|| *Comments on the 1997 Miller 500:* View the most recent comment <#43> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. James posted: 07.23.2004 - 11:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the LAST 500 Mile,Laps Race ever at Dover International Speedway, Won by Ricky Rudd. 2. AllisonFan posted: 01.31.2005 - 7:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I hated this race. Yates cars led more than 400 of the 1st 450+ laps. DJ blows an engine while dominating, then Ernie spins after taking over the lead. He later complained that the cleanup crew didn't get all the oil from the 88 car off the track. At least a Ford won anyway! 3. HomeDepot20TS posted: 02.28.2005 - 4:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last several laps of this race were WILD. Dale Jarrett checked up for spinning cars in front of him and Jeff Gordon plowed him, damaging his radiator. Then, Jarrett blew up while leading. Ernie spun into whe wall while leading, and Ricky Rudd beat Mark Martin in a classic thriller. 4. Anonymous posted: 03.12.2005 - 10:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (7) This was Ricky Rudd's last Winston/Nextel Cup win ever. 5. Anonymous posted: 04.06.2005 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) No, Ricky won a couple of races in 2001 when he was driving the 28 car if I recall. 6. MASH_guy posted: 06.08.2005 - 2:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Rudd has won 6 races since this one, including the Brickyeard later that year. Hardly his last win ever. 7. Steve posted: 04.11.2006 - 9:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Rudd won a 500-lap, 500-mile race that showed what an Ironman he really is. First career Top 10 finish for rookie Mike Skinner. He later finished 6th at Pocono in July and 9th at Indianapolis. 8. Thomas posted: 09.25.2006 - 7:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (2) Yeah, that fool Jeffie Gordo plowed right into Dale Jarrett in the car that rainbow boy named "blacker", which was one of his favorites. Later, Dale Jarrett's engine blew because when he spun backwards after Gordo hit him, it spun the engine backwards, much like with Jr. at Talladega in the spring of 2006. 9. Thomas posted: 09.25.2006 - 8:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Geoff Bodine hit the wall before halfway and lost the steering. His car then slid down the track in turn 4, right into the path of Dick Trickle, who clobbered him at full speed and nearly flipped over. Neither was injured. 10. myself posted: 03.16.2007 - 2:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Rudd's one of 2 drivers to make Dover their personal playground. Bobby Allison is the other. 11. SK posted: 06.27.2007 - 7:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Adding on to what Thomas said about the Bodine-Trickle wreck, what made it appear even more violent was that moments after Trickle's Ford landed back on all 4 wheels, Bobby Hillin slammed into the left-front of his car with just as heavy an impact. All 3 cars involved were too damaged to drive away, let alone return to the race. 12. Anonymous posted: 09.15.2007 - 6:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Jeff Gordon, for several years it seemed he had the best car out there. I mean from 95-99. 13. Douche Bagolow posted: 12.11.2007 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Man, I didn't get to see this one, but it sounds incredible! 14. Matt posted: 04.23.2008 - 3:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bobby Labonte won the poll but was taken out while leading after contact with Kyle Petty. 15. Clayton posted: 07.02.2008 - 5:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Anyone know why Wally Dallenbach was in the 40 and not Robby Gordon? 16. Dodge posted: 07.16.2008 - 10:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Clayton, I believe Wally was in the 40 because Robby got burned or suffered an injury while racing in the Indy 500 so since the 46 was a part time team they just had Wally drive. 17. myself posted: 08.17.2009 - 1:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Howdy boys! I'm Ricky Rudd."--what movie? 18. 18fan posted: 11.04.2009 - 12:10 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Does anyone have a full version of this race? 19. Steve posted: 11.09.2011 - 1:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Youtube user "kornnut43" has a highlight version of this race (about 22 minutes). I haven't found a full-length upload of the race. 20. kevdogg329 posted: 04.06.2013 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0JxsaRvGF0 Full version of this race. 21. Evan posted: 01.01.2014 - 9:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) One ofthe zaniest finishes you will ever see, Jarrett looks like he is gonna cruise to the win when his engine fails and dumps oil on the track and then NASCAR's clean up crew fails to adequately clean the track because Dover is concrete making the oil difficult to clean off the surface. Ernie Irvan crashes in the uncleaned oil and thsi hands the lead to Ricky Rudd who goes off to victory lane. 22. sk posted: 04.26.2014 - 3:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Still undocumented here: Dave Marcis' fabulous 5th-place start, which was his best qualifying effort of any kind in 13 years. 23. Evan W. posted: 05.10.2014 - 10:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Chad Little also lost the rear end and lost rear end grease late in the going that along with Jarrett's blown engine where it spun around backwards contributed to Ernie Irvan's loss. Tough loss for Robert Yates Racing to get both his cars taken out of a race where they had the field covered. These things happen in big league auto racing. 24. murb posted: 12.07.2014 - 5:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I just had a blast watching the whole thing on YouTube. What an insane last 50 laps or so. DJ and Gordon were about to have an epic duel for the win, but then Skinner spun Andretti out, which led to Gordon punching in his radiator on Jarrett's back end. And then of course DJ blows up a few laps later while leading, which then leads Irvan (who was just checking out up front) to crash in his oil. And even after all that, there was still a pretty hectic fight for the win in the last ten laps between Rudd and Mark. Mark probably would have won if there had been another lap or two. He was MUCH faster than Ricky there at the end. But yeah, what a crazily entertaining race. Maybe one of the best ever at Dover. Even without all of the craziness at the end there was still some pretty awesome racing throughout the entire 500 miles. 25. 18fan posted: 02.10.2015 - 3:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Rudd was almost involved in the accident where Gordon ran into Jarrett. Rudd was on the outside of John Andretti when Skinner got into Andretti and Andretti spun. 26. Evan posted: 11.11.2015 - 8:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) WINNER:#10 Ricky Rudd Tide Mountain Spring-Rudd drove his regular Tide colors but had the words Mountain Spring on the hood in green letters to promote a new scent by Tide. It was also run at Charlotte when Ricky crashed it. Source:TNN Coverage of the race. 27. Evan posted: 11.15.2015 - 8:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #71 Dave Marcis Realtree "The Making of Champions" Dave had a scheme promoting the movie of Richard Childress's racing career as an owner and driver. Realtree was affiliated with Marcis and later became an associate sponsor with RCR. Source:Race Action and it was mentioned during the Miller 500 TNN Broadcast. 28. Bad Booking posted: 12.28.2015 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Thomas, DJ admitted in the interview that the engine failure had nothing to do with being spun by Jeff. Knowing RYR's spotty record with engine reliability in 1997, I believe him. 29. Will posted: 08.02.2016 - 2:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What a wild race. The Yates cars had the field covered. That had to be a tough pill to swallow for Robert after seeing both of his cars drop out within laps of each other. In fact, I was surprised to even see Ernie make his way back to the lead at all. He sustained somewhat heavy damage to his front fender after running into Jarrett on pit road earlier in the race. Gordon seemed to be the other likely winner if Jarrett or Irvan didn't take it. Of course he literally ran into trouble too. The top finishing Fords were strong all day, all running in the top 10 for most the entire race. And kudos to Kyle Petty (despite accidentally sending Labonte around). I don't think he ever was lower than 5th. Skinner ran very well considering he qualified 40th. I was also impressed that Marlin managed a top 10 despite spinning in the first 10 laps without a caution coming out for him. He lost a couple of laps, but slowly made his way up through the field. Earnhardt ran like junk the entire race. Even though he finished 3 laps down, he finished just outside the top 15. That's not something you see nowadays (also when was the last time we saw only 5 cars finish on the lead lap?). Back then it wasn't as uncommon I suppose. Rudd extended his winning streak to 15 years after the victory. Very impressive feat. 30. Anthony posted: 09.23.2016 - 12:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dick Trickle with the classic ARCA Brakes in this one 31. Anthony posted: 11.07.2016 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was a key race in the championship come November. The collision between Gordon and Jarrett put them down the order with damage. Jarrett's engine let go a few laps later, which probably cost him the Winston Cup. Gordon's team got him back out on the track after repairs and the points he got there won him the Winston Cup. Who would have thought races in June play a role in the entire year. With the Chase, it would all be forgotten. 32. Maverick19 posted: 12.20.2016 - 11:02 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Gordon scored 13 more points than Jarrett in this race. He won the Cup by 14. Who knows what would've happen if they didn't run into trouble in this race. 33. RaceFanX posted: 02.23.2017 - 8:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Petty finishes fifth to score the first of two top-5 finishes during his tenure at his PE2 team. The strong run for the Hot Wheels #44 Pontiac marked Petty's first top-5 run since his win at Dover two years earlier. 34. HD11 posted: 09.22.2017 - 11:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The caution never waved for Dale Jarrett's engine problem so the comments about the track crew not doing their job are not accurate as they never had a chance to clean anything up. Rear end grease from Chad Little's car was blamed for the Irvan wreck. Crazy and wild finish for sure! 35. CJ posted: 04.19.2018 - 12:56 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First of 2 wins in 97 for Ricky Rudd. Season best finish for Jeremy Mayfield. First career top 10 for Mike Skinner. 4th consecutive finish of 42nd or worse for the 7 team. Michael Waltrip equals his season best finish. 36. Joshua posted: 09.20.2018 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Petty flat run over Bobby Labonte off Turn 2 when Labonte was leading early in the race. 37. Wil posted: 09.20.2018 - 1:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Kyle Petty then approached Bobby after the race, put his hands up and said "You get a free shot at me" 38. nohbody posted: 01.01.2019 - 2:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The last real race at Dover. The distance and track should never have been altered. 39. Anthony posted: 01.01.2019 - 3:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Could you imagine today's aero push no tyre wear NASCAR putting on a 500 lapper at Dover? It would truly be the cure for insomnia. The 400 lappers are bad enough. 40. RaceFanX posted: 05.10.2019 - 10:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Mark Martin comes up one second short of finally scoring his first Dover victory, instead claiming his third runner-up finish at the Monster Mile. Martin wouldn't be waiting much longer to finally break through in Delaware though as he won the fall race here just over three months later. 41. SweetRich posted: 02.16.2020 - 6:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Eli Gold, Buddy Baker And Dick Berggren. The Pit Road Reporters Were Glenn Jarrett, Steve Byrnes And Matt Yocum. 42. TheDewCrew posted: 08.21.2020 - 9:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I re-watched this race yesterday. Holy cow, what an absolute banger of a race. Petty spins Labonte for the first lead change, 30 laps into a 500 lap race. I had never been big on Eli Gold, but this race showed he fit in well with Buddy Baker. Glenn Jarrett was funny in his weatherman role. The Bodine wreck, with Trickle, and Hillin was violent as heck. The final 50 laps were the most wacky and zany I've ever seen. Gordon runs into the back of Jarrett, to avoid a spinning Kenny Wallace, while they were running 1-2, sending Gordon to the garage, then on the restart Jarrett blows an engine from the lead. Had Jarrett's engine held on until the end, that could've made Dale Jarrett the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Champion, instead of Jeff Gordon, as Gordon only won the championship by 14 points over Jarrett. Then, his teammate Ernie Irvan, spins and crashes after getting in Jarrett's oil. Then Rudd and Martin battle for the win, with Rudd winning by a carlength. This may be one of the greatest NASCAR races to never be talked about often 43. Brett posted: 08.23.2020 - 10:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The TNN crew did a real good job covering this crazy race. After what could be described as a "transition year" for the network in '96, in which they replaced their lead broadcaster and shuffled analysts across several races, TNN hit on the booth trio of Eli Gold, Buddy Baker & Dr. Dick Berggren, which would be static for the remainder of their Cup coverage. Eli's voice and delivery style was such that he could make even the dreary parts of a race seem exciting and he really brought out the best in Buddy and Dr. Dick, in my opinion. All three of them were having a great time calling this race. Couple that with the addition of Steve Byrnes and Matt Yocum to the pit team along with network mainstay Glenn Jarrett, and that six-pack was outstanding for the two or so seasons they worked together. ESPN was the gold standard for TV coverage of the sport in the 90's, but I would argue TNN's coverage from 1997-2000 was on par with it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: