss of signal at the end of the race was sort of reminiscent of the "Heidi Game" in the NFL between the Raiders and Jets 13 years earlier in 1968. In unrelated television history, one day before this race, God noticed a problem, so he gave us MTV. 80s era MTV, that is. 30. Rob posted: 03.22.2017 - 2:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The race that saw Morgan Shepherd's rookie of the year coronation start to unwind. Shepherd and car owner Cliff Stewart parted ways after this race despite a win and several strong runs together. The win by Bouchard put him in contention for the rookie crown and his body of work was deemed worthy of the rookie title by the NASCAR officials who ultimately made the decision. 31. nascarman posted: 07.05.2018 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew: 31 / Billie Harvey / Owner: Billie Harvey / Pontiac (Harvey qualified 18th but withdrew on Friday because he said his motor wasn't running good) 32. RaceFanX posted: 12.24.2018 - 12:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race marked the end of the road for an iconic sponsorship as the Wood Brothers' #21 Ford hit the track in its famous Purolator colors for the final time, ending a partnership that dated back to 1971. Alabama's own Neil Bonnett qualified well and led some laps early on before a mechanical gremlin put the #21 on the sidelines. Warner Hodgdon took over sponsorship of the #21 for its starts later in the season. 33. oldgrandnational posted: 02.14.2019 - 1:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The finish of the race was shown on the CBS Evening News that night, due to the technical problems noted above. 34. Jay posted: 01.06.2020 - 1:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Morgan Shepherd and his crew chief Darrell Bryant and a few of his own crew members got into a fight before this race. That led to Shepherd being released and Joe Millikan being hired for the rest of he season. 35. Canadianfan posted: 05.13.2020 - 2:18 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Buddy Arrington was in a Dodge Mirada in this race not a Chrysler. I looked at the broadcast footage on YouTube and contacted nascarman who provided me with a newspaper result that lists his car as a Dodge. 36. rateus posted: 02.09.2021 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ronnie Thomas qualified his own #25 entry before handing over to Joe Booher for its brief race. Ronnie only qualified at 180 mph when every other car was over 187 so maybe he felt the motor already going rough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: