|| *Comments on the 1997 Chevy Trucks Challenge:* View the most recent comment <#35> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Darrell posted: 01.22.2006 - 2:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Tammy Jo Kirk became the first woman to race in the Craftsman Truck Series in this race. 2. David posted: 06.20.2006 - 9:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was at there...Jack Sprague absolutely dominated this race and on the last lap, Joe Ruttman got into the back of him, spun him out, and took the win. Michael Waltrip had a hard lick coming out of turn four and brother Darrell rushed to be by his side. Temperatures were like 30 degrees that day. 3. Rusty posted: 08.03.2006 - 9:34 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Why doesn't NASCAR go to Disney anymore? It's a pretty good market. 4. Matthew Sullivan posted: 12.24.2006 - 3:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Disney World goers didn't like the noise from the track, which is the reason why the track no longer has Truck or IRL races. 5. Thomas posted: 02.03.2007 - 11:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It didn't attract much of a crowd either. 6. Mike posted: 02.23.2007 - 6:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First truck race for Stacy Compton. 7. Douche Bagolow posted: 07.25.2007 - 6:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First Truck race for Rick Crawford, as well. 8. SK posted: 02.20.2008 - 5:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQs...23 in all! #88 Terry Cook #27 Rob Rizzo #19 Tony Raines #73 Bob Schacht #9 Greg Marlowe #41 Randy Renfrow #64 Chad Dokken #23 T.J. Clark #51 Perry Tripp #61 Randy Tolsma #54 Jon Leavy #92 Mark Kinser #34 Bob Brevak #25 Andy Genzman #56 Darin Brassfield #26 Andy Belmont #39 Jeff Spraker #22 David Smith #01 Billy Ogle #04 Thomas Spangler #59 Shane Doles #69 Jimmy Davis #08 Felix Giles 9. Ebessan posted: 03.07.2008 - 10:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Considering the race running as I post this comment has only 32 starters, 59 entries is mindblowing. 10. adamal82 posted: 04.04.2008 - 10:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Roush Racing's First CTS Win 11. Darrell posted: 04.14.2008 - 7:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ron Barfield's final start with Bill Elliott Racing. 12. Anonymous posted: 04.24.2008 - 9:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Roush Racing's First CTS Win No, Mark Martin won at North Wilkesboro in 1996 in the trucks. 13. SK posted: 05.31.2008 - 4:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) In all, six different drivers made their Truck Series debuts in this race: Stacy Compton Rick Crawford Chuck Bown Lonnie Rush Jr. Toby Porter Tammy Jo Kirk 14. Matt posted: 11.13.2008 - 11:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Truck owner for Toby Porter's #10 was Harry Ranier. 15. ND posted: 09.27.2009 - 7:32 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) I think 97 was when the Truck Series really hit it's stride. It was successful the first two years but really exploded this season. A lot of new full-time teams came into the series this year. Disney World wanted the races in the winter time as an attraction to bring people to the park. Neither NASCAR nor the IRL wanted to start the season so early, so the races were dropped. 16. Pacer posted: 11.20.2009 - 11:20 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Ruttman spinning Sprague for the win was not really a deliberate thing. Ruttman had a run into Turn 1 and Sprague came down to block and they got together resulting in Sprague's spin. Busch series racer Curtis Markham gets his lone top-10 in the Trucks 17. 83andJoe posted: 06.24.2013 - 9:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #80 crew chief: Randy Goss (same for all 1997 races) 18. 83andJoe posted: 06.24.2013 - 10:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #98 crew chief: Gary Showalter (same for all 1995 races) 19. 83andJoe posted: 06.24.2013 - 10:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^ correction: same for all 1997 races 20. 83andJoe posted: 07.06.2013 - 5:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #43 crew chief: Cal Northrop (same for all 1997 races) 21. 83andJoe posted: 07.07.2013 - 2:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #6 crew chief: Rick Ren (same for all 1997 races) 22. 23andJoe posted: 04.02.2014 - 8:17 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #8 crew chief: George Church (same for all races this year) 23. MAR posted: 11.13.2015 - 8:38 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) 60 entries for a truck race wow now we can barely get 32 to show up weekly. 24. Anthony posted: 11.27.2016 - 7:18 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) nearly 60 trucks, god almighty!! 25. RaceFanX posted: 12.10.2016 - 2:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #1 Michael Waltrip- MW Windows Waltrip ran in the top-5 early but made a painful exit from this one when he blew a tire going into turn 4 leading to a hard hit into the outside wall, a fire, and another hit into the inside wall. Thankfully he escaped serious injury in the incident although he was disappointed that such a good run ended with such a bad result. 26. Bramblegrunt posted: 08.17.2017 - 1:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This track felt like a combination of the old Homestead, Nazareth and Indianapolis. The first race here featured many spins and a few very hard hits. As stated, Waltrips crash was the hardest and it could have been much worse too as Barfield nearly hit him off the rebound of the wall. Waltrip's truck ignited a bit after first impact and looked very similar to Jeff Burton's crash at Dover in 1994. Defending champion Ron Hornaday also had a similarly hard hit in the same turn, this time it was because Butch Miller was signalling to go to pit road but then stayed on track. The miscommunication sent Hornaday out of the groove and make hard contact with the outside wall. He was clearly hobbled but defiantly stated he wanted to get back into the race. It didnt happen though, the truck suffered too much damage. Tammy Jo Kirk, the first woman in the truck series had a great start to the weekend, qualifying 9th but she was then involved in 3 different crashes during the event. Still managed to be around at the finish, though. Felix Giles, one of the many DNQs, made his only attempt at NASCAR and was stated to be the first African American to attempt to make a truck race as well. The ending laps were fantastic though, not so much for Sprague but great entertainment. Still was very weird to have a race in January when most teams are still gearing up for Daytona. 27. RaceFanX posted: 09.01.2017 - 9:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) With former series champion Mike Skinner moving up to the NASCAR Winston Cup series with Richard Childress Racing in 1997 RCR's intimidating black #3 GM Goodwrench Chevrolet truck needed a new driver and found it in Jay Sauter. Sauter ran the series part-time in 1996 with SABCO but the move his first full-time ride in the series with RCR would pay dividends including a top-5 right out of the box here. This was the first Truck race without Skinner since some of the series' earliest exhibitions in 1994, he'd been in every prior points race and all the Winter Heat races. He'd back back for a few Truck races later in the season but the move up was a good one for him as he was Cup's 1997 rookie of the year, the Daytona 500 polesitter, and won an exhibition Cup race in Japan at Suzuka. 28. RaceFanX posted: 11.04.2017 - 3:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #20 Butch Miller- Orleans Hotel & Casino Walker Evans retired from NASCAR racing after 1996 and hired Butch Miller, who ran a few races for him at the end of the prior season, to take over his #20 for 1997. The team also idled its Dodge Rams to change manufactures for the new season and it paid off early as Miller was a title contender at the start of the year before they faded back. The team ran a Ford F-150 here in the opener but despite this runner-up performance, which would prove to be their best finish of the season, the team switched to running Chevrolet Silverados for the rest of 1997. 29. RaceFanX posted: 03.08.2018 - 9:07 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Rich Bickle moved from driving from one Winston Cup champion's Truck team to another in 1997 as he hopped from Richard Petty's Cummins #43 Dodge over to Darrell Waltrip's #17 Sears DieHard Chevrolet. Bickle and Waltrip proved to be a winning combination right out of the gate as Bickle finished third in his first race and fittingly led 17 laps, more than the #17 team had led throughout the entire 1996 season. He'd go on to win several races and contend for the title this season. Bickle's departure from Petty's team opened the door for Jimmy Hensley to take over the #43 Dodge for 1997, moving over from Grier Lackey's team, and he too had success right out of the gate with a top-10 for his new team. He'd go on to win two races across three seasons with the Petty Enterprises effort. 30. JSPorts posted: 03.08.2018 - 9:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1997 was by far the best season of Bickle's career. He had all 3 of his career NASCAR wins that year, as well as his only top-10 in points (2nd.) His 15 top 5 finishes that season are more than the 11 he accumulated across the other 15 years of his career. His 630 laps led were also more than the 246 he led in all his other seasons. 31. Anthony posted: 11.06.2018 - 6:35 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Two things you'll never see again - NASCAR in January and a massive 24 non-qualifiers. 32. JSPorts posted: 11.06.2018 - 8:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Those are two things I'd like to see again, though. Can you imagine a truck race now with 60 entrants!? 33. MSportRev posted: 02.29.2020 - 3:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) To the rear: Tobey Butler #34 (driver change) DC: Bob Brevak #34 Purolator PureOne Filters (Bob Brevak) Source: Ultimate Racing History 34. SweetRich posted: 02.29.2020 - 3:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators for the race were Dave Despain and Benny Parsons. The pit road reporters were Bill Weber and Marty Reid. 35. Yeet posted: 01.21.2021 - 2:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was just re-aired on NASCAR's YouTube page, quite a fun one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: