|| *Comments on the 1997 PRIMESTAR 500:* View the most recent comment <#38> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. MegaRacer posted: 10.18.2004 - 9:39 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) The last race on the old oval configuration. Steve Grissom had quite a fiery accident but emerged okay. 2. Darrell posted: 02.02.2006 - 11:05 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) Last top-five finish for Morgan Shepherd. 3. Thomas posted: 08.04.2006 - 8:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) Fun race to watch! Steve Grissom had a fiery crash on the backstretch and rolled over several times after smacking the inside wall with the rear end. Ricky Craven piles into the passenger's side of Ted Musgrave on the backstretch in another race. Good battle between Dale Jarrett and Ernie Irvan at the end. Big cheers from the crowd when Jeffie's engine blew coming off pit road. 4. myself posted: 03.16.2007 - 2:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I miss the old Atlanta configuration. I enjoyed the Atlanta races better w/ it than I do w/ the new one. 5. Rusty posted: 07.18.2007 - 12:34 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Robby Gordon's only career pole as of July 2007. 6. RaceFanX posted: 01.28.2008 - 7:11 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Bummer, NASCAR banned the old style of "roofcam" before this race citing the fact that they created an unfair aerodynamic sdvantage. They'd spend the rest of the 1997 season on the sidelines but would return, redesigned, at the start of the 1998 season. 7. KB posted: 05.04.2008 - 1:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Totally agreed, myself. I also liked oval Atlanta better than the quad-oval. Did they red-flag the race for Grissom's crash? 8. Spen posted: 05.20.2008 - 2:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yes, they did. 9. GJinVA posted: 08.25.2008 - 4:37 am Rate this comment: (2) (0) That Grissom crash has always stood out to me as one of the worst I've ever seen. Up until Jeff Fuller in the Busch race at Kentucky in '06, I can't remember another wreck in recent memory that looked that violent. I would have bet money nobody was climbing out of that car alive, simply amazing. 10. Biffrey posted: 10.08.2008 - 6:30 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) I remember that Grissom crash really well. My grandpa had just had a minor stroke and the whole family was watching the race in the waiting room at the hospital. I went to grab a coke, and I hear this collective "*gasp*/WOW!/JESUS!" from the waiting area. Went back and saw replays for a looooong time. 11. Russ Shurtliff posted: 09.21.2009 - 5:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) HERE IS A TAPE WIH THE STEVE GRISSOM CRASH IN IT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfhLZleZdrk 12. Ryan posted: 10.09.2009 - 10:50 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) GO MORGAN SHEPHERD!!!!! 13. Schroeder51 posted: 03.24.2011 - 5:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) There was another vicious crash in this race when just as Jeremy Mayfield's engine let go, Ted Musgrave, running 3rd, got too high in turns 1 and 2, ran in the marbles, and spun out and slapped the wall on the driver's side. Rusty Wallace slid trying to avoid the crash and hit the outside wall as well. Musgrave spun back down the track amd slid back up the track. Just as he was almost stopped, Ricky Craven t-boned Musgrave on the passenger side door hard, totalling both cars. 14. Jordan posted: 08.21.2012 - 11:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Considering his age at the time and the team he was with, Morgan Shepherd finishing third is more of an accomplishment than Dale Jarrett winning. He definitely could have been a champion if he had the right team (and if he started his career about 20 years earlier). 15. James W. McLaughlin posted: 06.24.2013 - 2:16 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) About two hours into this race, Bob Jenkins plugged an upcoming program on ABC that would feature a segment on a go-kart racer named "Donica" Patrick. Maybe he meant "Danica"? Hmmmmm...Danica? Who's that? 16. 83andJoe posted: 06.24.2013 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #78 crew chief: Bill Hayes #90 crew chief: Bob Johnson 17. 83andJoe posted: 06.24.2013 - 11:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #91 crew chief: Doug Richert 18. BlackChevy14 posted: 09.24.2013 - 6:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Second of only two wins at AMS for Robert Yates Racing. I say only because, given their reputation for speed, you would have thought they would have grabbed at least two or three more wins. Wasn't for a lack of trying, Kenny Irwin had a great shot to win this race a year later and DJ was part of the late scrum in the amazing 2001 running before Harvick and Gordon separated themselves from the pack, among other strong RYR performances here. This was the first 1-2 finish for an organization at AMS since the re-emergence of multicar teams in the late '80s and early '90s. There would not be another until Joe Gibbs Racing finished 1-2 with Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart in March 2008, remembered for Toyota's first Sprint Cup win and one of Tony's famous Goodyear rants. The only other 1-2 finish for teammates since DJ and Ernie in this race was the amazing 2011 battle between Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. 19. 23andJoe posted: 02.28.2014 - 3:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) #08 sponsor: UniSeal 20. myself posted: 04.16.2015 - 10:08 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) I find it pretty interesting that Morgan Shepherd, even though old as dirt & in a crappy car, could still run very strong @ Atlanta. It was definitely & without debate his best track. 21. Josh posted: 03.09.2017 - 11:38 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) 20 years ago to the day this race happened. Steve Grissom's violent crash and the last race on Atlanta's old (in my opinion, better) configuration are notable occurrences for this race. 22. Tide1732 posted: 06.01.2017 - 5:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) Steve Grissom A horrible crash and fire on the race track Great Bob Jenkins 23. grissom fan posted: 06.05.2017 - 4:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Being a Grissom fan as my name implies, I was watching this race live and had tears in my eyes from the moment he hit that inside wall all the way until after he emerged from the infield care center to give his interview on ABC and complaining of his 'stoved-up ankle', whatever that is, after that vicious crash. Thank God for no other drivers hitting him while he was upside down, as well as safely built racecars. Man that old Atlanta track was fast! Short, narrow straightaways and super long turns. Also was a better layout than what's there today. 24. Gray Gaulding's Distant Cousin posted: 10.19.2017 - 6:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Someone I know found an interesting fact. During the race ABC had an advertisement for a documentry they were making about young girls in sports. One girl was Figure skater Tera Lipinski, Another one was Tennis Phenom Anna Kurnikova, and the third? The Third was a 14 year old Go-Kart standout named Danica Patrick. Yes, this race was the first time someone one ever mentioned Danica on a NASCAR broadcast. 25. I Love Turtles posted: 10.19.2017 - 8:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @24 where in the race is this at so I can go back watch it, without having watch the entire telecast 26. Canadianfan posted: 10.19.2017 - 8:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @25 https://www.reddit.com/r/NASCAR/comments/77gqfe/tbt_nascars_first_mention_of_donica_patrick/ 27. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 11:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Season best, only top 5 finish, and final top 5 for Morgan Shepherd. Final top 5 for the team as well. Season best finish for Michael Waltrip. 28. Greg1&9Fan posted: 08.08.2018 - 5:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) this track was fine the way it was, why they had to turn it into a cookie cutter is beyond me. 29. Canadianfan posted: 10.23.2018 - 12:19 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) After going back and looking I can say with certainty this was the last race that Morgan Shepherd could've won in his career. Morgan started 21st and ran just outside the top 15 for the first half of the race. At the time of the #33's spin on lap 237 he had made his way to 11th. After the restart Morgan quickly made his way to 5th with the fastest car on track. After the #19 and #42's accident the team made the decision to stay out and he led 10 laps before the next caution. After the 4 car incident on lap 269 Morgan pitted along with Earnhardt, Benson, and a few others. He restarted 10th. Then the Grissom accident happened and everything changed. Morgan was in fact just in front of the big accident. After the 52 minute red flag Morgan's car came alive. The 22 degree temperature drop benefited his car's setup and restarting 8th he made his way to 3rd passing Earnhardt, Mikey, Terry, Bobby, and Martin. Morgan went from 8th to 3rd in less than 10 laps. As ABC came back from their last commercial break it became the Morgan Shepherd show for the last 30 laps. Morgan followed in Irvan's tire tracks those last laps. Despite giving it his all he could not pass Ernie and make a run at Jarrett for the win. It was after the race when his team owner Richard Jackson was interviewed that we learned that once Morgan got to Irvan it took the air off the nose and he started having an aero push condition in the #1 Delco Remy Pontiac. 30. TeamDCRfan posted: 03.04.2019 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) For some reason Mike Miller, who hadn't run a cup race since 1989, decided to try one more time 31. Jimnsimforever posted: 04.08.2019 - 12:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @28 They turned it into a cookie cutter because the drivers whined that it was to hard is why. Having seen how Homestead was bending over backwards trying to get Cup to come after they had the trucks and Busch cars there and hearing all of the drivers whine and cry about how hard the track was while they changed it to make it easier each year around this time is sickening. That's why they changed all the tracks, to make it easier for the drivers, but having the unintended consequence of boring the fans to death. The tracks are supposed to be hard, you are professional drivers. 32. Aaron posted: 07.07.2019 - 7:29 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This was the very first race I remember watching flag to flag when I was 8 years old. Naturally Derrike Cope's #36 was very attractive to me, but my mother convinced me to root for the #24 likely somewhat aware of who Jeff Gordon was since he was out of this one early. 22 years later and I'm still a fan. 33. RaceFanX posted: 07.07.2019 - 7:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) ABC announcer Benny Parsons' shout of "Oh No!" upon seeing Grissom's big flip in this one would make it into future versions of the famous Wide World of Sports opening for its "Agony of Defeat" scene. Weirdly though they edited the dialogue over footage of Alessandro Zampedri's last lap flip at the 1996 Indianapolis 500, a broadcast Parsons didn't work on, instead of showing a clip of Grissom's big wreck. 34. RaceFanX posted: 07.07.2019 - 7:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Burton infamously failed to qualify for this race while sitting second in points in 1996 (he had a new team and no provisionals). In 1997 he returns to Atlanta and turns in a solid run to bring the Exide #99 Ford home with a fifth-place finish. 35. SweetRich posted: 02.14.2020 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race: Bob Jenkins And Benny Parsons. The Pit Road Reporters: Jerry Punch, Bill Weber And Jack Arute. 36. Ryan posted: 02.14.2020 - 7:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @31 They added suites to the track as well during the reconfiguration. Typical NA$CAR during this time period. @35 People may wonder why Ned Jarrett wasn't commentating for this race with Bob Jenkins and Benny Parsons. The reason why is he had a contract with CBS. Ned could do color for races on ESPN, however, this race was broadcasted on ABC and he wasn't allowed much like the early Brickyard 400 races. 37. Jeff posted: 03.02.2020 - 9:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The caution report has the incident with the 16,25,2 and 99 listed as occurring on the front stretch, it occurred on the backstretch off Turn 2. 38. Corey posted: 11.10.2020 - 7:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Steve Grissom's wreck had enough force in it to 1. Tear the gas tank out of the car and throw it to the outside wall. 2. Turn Grissom's car on its roof where he spun like a top 3. Break the concrete wall ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: