When an Especially Snowy Day in Rockingham Affected Racing

For quite some time, the NASCAR Cup Series schedule was, shall we say, somewhat whacky.

Not to say that some fans think it is still somewhat whacky, but then, the sanctioning body will never satisfy everyone.

For many years, with the last one coming in 1981, the season began on the road course in Riverside, Calif., in January before moving to the most prestigious race of the year, the Daytona 500, in February.

Although I’m sure there is one, I never learned of a logical reason why the season always began in California, hardly a bastion of NASCAR support. At the time, that was pretty much concentrated in the Southeast.

Some suggested that NASCAR was hedging bets against the weather. By opening up with events in California and Florida, the odds were good that winter chill, or worse, could be avoided.

That turned out to be a good strategy. Riverside International Raceway races were run on schedule, as were those at Daytona International Speedway for over forty years. However, as you may know, that has changed recently.

But the situation was altered somewhat after the Daytona 500. The schedule moved onto Richmond Raceway, which conducted its first event in 1953, and Rockingham Speedway, located in the state’s Sandhills country, in 1965.

Sometimes Richmond was the third race of the season and at other times it was Rockingham. But it didn’t make much difference. Many times over the years, both events were often plagued by winter cold, freezing rain, icy conditions and even snow.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this came in March of 1980 at Rockingham – which fell victim to what has been called “The Great Blizzard of 1980.”

The 1980 NASCAR Cup Series season started dramatically. Darrell Waltrip, driving for DiGard Racing Co. for what would be the last year following some hard contract wrangling with team owner Bill Gardner, won two of the first two of three races at Riverside and Richmond.

But it was Buddy Baker who grabbed most of the headlines. He was the driver of Harry Ranier’s No. 28 Oldsmobile. Painted black and gray, the car was so quick that Day-Glo pink tape strips were applied to its front bumper so competitors ahead could see it coming.

Baker, a leadfoot from Charlotte who loved superspeedway racing, was always quickest in practice and easily won the pole. The thinking was that if he kept his Olds in one piece, he would be the easy winner.

He was. He won the Daytona 500 by a whopping…