1981 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Number of races televised: 16/33, or 48%
Number of races televised live: 6/33, or 18%
Changes from previous year:
- ESPN started televising races, picking up the Carolina 500, Virginia 500, and Winston 500 (previously on MRN TV, which stopped televising races that year), the Mason-Dixon 500, and Atlanta Journal 500 (previously untelevised) which was shown live.
- The Mountain Dew 500 was moved from ABC to NBC.
- The Rebel 500 on ABC was moved from live to tape-delayed.
- The American 500, previously shown on MRN TV, was untelevised.
- The Los Angeles Times 500 was removed from the schedule.