|| *Comments on the 1997 TranSouth Financial 400:* View the most recent comment <#37> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Darrell posted: 03.02.2006 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Phil Parsons makes his last Cup start filling in for Joe Nemechek, who was grieving the loss of his brother John. 2. Jeff posted: 05.04.2006 - 11:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember Sterling Marlin's car having a screwdriver stuck through the radiator ,really hurt any chance of a good run. 3. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.17.2006 - 7:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Another missed opportunity for Ted Musgrave to get what could have been his first career win. He got shafted at Martinsville two years earlier. 4. donald fallen posted: 05.13.2007 - 8:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) what i remember about this great race was dale earnhardt missing the entrance to pit road 2 times. great finish with jarrett and musgrave. 5. WillG46 posted: 10.24.2007 - 4:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Craven was injured in a crash with Robert Pressley on lap 164. He sat out the following two races, but the injuries had a lasting effect on his career, as he aggravated them in a crash in 1998 at Atlanta, almost exactly one year later. 6. Anonymous posted: 11.04.2007 - 1:14 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) NO. He was hurt in a qualifying crash at Texas the next week. 7. Steve.M. posted: 04.14.2008 - 9:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) by far the best chance Musgrave ever had of winning a cup race 8. jeff posted: 04.16.2008 - 1:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Actually, Robert Pressley was the one slightly injured in that wreck, not Craven. Pressley got out of the car on his own, but had to be assisted by a Nascar official back to the pits after he spun off turn 2, collected Craven, and hit the inside wall nearly head-on. He didn't race the next weekend at Texas. 9. Kyle W. posted: 01.11.2011 - 11:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was also not the race that Earnhardt got dizzy. That was the Southern 500. Of course the source of the dizziness was never disclosed by Richard Childress or Earnhardt. 10. 18fan posted: 01.26.2015 - 2:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pressley was still in some pain that resulted from his wild flip in the Daytona 500 and aggravated some of those injuries in the crash with Craven. 11. TimRichmond25Fan posted: 05.11.2015 - 2:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last race at Darlington before the moved the start/finish Line to the backstretch. 12. Evan posted: 06.15.2015 - 8:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Darlington Cup race under the "old" configuration before they switched the back and front stretches which made it tougher. Not much of a change since Dale Jarrett won the next year's spring race as well and then he won the 2001 spring Darlington race in the UPS colors but some were affected by the change of the track's configuration more than others. 13. Ben posted: 09.03.2015 - 6:17 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Mike Skinner missed the pit enterance twice, not Earnhardt. Unless I missed that. 14. Blue Palaski posted: 03.07.2016 - 10:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Re-watching the race, DJ really got lucky with lapped traffic. Ted had a much faster car, and likely would have won with a clean track. 15. John G posted: 08.10.2016 - 6:38 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Ted Musgrave had a chance to win at Darlington if he would of used his bumper on Dale Jarrett. Ted spent the last 8 laps of the race riding Dale Jarrett's bumper. He had every opportunity at any moment to gently nudge Dale Jarrett for the win. Ted absolutely loved Darlington. He and his Dad took great pride on the engine's they built for Darlington when they drove late models at Darlington. They called those engine's the "Darlington Engines". It was a big deal racing there for him. At the time Ted Musgrave said that he did the right thing. It was the right thing not to put the bumper to Dale Jarrett. Ted said he was the better man and he said he would have more chances. After all at the time Ted Musgrave was a top 10 driver every other week. Ted Musgrave never won a race. 16. Bramblegrunt posted: 04.07.2017 - 1:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Robert Pressley, who was also hurt the prior season driving the 33, would be airlifted to the hospital after a hard crash with Craven. Pressley aggravated injuries he suffered from his Daytona 500 airborne crash. Craven was frustrated with the constant hard crashes and he barely said anything in his interview following this crash, little would he know what would be looming for him in the following race. These drivers just seemed to never catch a break and got involved in the hardest of crashes in their careers. Ricky Rudd was suffering from flu like symptoms and was relieved very early in the race by Elton Sawyer Much is said about Ted Musgrave in this race and this probably should have been his win, but also snubbed in this race was Hut Stricklin who nearly won the prior year at Darlington. He was running solid top 5 most of the race but had a terrible pit stop under green and then would be even more unfortunate when Brett Bodine's engine failed on the back stretch causing him to get trapped 2 laps down. Overall a very good race which was typical for Darlington. Grueling race for driver and machine and a great last lap duel. There were so many races like this at this track it felt like from 1990 to the mid 2000s 17. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 11:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Season best finish as Ted Musgrave also equals his career best. Michael Waltrip equals his season best finish. 18. Darrell posted: 10.02.2018 - 5:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver Change: No. 42 Joe Nemechek 19. JSPorts posted: 10.02.2018 - 6:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Was Nemechek injured? 20. GoPM21 posted: 10.02.2018 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @19 His brother was killed that weekend in a wreck at Homestead. 21. RaceFanX posted: 10.02.2018 - 8:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Isn't the DC is typically reserved for a driver who drove a car earlier in the weekend but didn't run the race? Nemechek was out all week as he was in Florida with his family at John's bedside. I don't think he was ever at the track for this one. 22. Darrell posted: 01.10.2019 - 6:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Darrell Waltrip's final lead-lap finish at Darlington. 23. Jimnsimforever posted: 04.08.2019 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first of only 2 times in Dale Jarrett's HOF career that he won a race from the pole (2000 Daytona 500) and also the first of only 2 times in his career that he won back to back Cup races (2001 Texas, Martinsville). 24. Andrew posted: 04.09.2020 - 4:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Can anyone explain how the provisionals worked in '97? Dale Earnhardt used champions provisional for this race. Darrell Waltrip ,who used champions provisional a lot late in his career used a regular provisional instead. 25. Canadianfan posted: 04.09.2020 - 5:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @24 Four spots are awarded by the use of provisionals based on OWNERS points. The fifth is awarded to a past champion who has not OTHERWISE qualified for the race. If no past champ needs the provisional, the next team in the OWNER points will be awarded a provisional. In 1998 they went to six plus one. 26. Corey posted: 04.09.2020 - 5:27 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @25 Not entirely true. In 1997, the past champs provisional was just an add on. If no one needed it, it went unused and the field started only 42. Because of that, I think what we are seeing here is Dale Earnhardt willingly taking the past champs provisional to allow another team in the field. At this point they stilled used the 1996 Owners standings and the #3 team finished 4th. There would have been no need for him to use it. 27. Canadianfan posted: 04.09.2020 - 5:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @26 I got it from Jayski. He maintained immaculate lists of all the provisionals from 1998 until they were no longer used. 28. Corey posted: 04.09.2020 - 6:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @27 And the year we are dealing with is 1997. Some of those races only had 42 starters, others had 43. Most of the ones with 43 starters had a past champion start in 43rd. The only exceptions I saw were Texas and Phoenix. Phoenix was a case were the Winston West guaranteed spot went unused so they gave it to the next Cup driver. Gaurenteed 43 starters didn't start until 1998. 29. possum posted: 04.09.2020 - 6:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @28 - to the best of my recollection, you are correct. The PCP was voluntary in 1997 (and before), a driver could chose to take it or a regular provisional (assuming he had one). In this case Earnhardt voluntarily took the PCP to allow Rick Mast to use a provisional in the 42nd starting spot. 30. Ryan posted: 04.09.2020 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @24 Also when there was a case such as this one in that there were two previous champions (Earnhardt and Waltrip) that would have to use provisionals, the most recent champion (Earnhardt in this case '94-'85) would use it. And yes, the Intimidator did a nice thing giving back to the community and let Mast in the field. 31. possum posted: 04.10.2020 - 7:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @30 - to be completely accurate, as I recall the rules then _only_ the most recent past champion had an option for the PCP, if two or more past champs failed to qualify. So if Earnhardt had taken a regular provisional Waltrip would not have had the option of the PCP. Thus the only way for Mast to get in was for Earnhardt to use the PCP. 32. Andrew posted: 04.13.2020 - 10:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @25,26,27,28,29,30,31Thanks for the info how provisionals worked back then. However, I think provisionals were based off points from last year up to the 4th race. If it was to the 5th race, shouldn't Rick Mast have been starting in front of Darrell Waltrip #17 and Ward Burton #22? Rick was driving the #75 ,which was driven by Morgan Shepherd in '96, finished ahead of both of them in points. I am still unsure though going through each race during the season of where the cut-off point is in points position. I was thinking it was top 35 in owner points. I've been finding as I track the points as the season went, there are cars that made the race with a provisional that weren't even in the top 40 in owner points. Of course in some races you may not get 4 cars that were not in top 35 in points that didn't qualify on time or whatever. So how did the last provisional spot(s) get filled? Did that go to the next fastest qualifier outside the top 38 who wasn't ranked high enough in points or what? 33. possum posted: 04.13.2020 - 6:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @32 - as I recall, provisionals were set by previous years owners points for the first 4 races. Darlington, being the 5th race, would have it's provisionals based on 1997 owner's points. Since Mast was DNQ at Daytona, he'd have been pretty low in owners points. There was no cutoff in owners points back then. If 38 cars timed in, and the remaining 4 entrants were 70th, 71st, 72nd, and 73rd in the points standings they would take the provisional spots. 34. Ryan posted: 04.13.2020 - 9:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @31 I believe that's true. Most of the time Earnhardt would use the champion's provisional to let someone else in the race. As was the case at the 2nd Charlotte race in 1995. I believe Rich Bickle was the recipient for the last provisional that day before Earnhardt's PCP. 35. RaceFanX posted: 04.17.2020 - 2:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I still remember who absolutely thrilled Dale Jarrett was to win this race because it was his first win at Darlington and it came in the last race here before the configuration was flip flopped. He saw this as his last chance to win on the track with the same layout as when his father Ned Jarrett won here and he pulled it off. This would be the first of three wins for DJ at the Lady in Black. 36. Tim posted: 05.16.2020 - 1:12 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I always loved ESPN's intros when they came on the air for the race broadcast. Typically, it was about 3-5 minutes sometimes with music. This was one of the best of the mid to late 90s. My other favorites were ?97 Winston 500 and ?99 Spring Richmond race. 37. Rich posted: 08.04.2020 - 4:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Bob Jenkins, Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. The pit road reporters were Dr. Jerry Punch, John Kernan and Bill Weber. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: