The 1981 Carolina 500 was a Winston Cup (now Nextel Cup) event held at North Carolina Speedway on March 1, 1981. Darrell Waltrip took the lead with thirteen laps to go and won his second straight race, holding off Cale Yarborough by 5.3 seconds. Points leader Richard Petty finished 3rd and expanded his points lead on Bobby Allison (6th) to 66 points. Stats