|| *Comments on the 1996 Winston Select 500:* View the most recent comment <#35> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Dave posted: 01.05.2005 - 3:48 am Rate this comment: (1) (2) This race featured a massive accident on lap 129 when Jeff Gordon pinched Mark Martin into the wall off the tri-oval. The result was Ricky Craven flipping high into the turn one catch fence and sailing over no less than 5 cars. The race was red flagged for over an hour while repairs were made and Sterling Marlin dominated the remaining laps. 2. Anonymous posted: 03.21.2005 - 12:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) bill elliot broke his leg in a wreck on the backstrech 3. je24go posted: 05.11.2005 - 1:33 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Ricky Craven was in the Championship hunt and having a very consistent year, but after this race, his season fell apart. 4. Chicago posted: 05.15.2005 - 4:01 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) When analyzing Craven's season before this wreck and then after, it's interesting to wonder how psychologically he was affected; if he might've even been gunshy? Had some lingering injuries he never talked about? It's like a tale of two seasons; the championship contender and the driver struggling in mediocrity, bad luck, and simply bad runs. This was Michael Waltrip's best finish for the Wood Brothers (if you don't count his stirring win in the Winston a few weeks later ...). He looked to have a car capable of winning. 5. Anonymous posted: 06.15.2005 - 4:30 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Craven was affected for a long time after several bad wrecks, this one was the first. He's had some bad luck, but he's made the best of his circumstances. 6. RaceFanX posted: 01.09.2008 - 11:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Great qualifing runs for part-timers Mike Skinner and Jeff Purvis 7. SK posted: 02.01.2008 - 2:09 am Rate this comment: (4) (3) Ricky Bobby makes his Winston Cup debut in relief of Terry Cheveaux, placing a very impressive 3rd. 8. Scott posted: 05.04.2008 - 7:13 pm Rate this comment: (1) (3) This was my last annual race at Talldega, I knew that Gordon would take over and even Talladega would be polished. I miss that good old racing. 9. RaceFanX posted: 07.01.2008 - 11:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First top-10 for Johnny Benson Jr. in Cup 10. 18fan posted: 09.16.2009 - 11:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2nd straight Talladega win for Sterling Marlin. 11. jessie hery posted: 11.22.2009 - 12:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 2 bad crashing 12. 18fan posted: 03.19.2010 - 6:16 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Only top 5 for Michael Waltrip in three years driving for the Wood Brothers. 13. Intimidation posted: 07.05.2010 - 2:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The 4 car was incredible this day. He actually passed several top cars including Earnhardt and Dale Jarrett by himself with no drafting help and pulled a few car lengths ahead of the pack by himself on one occasion. A virtually impossible feat at Talladega in the 1990s. 14. Andre posted: 09.17.2010 - 2:46 pm Rate this comment: (3) (1) To correct the first statement about the massive pileup, it was Mark Martin drifting high to pinch Jeff Gordon into the wall that started the chaos, not the other way around. It wasn't for the lead, nor was it "go time", so it was a bunch of torn up cars for pretty much no reason. Not nearly as dumb as Skinner and Stewart there in '99, however. :) 15. Austin posted: 10.09.2011 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) If Jeff Gordon finished this race, he would have won the championship. 16. matt posted: 03.21.2012 - 10:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anybody remember the song they kept playing during this race, it was something like "runnin through the groove...." wish i could remember that song or who sang it. 17. Ed posted: 09.28.2012 - 12:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Add Mark Martin to the list of cars in The Big One. 18. CBASS posted: 11.14.2012 - 5:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Craven fell apart after suffering from post-concussion syndrome in 1998 from the bad Texas crash he had the year before. It took him 2 years before he was competitive again, but unfortunately it cost him his top ride at Hendrick :( 19. 44andJoe posted: 11.27.2012 - 5:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pays to remember that the Hendrick 25 was (and is, even today now that it's the 88) always snakebit. 20. Mr. Etc posted: 08.25.2013 - 2:40 am Rate this comment: (1) (1) NA$CAR ran Ernie Irvan and Dale Jarrett through an engine inspection after qualifying. The only problem is that they blew Irvan's motor on the dyno and was barely competitive before being involved in Craven's crash. 21. Chris posted: 09.17.2014 - 5:37 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The other car inspected post-qualifying was Sterling Marlin's. NASCAR was interested in seeing the horsepower of the fastest Ford and fastest GM. The article I found about it referred to it as 'the Great Dyno Drama.' 22. NASCARLover22 posted: 12.04.2015 - 8:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) Mark Martin (#6) was involved in the lap 131 wreck. 23. PCRF0006 posted: 03.14.2018 - 11:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Number Correction: Steve Seligman was in car #57. 24. Corey posted: 03.15.2018 - 8:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) Mark Martin (6) should also be listed in the Big One. It was contact between him and Gordon that set it off. Also, the accident happened in Turn One as this is where Craven went into the catch fence. 25. Anonymous posted: 03.15.2018 - 10:15 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) ^After Craven, Martin probably got the worst of it, too. 26. Jimnsimforever posted: 03.20.2019 - 1:32 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) @1,14,24 You all are wrong. 24 is right about the chaos being in turn 1 but the incident that kicked off the entire big one happened while they were still in the tri-oval. John Andretti is the one that caused the big one by going up into Mark Martin which then caused Mark to pinch Jeff Gordon into the wall. Don't know whether Andretti just got loose or if he didn't know Mark was to his outside but that's what caused it. 27. Jimnsimforever posted: 03.20.2019 - 2:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @2 Bill Elliott broke his left hip. 28. Jimnsimforever posted: 03.20.2019 - 4:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nevermind, during the broadcast of this race ESPN's Jerry Punch reported after they got Bill Elliott out of the car he had lower back and hip pain. After he left the infield car center on his way by helicopter to the hospital Punch reported they thought Bill may have dislocated or broke his hip. Then near the end of the race Jerry Punch comes back after xrays and everything were done at the hospital with the official diagnosis that Bill Elliott has broken his left hip and would be going in for surgery in the morning. You tune in for the race at Sonoma the following week and one of the opening stories is "Bill Elliott as you all know broke his femur last week". 29. Joshua posted: 03.20.2019 - 7:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Lost in the craziness of Craven's catch fence crash is Bill Elliott's wild ride similar to Robert Pressley's in next season's Daytona 500. Elliott's rear end lifted up and the decklid came open, probably helping the car to not blow over completely, but probably also causing the car to slam hard back onto the backstretch grass that is paved now. The impact with the ground is what caused Elliott's broken leg. 30. GoPM21 posted: 03.20.2019 - 7:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @26 No sir. You're the one that's wrong. Martin took Gordon to the fence long before Andretti moved up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaHkIs9VOKI See the 5:12 mark. 31. Jimnsimforever posted: 03.20.2019 - 2:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I watched it several times, as Bob Jenkins and Ned Jarrett both agreed, Mark Martin was getting ready to come back down as he realized or his spotter told him Gordon was starting to go around him high. That's when John Andretti came up and bumped him and it sucked him back into Jeff and chaos ensued. They showed several different angles and Mark was coming back down off of Jeff slightly when Andretti suddenly came up and bumped him pretty hard, hard enough that on Mark's roof cam in an earlier view you could see it left a dent in the side of Andretti's car. That's how I saw it at least, but there are a lot of different things going on in that tight pack and different people could see it different ways. 32. RaceFanX posted: 06.18.2019 - 10:41 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The #94 McDonald's Ford Thunderbird that Bill Elliott took on his flight down the backstretch would spend a lot more time airborne in the years to come. After his race the car was sold to restaurateur B.J. Underdown who used it as a decoration in a NASCAR-themed McDonald's that doubled as Bill Elliott museum he built in Muncy, Pennsylvania. Elliott's car was left in its wrecked condition and hung from the ceiling of the eatery with pictures of the crash behind it. People could eat their Big Macs and McNuggets at tables located beneath the car. Underdown also purchased one of Awesome Bill's short track cars from 1996, painted in the McDonald's Monopoly livery, and displayed it at ground level along with one of Elliott's racing suits. Both of the Elliott T-Birds were later sold more than a decade later when the restaurant was remodeled into a more standard McDonald's with the removal of the NASCAR memorabilia. Underdown was a racer himself and later ran a few USAR ProCup races plus a one-off in the NASCAR Busch North series. 33. acerogers58 posted: 12.04.2019 - 7:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Most people think Ricky Craven weight shifted, but he in fact climbed over the left front of Mark Martin's car and the banking did the rest. 34. SweetRich posted: 02.20.2020 - 5:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Bob Jenkins And Ned Jarrett. The Pit Road Reporters Were Jerry Punch, John Kernan And Bill Weber. 35. Anonymous posted: 05.10.2020 - 7:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) It wasn't just Mark Martin missing who was in the big one Jeff Burton his teammate also had a role in the crash could not see on camera but the ESPN broadcast listed him as part of the big one too. Come on Racing Reference! We know they both got in it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: