Some of the closest and most memorable championship battles in NASCAR history have come since 1971, the beginning of what is known as the sport’s modern era. One of those came in the final race of the 1973 Cup Series season. “In 1979, we were way behind in points to Darrell Waltrip and the DiGard team he was driving for with five or six races to go,” Petty said. “We just went ahead and ran our races and concentrated on that more than worrying about what Darrell was doing. We just went out and raced as hard as we could and took what we could get.”. Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip were the championship combatants during the 1981, ’82 and ’83 seasons. Allison was victorious over Waltrip for NASCAR’s coveted crown in 1983 by only 26 points.

Follow MotorMouth on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•