|| *Comments on the 1997 Pepsi 400:* View the most recent comment <#69> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. WreckInTurn4 posted: 06.17.2004 - 12:05 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) John Andretti's first win, my favorite race of all the time, and the first nascar race I ever watched. 2. MASH_guy posted: 08.15.2005 - 4:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Andretti dominates for his first career win and Cale Yarborough's only win as a car owner. 3. MOST posted: 05.07.2006 - 3:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) John ran great all day, Sterling had a flat tire early, had it not been for that he probably would have won. A lot of strange crashes that day. 4. CanucksAndNASCAR Fan posted: 05.17.2006 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) It was the last Pepsi 400 run during the daytime. It has been run at night since 1998. I'll also add that there was a huge wreck on the last lap--even Earnhardt knew there was going to be a big wreck on the last lap. I think there were 10 cars in that wreck. 5. nascarcrazy24 posted: 08.31.2006 - 1:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe that this was the last time NASCAR had a one lap shootout. After all, they were dangerous, and the last lap incident proved that correct. 6. dylan posted: 09.06.2006 - 10:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It was also Andretti's 100th career start. 7. Anonymous posted: 12.03.2006 - 6:05 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Billy Strandridge had his best career qualifying position in 7th. 8. Frogger49 posted: 01.06.2007 - 5:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, ESPN had an open radio linkup during the last lap wreck where you could hear someone loudly cursing (including what sounded like the F-Bomb). 9. HC posted: 01.06.2007 - 6:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) IŠve still got the highlights of this race from Eurosport. What a race, so much action and Dale drove an outstanding race. That last lap wreck was scary, especially with that radio link, you could indeed hear him curse just before he was t boned. 10. Jerald Daughtry posted: 02.05.2007 - 12:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) If anyone has a copy of this race they don't want. Please call me at 1-478-553-9028. Or mail it to 1405 Lamars Creek RD, Sandersville,GA. I am Willing to pay at least 100 Bucks for it. I had a copy but it was destroyed in a serious accident. Thanks. 11. myself posted: 02.19.2007 - 5:21 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Comments from Tony Furr, Andretti's crew chief, just before the last lap shootout when asked if he thought any car could pass Andretti, "I don't think so....THAT FORD'S FAST!!!!" Tim Harbin, a life-long Earnhardt hater, showed that he actually hated Cale much more (probably cause' Tim, a Petty fan, knew Cale used to hand Petty his @$$) when Earnhardt, running in 2nd behind Andretti following a caution, yelled out just before the green, "Alright Earnhardt....LETS GO!!" Earnhardt still couldn't pass Andretti. The last lap in-car audio....the cussin' came from Mark Martin's spotter. The best part of that audio came from Bobby Hamilton! As he was about to plow into the massive wreck, he yelled a loud, "YEE-HAW!" I laugh every time I watch that race, as I do have it on tape. 12. Jerald Daughtry posted: 02.24.2007 - 12:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) How much do you want for it? 13. myself posted: 03.16.2007 - 2:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Well, Jerald, I won't part w/ the only copy, but I would make you a DVD copy if the price is right. What say you? You got an e-mail address? 14. Cecil Davis posted: 04.23.2007 - 8:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) yes I do. It is a long one though because i'm a Dalr sr/Dale jr fan. It is jrfan8jrfan83fan@yahoo.com 15. Jerald Daughtry posted: 04.23.2007 - 8:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) also sorry For the name swap. Cecil is my half-brother. I'm Jerald 16. biffle16 posted: 05.17.2007 - 2:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Mark Martin's spotter yelled, "GOD DAMMIT!" when he saw that Mark had gotten caught up in the wreck. Good times. 17. NascarMan posted: 08.08.2007 - 1:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Last Pepsi 400 televised on ESPN 18. myself posted: 02.15.2008 - 2:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) That wasn't the spotter yelling GD. It was Bobby Hamilton (RIP) yelling Yee Haw! 19. myself posted: 02.26.2008 - 12:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I correct myself. Martin's spotter did yell "GD!" Jerald/Cecil....I sent the e-mail about a copy of the race. Y'all still among the living? 20. jeff posted: 03.28.2008 - 12:25 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton took a serious shot in that last lap wreck. His impact into the wall was quite similar to Earnhardt's fatal crash, and after that he got slammed in the back by another car. He was very lucky to escape without serious injury. 21. 48 posted: 09.27.2008 - 4:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Hey myself, email me a copy please? 22. CHAD posted: 01.31.2009 - 4:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) I THINK THE RACE SHOULD HAVE ENDED UNDER YELLOS 23. CHAD posted: 01.31.2009 - 7:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DID THEY RED FLAG FOR THE CRASH 24. myself posted: 02.13.2009 - 1:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Hey myself, email me a copy please? 48 | 09.27.08 - 4:13 pm" E-mail you a copy of what....& who are you?! 25. Andre posted: 09.21.2010 - 10:09 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Chad, the wreck was so bad they went ahead and threw the checkered flag... PS: It was a last lap wreck. ;) Also, Michael Waltrip and Ricky Rudd tangled late in the going. I remember Mikey having an onboard camera, and not only was his steering wheel bent after impact, but it looked like he was staring at Rudd as they were hooked together in the wreck. Kinda creepy. 26. Roger posted: 11.03.2010 - 10:36 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Is this the race Bill Elliott had some kind of a problem after running strong up front and had to pit and lost laps but had the strongest car at the end of the race? Seems like he passed John at one point but was laps down and managed to pull away from him...I could be wrong though... 27. Ken posted: 11.05.2010 - 4:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Terry Labonte finished a strong 2nd, he has finished 2nd at Daytona five times, but has never won a points race there. 28. RaceFanX posted: 10.29.2011 - 10:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor change: #75 Rick Mast- Stren Fishing Line / Remington Arms (this also goes for Morgan Shepherd's entry in the 1996 Pepsi 400) Stren and Remington are owned by the same parent company and in both 1996 and 1997 the normally dark green Remington car was given a purple makeover for the Pepsi 400 as the race is run on the Fourth of July weekend which is traditionally one of the biggest in the USA for going fishing. 29. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.19.2013 - 12:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Interestingly, only Bob Jenkins and Benny Parsons called this race from the booth for ESPN, as Ned Jarrett had already made committments with CBS that weekend to broadcast the Busch and Truck races from Milwaukee. As previously mentioned, this was the last Pepsi 400 (now Coke Zero 400) to be run in the morning (I wish they still did that). But it was not the last morning race at Daytona. Ten years later in 2007, the Nationwide race was rained out from the previous evening and postponed to the Saturday morning before the Cup race. 30. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.19.2013 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, Jeff Gordon had hit the wall and spun in turn two late in the race, nearly losing a lap. In fact, he nearly lost the points lead and would have lost it had it not been for the last lap crash that involved Mark Martin. That's the reason why Mark's spotter was so angry, because Jeff was able to maneuver through the wreck and gain about ten spots while Martin lost about twenty spots, costing him the points lead. This race was Geoff Bodine's first DNQ of his career. He would also DNQ later that year at Indianapolis. 31. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.19.2013 - 12:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sterling Marlin had made a remarkable recovery in this race to finish third. In the first ten laps of the race, Marlin had to make an unscheduled pit stop for mechanical problems and remained a full lap down until Jeff Gordon's crash. Then, in the last 30 laps, he was able to work his way from being the last car on the lead lap to third. 32. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.19.2013 - 1:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Earnhardt had lost the pole to his teammate Mike Skinner by less than .005 of a second (I don't remember the exact margin). Also, Billy Standridge had an impressive seventh-place qualifying effort only to hit the turn-two wall early in the race, causing a stack-up behind him which took out pole-sitter Skinner and Chad Little down the backstretch. 33. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.19.2013 - 1:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What's unusual about this race is how all the NASCAR record books list the margin of victory as a mere 0.029 sec., even though videos of race finish show Andretti ahead of Labonte by at least 1 car length, which would translate to about 0.8 sec. For a finish to be 0.029 sec. the top two cars would have to be side-by side coming to the checkered flag. 34. BradKeselowski2Fan posted: 06.21.2013 - 12:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) With the greater speeds at Daytona, two cars farter apart can have the same MoV than cars closer to each other at Bristol. 35. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.21.2013 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) BradKeselowski2Fan, that may be true. But look at the finish of the race on YouTube, and you'll see there have been many closer finishes at the same speed, but with much larger MoVs. Also, they couldn't have been traveling at an extremely fast speed, considering the cars were probably still not up to full speed since it was a one-lap run to the checkers from the caution with five to go. 36. David posted: 06.22.2013 - 4:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) SpeedWorld97, you've got it backwards. A one car length advantage will be equivalent to a longer amount of time at a slower speed, whereas a one-car length advantage at a faster speed will be equivalent to a shorter amount of time. 37. joey2448 posted: 06.26.2013 - 11:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Throughout all the recent plate races that have featured the "tandem" racing, I have noticed that when two cars line up nose to tail, with the trailing car pushing the front car, the typical time difference between the two is .05 seconds. That of course is at, or close to, full speed. Now in this race, with the one-lap sprint to the finish, it may be different. But for a MOV to be .029 seconds, the two cars would almost have to be side by side. I just watched the finish of this race on YouTube, and Labonte was more than a car length behind Andretti at the finish, and just by my naked-eye estimate, I would guess the MOV was about 2/10ths of a second. So perhaps the webmaster meant .29 seconds, instead of .029.... 38. SpeedWorld97 posted: 06.27.2013 - 6:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) joey2448, That's exactly what I thought too. What's weird is how all racing results, not just Racing-Reference, show the MoV for this race as 0.029 sec. It definitely looks more like 0.29 sec. 39. Ryan W posted: 07.31.2013 - 2:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah they need to change the MOV. Hate to be techical, but it is racing reference and it needs to be fixed. It really was a stupid idea to restart this race. This was just as bad as restarting the 1993 Winston 500 race. You know there's going to be a crash. 40. Ryan W posted: 07.31.2013 - 2:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) That wreck caused Martin to lose the championship. It wasn't right to restart the race with one lap. 41. webmaster posted: 07.31.2013 - 7:40 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR's official race report says .029 not .29. It's possible they put the decimal point in the wrong place, but that's what it says. 42. Evan posted: 01.01.2014 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Interestingly, Racing Champions never made a 1/64 of John Andretti's RCA Ford he won this race with but Hot Wheels made the car in 1/64 scale. I got one of those a year later. 43. SpeedWorld97 posted: 07.06.2014 - 12:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 17 years later the Coke Zero 400 will be run as an 11 am race again after being rain delayed. 44. Scott B posted: 10.29.2015 - 3:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cale's only Cup win as a team owner. 45. Big Mac Fan posted: 12.16.2015 - 9:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Whatever the 98 did to their plate track setups in '97, the result was some really fast cars, almost reminding me of the DEI dominance in the early 2000's. In fact in 1997, Andretti had 3 top 5's in the 4 plate races which was their only top 10's all season. 46. Josh posted: 07.08.2016 - 3:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Earnhardt went from 2nd to 4th on the final lap. Wonder where Ryan is to complain about the conspiracy against Earnhardt on that one. I guess it's those inferior RCR cars again. Ward Burton and Dick Trickle forked Mark Martin into Turn 3 to start the last lap melee. Trickle and Martin I think actually made contact first, then caught Burton, who had made a clean (daring, but clean, edging the backstretch grass) pass into Turn 3. ESPN for some reason played team communication during the accident and Mark Martin's spotter lands a nice G-D! in the midst of it, then we hear Bobby Hamilton take the 22's door off going "YAWWWW". Bobby actually mustered that thing across the line and finished all 160 laps. I think Ward Burton was injured in this one but not overly seriously. He was back racing within a week or two. 47. HelloPostMyComment posted: 07.08.2016 - 3:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) My two favorite drivers at the time, Dick Trickle and Ward Burton very rarely got top 5's.. and both for once were there until they crashed together on final lap 48. Josh posted: 07.26.2016 - 6:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A few other notable events during this race. John Andretti dominated the race, during a stretch of a couple of years where Cale's #98s were really good on the RP tracks. Jimmy Spencer, after an early wreck with Mike Skinner, came into the pits and due probably to faulty steering, struck and launched his jackman into the air, who was coming out to pit the car. The crewman was uninjured and went on like nothing happened. Ricky Rudd looped his car going into Turn 1 with a few laps to go to set up the frantic finish. Michael Waltrip, Morgan Shepherd, and a couple others were involved, with Rudd and Michael getting the worst of it. Jeff Gordon crashed on his own out of Turn 2 in this race, which at the time was mind-numbing since he was winning every other race nearly. But he only pancaked the right side of the car and was able to nurse it to a 21st-place, lead lap finish, passing the cars that wrecked during the last few laps. Sterling Marlin had a tire go down early in the race, and spent nearly the whole race trying to make up the lap he lost because of it. When Jeff Gordon crashed on lap 125, Marlin reached the finish line for the caution ahead of the leader, making up his lost lap. Who knows if that #4 would have been able to better contend for the win had that tire not gone down early. 49. JSPorts posted: 04.30.2017 - 1:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Watching the crash on the final lap, it's scary how similar Ward Burton's hit into the wall was to Dale Earnhardt's impact in 2001 that took his life. I'm glad Ward was ok. 50. Sean posted: 04.30.2017 - 1:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Restarting a plate race with one lap remaining was one of the dumbest things NASCAR did in the '90s, and it arguably cost Martin the title, not that he would have deserved it IMO, but whatever... 51. Tide1732 (GO ENFINGER!!!) posted: 04.30.2017 - 6:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The most surprise to won a Daytona July race 52. HD11 posted: 11.20.2017 - 10:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe it was the spotter for Dick Trickle rather than Mark Martin who launched that GD bomb on the last lap crash. They'd had Trickle's radio on for most of the race. 53. Turn 4 posted: 03.13.2018 - 3:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Fifth caution flag, the last lap crash. 54. CJ posted: 04.19.2018 - 1:42 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Career best qualifying effort for Billy Standridge in what would be his final start in the 78. First career win for John Andretti. Season best finish for Sterling Marlin and Jerry Nadeau. 55. Evan posted: 07.09.2018 - 10:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton's crash looked eerily similar to Dale Earnhardt's fatal crash in this one. But there were more cars around and Ward didn't hit the wall at the same speed Earnhardt did, nonetheless it was still a hard hit. 56. Chunks posted: 07.13.2018 - 8:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Is John Andretti the nephew of Formula 1 and CART legend Mario Andretti? 57. Canadianfan posted: 07.13.2018 - 8:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @56 Yes he is. 58. Josh Drake posted: 07.31.2018 - 10:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The final restart is why brake checking on the restart should never be allowed, especially on the last lap. It led to cars being bunched up on the backstretch, on top of many drivers going for the lead. That was unnecessarily cynical from Tony Furr to order such a strategy, and on top of that, it nearly led to the deaths of Mark Martin and Ward Burton in an era of no HANS device or SAFER barriers. 59. Ryan posted: 08.01.2018 - 12:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tbh, they shouldn't have restarted the race with one lap to go. It was inevitable what was going to happen... and it did. They knew Earnhardt fans would throw a fit though if they didn't. They would have received some backlash if they wouldn't have restarted it. Unfortunately for Earnhardt fans, Dale Jarrett decided to try and pass Earnhardt going into turn 1 and that bottled everything up. The backstretch for the final lap looked unreal. Like a death lottery. 60. Taylor posted: 12.09.2018 - 8:13 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) If this race didn't end in a one lap shootout Mark Martin would be a Cup champion. 61. Ed posted: 01.12.2020 - 5:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ricky Craven had a very unfortunate break in the first crash when a piece of a brake rotor off one of the other cars punctured his radiator, he lost 5 laps behind the wall as the team replaced the radiator 62. Ryan posted: 02.04.2020 - 7:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @46 See @59. No conspiracy. They shouldn't have re-started the race, much like the 1993 Winston 500 as I mentioned earlier. Stop hating all the time. Stop your 3 hating. Get a grip. RIP John Andretti. If some drivers would have given him more help at the first Talladega race in 1997 he probably would have won that one, too. 63. SweetRich posted: 02.21.2020 - 7:22 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Bob Jenkins And Benny Parsons. The Pit Road Reporters Were Jerry Punch, John Kernan And Bill Weber. 64. Jimnsimforever posted: 02.29.2020 - 3:13 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Right after the caution where Jeff Gordon hit the wall, the fans all stood up and were giving Sterling Marlin a huge raucous standing ovation for working hard and getting his lap back. About the time Gordon was pulling out of the pits to not go a lap down, the fans saw Sterling coming around again under caution and made sure to waive their hands and hats and give Marlin an encore ovation to make sure he knew how much they appreciated it. 65. Mile501 posted: 02.29.2020 - 6:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Even though restrictor plates obviously helped, it is nonetheless pretty amazing to see 30-35 cars still on the lead lap in the closing laps of a race back in the late 1990s. 66. Onion posted: 03.28.2020 - 12:48 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Standridge had an R&D engine loaned from Yarborough Racing, which explains the uncharacteristically fast speeds he put down in the #78, as Cale's #98 was one of the best plate cars in the late-90's. 67. Anonymous posted: 05.12.2020 - 10:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) there were 9 or 10 of them in the last lap wreck in this race. I could tell about 8 at least had damage for sure. 68. SweetRich posted: 07.06.2020 - 12:34 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) A long time coming indeed but after years of struggling to the top, Cale Yarborough Motorsports finally won a NASCAR Winston Cup race by dominating The Pepsi 400 with John Andretti behind the wheel of the #98 RCA Ford as he led 113 of 160 laps. John's first of two career wins and Cale's one and only win as a car owner. Still, what a great day. 69. Ryan posted: 08.25.2020 - 12:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) One of two races in 1997 that were raced during the day on a Saturday, the other being the Brickyard 400. Has it happened since? @45 Tony Furr was the crew chief and actually made the decision to change to soft springs for this race. Obviously a good decision. The only time he was really threatened was with about 6-7 laps ago when Earnhardt went to his outside going into turn 1, but he couldn't get enough help from Jarrett (Ford) to get around him. @46 Obviously RCR still had solid equipment still at the plate tracks. You can look at Earnhardt and Skinner's qualifying and finishing avg. every where else compared to plate tracks and tracks that didn't use them. Or look at how competitive they were until an accident. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: