Reliving The 1981 Daytona 500, Oh My How Racing Has Changed

Each and every year, NASCAR is switching something up in order to change racing a little bit. Some changes might be for the likes of safety. Other changes could be with the end goal of eventually making the sport more competitive. When we stack all of these alterations on top of one another, well, It almost gets to the point where racing of yesterday is almost unrecognizable when compared to the hustle of today. When we take a couple of steps back in the evolution, the series kind of looks like something amateur compared to the branded experience that NASCAR presents today. Obviously, we have to consider the difference in technology but it’s a fun ride down memory lane, to say the least.

This time, the race in question happened nearly 40 years ago. We push the calendars back to February of 1981 to catch the Daytona 500. As NASCAR fans would attest to, the Daytona 500 is certainly the biggest race that NASCAR has to offer. Back in 1981, the competition was a sight to see as they put on a production, even back then. In fact, many would argue that this old school style of racing might’ve even been better than what we see today. It was a day and age where there wasn’t very much limiting the vehicles or the drivers in what they were doing. As we can see, the safety measures were much simpler. In turn, there was also a lot more attitude in racing, for sure.

By following along with the video below, we see the antique broadcast that brings us one of the greatest races in America has to offer. In this one, we even see the names of the likes of Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty. Perhaps fans of the sport today might argue that it has evolved to a place that’s better. However, no matter who is watching, just about any racing fan should be able to appreciate a battle like this. We’re quite fortunate that the broadcast has survived all this time for us to enjoy all these years later.