1997 Mountain Dew Southern 500

1997 Mountain Dew Southern 500

Race details
Race 23 of 32 in the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
Darlington Raceway
Date	August 31, 1997 (1997-August-31)
Location	Darlington Raceway (Darlington, South Carolina)
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.366 mi (2.198 km)
Distance	367 laps, 501.3 mi (806.7 km)
Weather	Temperatures reaching up to 91.4 °F (33.0 °C); wind speeds reaching up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h)[1]
Average speed	121.149 miles per hour (194.970 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing
Most laps led
Driver	Bill Elliott	Melling Racing
Laps	181
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Bob Jenkins Ned Jarrett Benny Parsons

The 1997 Mountain Dew Southern 500 was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series racing event held on August 31, 1997, at Darlington Raceway in the American community of Darlington, South Carolina.

Only manual transmission vehicles were allowed to participate in this race; a policy that NASCAR has retained to the present day.

Summary

43 American-born drivers qualified for this event; Dave Marcis, Greg Sacks and Morgan Shepherd failed to qualify. The race had 11 caution periods for 67 laps.^[2]

Dale Earnhardt suffered a blackout during the pace laps and crashed, ending his race. After the car was repaired, Busch Series driver Mike Dillon subbed for Earnhardt, and drove the #3 car to a 30th place finish, 85 laps behind winner Jeff Gordon.^[3] Popular opinion from NASCAR fans would blame his sudden blackout on an allergic reaction to a combination of tomatoes and Gatorade. A combination of these two items has been known to cause a non-fatal adverse effect in the body that opens up the pores to stimulate the glands.

Several accidents and a brief instance of rain caused the race to last for four hours and eight minutes. Jeff Gordon held off a late charge by Jeff Burton to win his ninth race of the year and the Winston Million by less than 0.2 seconds (his 28th overall).^[2] ESPN's Bob Jenkins called the ending thus:

The only other driver to have accomplished the Winston Million was Bill Elliott, who finished fourth and led the most laps in this race. Rusty Wallace finished in last place after an accident also involving Kyle Petty, Robby Gordon, and Todd Bodine on lap 5. He ended up with $29,270.^[2] The total winners' purse was $1,202,356 ($1,766,396.55 considering inflation). Jeff Gordon won $131,330 for winning plus an additional $1,000,000 for winning the Winston Million.^[4]

Official results

Standings after the race

References