|| *Comments on the 1997 Dura Lube 500 Presented by Kmart:* View the most recent comment <#20> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Brett posted: 02.26.2005 - 1:37 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jarrett's win marks the final victory of the Ford Thunderbird. 2. gomer posted: 10.23.2006 - 9:58 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Was this the race he made up a lap under green? 3. Anonymous posted: 06.22.2007 - 9:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ward Burton crashed pretty hard in this race, then it went 175 laps of green to the checkered. 4. FHgrad99 posted: 08.19.2007 - 9:38 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jarrett made a lap up on the field without the aid of a caution. 5. stricklinfan82 posted: 08.12.2009 - 12:46 am Rate this comment: (3) (0) An interesting side note to this race is that Ricky Craven and the Hendrick #25 Budweiser team (who were in the top 20 in the point standings) failed to qualify for the race on time and had run out of provisionals until Atlanta (back then teams started the year with a certain number of provisionals and gained another one after every certain # of attempts), so they should have gone home. The team also entered a backup #52 Budweiser Chevy painted identically to Craven's for Jack Sprague (presumably just in case Craven missed the race) but Sprague also missed the field, so Craven and Hendrick were out of luck again. After seeing this unfold, NASCAR made an extremely strange (and I believe unprecedented) exception for the Hendrick team and allowed them to back-door their way into the field by awarding them a Winston West Series provisional and the 43rd starting position. NASCAR stated that the original entry list had this race listed as a Winston Cup / Winston West combination race and allowed for one West Series provisional. In a stark contrast to the Past Champion's Provisional spot (which at the time went unused if no champion needed it), NASCAR determined that an unclaimed Winston West provisional should revert to the next-highest team in the Cup point standings and wouldn't be governed by the same 'out of provisionals' rules that a normal Winston Cup provisional would be. That move still remains a head-scratcher for me to this day. It definitely seemed to me like an unfair "make it up as they went along" move by NASCAR to protect a mega-buck team and sponsor from an embarrassing DNQ. 6. 18fan posted: 04.01.2010 - 2:51 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) What a surprise, NASCAR making up a reason to help out Hendrick. More proof that Rick is in NASCAR's back pocket. 7. 18fan posted: 04.25.2010 - 11:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I believe this is the last time a driver made up a lap on the field without the aid of a caution. Drivers have come from a lap down to win, but with cautions in between. 8. Anonymous posted: 11.09.2010 - 3:59 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jarrett never actually went a lap down. Rusty caught him but never actually passed him to put him off the lead lap. Once Jarrett saw the leader in his rear view mirror it was like he flipped a switch. 9. Tim posted: 05.14.2012 - 11:55 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) DJ actually got caught a lap down during a series of green flag pit stops when the final caution of the race came out. After the leaders pitted he was on the tail end of the lead lap. The 2nd half of the race was run caution free and he essentially made up an entire lap under green. 10. 44andJoe posted: 12.10.2012 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #11 sponsor: Commander Produce 11. toomuchcountry posted: 10.17.2013 - 12:58 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Race was Kyle Petty's 500th Cup start. 12. Evan posted: 01.01.2014 - 10:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dale Jarett scores his only win on the West Coast and his 7th win of the year, he never won at Sonoma or California when they were on the schedule. Dale took a step closer to the 1997 championship with this win but we all know it all turned out. 13. 23andJoe posted: 04.06.2014 - 10:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #52 owner: Rick Hendrick 14. Evan W. posted: 04.27.2014 - 8:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor #42 Joe Nemecheck 1-800-BellSouth Source:Watched the race, car appears in starting lineup, its black and blue and has 1-800-BellSouth on it to promote the phone call number. #37 Jeremy Mayfield KMART/RC Cola/Blackout Source:This car was painted black, no idea why probably to promote a product. Sources:Jayski.com #40 Greg Sacks Coors Light Classic Source:This car was run to promote the original release of Coors Light in its Classic cans. Run a few times and at Phoenix. Jsyski.com #21 Michael Waltrip CITGO/Retro "1970's" Source:Jayski.com This car was run on the short tracks with Michael driving to commemorate David Pearson getting into the Motorsports Hall of Fame that year. A Hot Wheels diecast was made of the car. It also was seen in the starting lineups. Also ran at Charlotte during the year. 15. Rick N posted: 12.27.2014 - 6:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I was at this race. Dale Jarrett ran out of gas and lost a couple of laps, I believe. He got at least one back due to caution, but made the last lap up by starting at the front of the field, almost a lap down. This was in the days when NASCAR would restart a race with the leader back in the field. Jarrett made up the lap and came through the field to take the lead and eventually the win. I was aware of what was going on the whole time and was timing his laps from my seat at the turn 1 end of the front straight. It was a great comeback and one that probably will not ever happen again under current policies. 16. CJ posted: 04.24.2018 - 12:49 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Season best finish for Ken Schrader, Johnny Benson, and Greg Sacks. 17. Darrell posted: 11.02.2019 - 1:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdraw: No. 38 Butch Gilliland 18. rateus posted: 04.11.2020 - 1:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @5 The pre-race chat on jayski's makes it clear that this race was always assigned a Winston West provisional, basically for Butch Gilliland as he was the only entered driver eligible for it. Gilliland was at the track but didn't register for first qualifying and didn't make an attempt in second qualifying, a move described on jayski's as "odd". This opened the way for Craven to start... 19. Rich posted: 08.04.2020 - 6:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The commentators were Eli Gold, Buddy Baker and Dr. Dick Berggren. The pit road reporters were Steve Byrnes, Glenn Jarrett and Matt Yocum. 20. Anonymous posted: 09.10.2020 - 10:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) NASCAR changed the provisional rules for the 1998 Winston Cup season to no longer charge teams for using a provisional if they were in the top 25 in owner points and eliminate Winston West provisionals. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: