|| *Comments on the 1998 Pontiac Excitement 400:* View the most recent comment <#44> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet <http://twitter.com/share> 1. Dave posted: 06.13.2005 - 12:20 am Rate this comment: (0) (4) This was the first race NASCAR started shooting itself in the foot with the red flag. They stopped it with a few to go and then Terry nudged past DJ for a win. 2. ChrisA posted: 11.17.2005 - 7:08 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) I believe this was the race in which Gordon was punted out of the way and into the wall by Wallace. 3. HomeDepot20TS posted: 03.09.2006 - 8:57 pm Rate this comment: (3) (2) Yep. I was thinking at the time "Somebody finally showed some guts and knocked him in the wall!!!!!" ...get off me, I was 12. 4. Labonte44Ever posted: 06.13.2006 - 2:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Texas Terry's final short track win!! 5. Frogger49 posted: 10.05.2006 - 1:57 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) The race was put under caution due to Johnny Benson blowing a tire and going into the wall with 2 laps to go while running in the top 10. He rode the wall the remaining 2 laps like in Nascar Racing 2 and finished 18th as a result. 6. DaleJrFan15 posted: 03.17.2007 - 11:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Anyone see the point leader after this?Yeah...Mayfield...the now doomed Mayfield 7. Anonymous posted: 06.22.2007 - 9:29 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Poor Ricky Rudd crashed going for the lead and win on a restart! 8. Anonymous posted: 02.17.2008 - 2:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Little Kenny Irwin got a top-10. That didn't happen often! 9. Spen posted: 03.30.2008 - 6:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Why is Lepage listed on the DNQ's even though he finished 33rd? 10. stricklinfan82 posted: 04.28.2008 - 3:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) After qualifying, the #96 team decided to replace David Green with Kevin Lepage, who failed to qualify the #91 car. They cited David's health after the crash at Dover the week before as the reason for the last minute swap, but then the true reason behind the decision was revealed during the next week when they released Green. 11. Chaz posted: 07.10.2008 - 12:17 pm Rate this comment: (1) (4) Well, Whining Wallace strikes again! It's funny how the commentators won't admit that Wallace did this intentionally. They're like, "Well you see Rusty get loose and get up into Jeff Gordon and send him spinning." Yeah, okay. It's pretty obvious he did that on purpose. And then NASCAR does nothing, probably because they want to piss off the South by "favoring" Jeff Gordon. People say it was for all the times Jeff spun out Rusty. Personally I would like someone to tell me exactly what those races were when Jeff spun out Rusty. And don't say Bristol '97. That was classic short track racing. 12. RaceFanX posted: 08.21.2008 - 7:53 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) A week after his best career finish, Buckshot Jones fails to qualify 13. The Real Thomas posted: 05.18.2009 - 5:59 am Rate this comment: (2) (2) Was so glad to see Rusty punt Rainbow Boy in this one! 14. Ihate48 posted: 06.25.2009 - 11:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (2) This is to answer Chaz's inquiry about Rusty and Jeff Gordon's history. They did have a few incidents before this race...including the 97 Bristol race. They had a couple of incidents at 'Dega, Martinsville, Bristol, and Charlotte just a few weeks before this race. I don't know how well you remeber or just what you want to, but you may remember Jeff Gordon beating the hell out of Rusty's back bumper just a few laps before this happened? Gordon tried one of his bump and runs, he went on the high side of Rusty, and he paid the price. I know he did it on purpose, it was what made it so damn funny, and classic. And don't you dare sit there and tell me that if you were not in the same shoes as Rusty, you wouldn't have done it too. If somebody pulled a couple of bumps on you to win races, and you had the chance to wreck their ass when they tried to do it again that you would not take that chance. You are a liar if you would say no...we all would and that is what Rusty did! I like Gordon but he definately deserved it then! 15. jessie henyf posted: 08.22.2009 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 1st race june 2 storm 16. jessie henyf posted: 08.22.2009 - 2:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) good races 17. 18fan posted: 01.14.2010 - 6:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) After the caution came out following the Benson crash and Labonte took the white and yellow flags, Rusty and Terry raced back to the line with Labonte nosing out Rusty. The race was over the lap before, but Rusty didn't know it, and said so in his interview as he thought he lost to Labonte by four feet. 18. Anonymous posted: 03.11.2010 - 11:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (3) Memo to Cousin Carl.See Rusty's dump of Gordy in this race on how to deal out a proper payback,short track style. 19. 18fan posted: 08.01.2010 - 10:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Career best start for Rich Bickle. 20. Flywheel posted: 03.04.2011 - 2:55 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnIm2Xt39R4&feature=related Full clip of the Rusty/Gordon wreck. The crowd let out a huge ovation following the wreck; much like when Gordon blew his engine at Atlanta one year. 21. Andre posted: 07.06.2011 - 7:19 am Rate this comment: (7) (1) Gordon went on to answer his critics with a top five finish in every race remaining on the calendar after this one. Except one, where he finished a dismal 7th at Pheonix. :( 22. RaceFanX posted: 04.16.2012 - 10:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first spring night race ever at Richmond, 1998 was the first year both of the track's races were scheduled to be run under the lights. This was also the year their spring event move deeper into the schedule, in 1997 and earlier it was usually one of the season's opening races. With the Diamond Ridge #29 team having closed down earlier in the year Jeff Green moved over to the #46 SABCO team starting with this race. Green drove the car for rest of the year minus the road course events where Tommy Kendall took over. 23. Evan posted: 12.31.2013 - 2:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) -Terry Labonte's only win of 1998. Terry never won a ton of races but it was good to see him get his first short track win not at Bristol, Tennessee even though it looked like Jarrett had the field covered but Jarrett came back the next year with essentially the same car and whipped them. This would be Terry's last short track win, his final two wins(Texas and Darlington) were on Speedways. -I understand Jeff Gordon had it coming and he did now that I have a trained eye for this stuff, Rusty Wallace got tired of Jeff Gordon's antics after a while and decided to return the favor with a spin. It was payback and it is common in NASCAR since the very beginning, Veterans were not apt to taking stuff from younger drivers and Jeff was still relatively young and Rusty Wallace made sure to hold him accountable. 24. JasonB72 posted: 02.16.2015 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Comment number 6 had incredible.foresight. 25. JA28 posted: 04.16.2015 - 11:48 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Terry won two other Richmond races before this one. 26. thebatmanjoker posted: 03.05.2016 - 11:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) 1997 food city 500 revenge. 27. alph posted: 12.09.2016 - 9:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) As somebody mentioned above, Jeff put everybody in their place the rest of this season. And as for Rusty, he showed him who was boss by the move he pulled on him in the 1999 Daytona 500, and then roughed him up with the bump and run at Bristol in 2002. Believe me, I'm sure this race doesn't faze Jeff at all. I do see a lot of other crybaby fans of other drivers on here, however. 28. RaceFanX posted: 10.24.2017 - 1:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Former NFL coach Jerry Glanville, a part-time NASCAR racer in the lower levels, was rumored to be planning to enter this race with a self-owned effort in a #51 Ford. The entry never materialized and Glanville would never enter any Cup race. 29. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 7:41 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Final start in the 50 for Randy Lajoie. First start in the 46 for Jeff Green. 30. Joshua posted: 09.20.2018 - 3:23 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) One would think message sent after Rusty turned Jeff, sending Jeff nose first into the wall and ending his night. But Jeff's worst finish after this for the rest of the season was 7th at Phoenix and every other race was a Top 5. Rusty, however, fell off a bit the rest of the season despite picking up a win, dropping from second to fourth in the standings. Oh, and in addition to all of that, even after dumping his daddy Jeff Gordon, he couldn't even win the race. Loser. 31. Jimnsimforever posted: 02.11.2019 - 4:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first Cup race I attended and this was the night I was hooked. Even though I wasn't a Nascar fan, I was a kid that watched Sportscenter all of the time and knew who all of the star drivers were and was in awe seeing their cars go by under the lights right below me going into turn 1. Two of the people in the group I went with were huge Dale Earnhardt fans and one was a really big Jeff Gordon fan. I remember the huge eruption from the fans when Rusty Wallace put Jeff Gordon into the wall. I was really into it too so I cheered with everyone else but would've never done so if I'd have known it was going to make my friends dad (the Gordon fan) so mad that he made us all get up immediately and leave the race. We got out to the car and while we waited forever to get out of the parking area with all of the others that left early we listened to the end of the race on the radio and heard that Terry Labonte won. 32. Darrell posted: 10.26.2019 - 5:06 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Driver Change: David Green qualified the No. 96 CAT car. 33. James posted: 11.01.2019 - 7:56 am Rate this comment: (4) (0) This season is really where the changing economics of NASCAR began to have a big impact. Multi-car teams became the way to compete, whereas the old owner/driver combo became increasingly difficult. Some examples: Roush Racing fielded 5 top 20 cars. This is most evident with Chad Little's #97 who went from an also-ran most of the time in 1997 with Greg Pollex to a top-20 team with Roush driving with the same sponsor. Jeff Gordon was dominant, yes, but the 3 Hendrick cars were all top 20 cars. Only Craven's injury and the rotating drivers kept the 50 car out of the Top 20 for the season. The Penske cars (Wallace, Mayfield) showed drastic improvement in 98 once Kranefuss teamed up in 98. Sabates cars (Marlin, Nemechek) began improving as a multi-car stable. Conversely the owner-drivers: Bill Elliott never won in the 94 car and began to fade in 1998 season only to compete again once he sold his team. Ricky Rudd took a nose-dive in points in the 10 Tide car starting at the tail end of 97 until he looked like a has-been by 99 only to rebound once he gets into the 28 car. Darrell Waltrip's 17 struggled to qualify for races until he had to sell his team this year. Geoff Bodine's 7 car fell out of the top 20 and he sold to Jim Mattei Brett Bodine fell out of the top 20 as an owner-driver in the 11 car as did Kyle Petty in the 44. Dave Marcis in the 71 simply became unable to qualify most races. Other single-car teams faded as well like the #4 Kodak of Morgan-McClure that used to be one of the best every week, and the #30 of Chuck Rider while others like the #15 of Bud Moore disappeared. By 1998 It wasn't always about driver talent anymore, but about owner money. This trend would only continue into the 2000s 34. Ultimate_Warrior_#18 posted: 11.01.2019 - 8:56 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) @33 Great post great analysis all very true. 35. Joshua posted: 11.01.2019 - 10:50 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 33 James Someone wrote a couple of articles on this very site about how around the year 2000 there were many multi-car teams who either stopped running full-time or ceased to exist altogether. The light had finally come on among team owners that multiple cars was the way to go and either owner/drivers doing their own deals or venerable single-car teams like Morgan-McClure, the 75 team, and Melling Racing began to really fall off. This idea had finally been realized after many years of conventional wisdom of putting all your resources into one car and not hurting the performance of multiple cars with what you had. Morgan-McClure would win this season but it would be their last; they struggled mightily especially starting in 2001 with the Robby Gordon Experiment failing, then the Pontiac experiment failing after Pontiac pulled their manufacturer support after the 2003 season. These are the articles that detail how many single-car teams either started to scale back or disappeared altogether around the turn of the century: Part 1: https://www.racing-reference.info/showblog?id=3174 Part 2: https://www.racing-reference.info/showblog?id=3482 36. Darrell posted: 11.02.2019 - 1:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdraw: No. 51 Jerry Glanville HBO/Unifirst Ford (Jerry Glanville) 37. Jimnsimforever posted: 04.09.2020 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @31 To add to my earlier post about this being my first Cup race I ever attended. To show how much times have changed since 1998, with Winston being the sponsor they had a bunch of people walking around giving out free packs of cigarettes. I was given several free packs with no check of an ID or anything and was only 17 years old and had just finished my Junior year of High School. 38. HD11 posted: 04.30.2020 - 3:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Overshadowed by all the other drama was the fact that this was the final race Larry McReynolds would crew chief for Dale Earnhardt. The Monday following this race Childress swapped his two crew chiefs sending McReynolds to the 31 of Skinner and Kevin Hamlin to the Intimidator. Despite looking like an all-star team on paper, Earnhardt and McReynolds struggled mightily for the most part. They did team to win Dale's only Daytona 500 but that was about it for major success. 39. Anonymous posted: 06.05.2020 - 5:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) Rusty was innocent, it was an accident. Watch the satellite feed of this race on youtube. During the commercial break Benny Parsons picks out the moment when Rusty gets loose BEFORE he slid up into Gordon. 40. Ryan posted: 06.06.2020 - 1:12 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @39 Rusty has admitted that he meant to spin him. Regardless if he got loose (He didn't), it's still his fault that Gordon wrecked, just like when Kyle Busch cowardly wrecked Dale Jr. there 10 years later. 41. Anonymous posted: 06.07.2020 - 8:35 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) You have to watcb the aerial shot to see it. Rusty starts to lose the back end and over corrects it into Gordon. It is very hard to catcb. Of course he said he meant to do it, Gordo fully had that one coming. 42. Tim posted: 07.04.2020 - 4:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Here is how many points Gordon was behind/ahead leaving Richmond and how much he gained on each driver in the final 20 races: Mayfield lead Jeff by +46. Gordon gained 1271. Rusty was +21. Gordon gained 839. DJ was -7. Gordon gained 702. Martin was -7. Gordon gained 357. T. Labonte was -47. Gordon gained 1325. B. Labonte was -181. Gordon gained 967. J Burton was -295. Gordon gained 718. If Jeff sat out two races Mark would have needed to win both races and lead the most to win the title. Max point swing was 153 if a driver started a race? 1st wins race and leads most laps and 43rd with no laps lead. Jeff beat Mark by 2.37 races. DJ by 4.59 races. 43. Tim posted: 08.04.2020 - 4:31 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I feel there is a ton of revisionist history about the Gordon/Wallace wreck and I was a fan since 96 so people can add prior history. Basically I can think of two Gordon/Wallace incidents previous to this race. The last lap pass at Bristol in the spring race in ?97 it should be noted that Jeff did move Rusty but didn't wreck him and the contact was minimal. Good hard short track racing. Admittedly at that time any contact to win a race seemed frowned upon. Lots of comments of crediting drivers for running them clean. The minor incident was at the 1997 Pontiac Excitement 400 at Richmond. Rusty was annoyed with Gordon trying to get a lap back but Jeff was running 4th with only three cars of the lead lap. DJ, Rusty, Bodine, and Jeff ended up 4 wide at the line racing back to a caution. Rusty won the race anyways. Jeff beat Rusty at the Coke 600 when Rusty could have won the No Bull Million. It was a clean three wide pass on Rusty and Bobby Labonte. Basically one major incident if you considered the Bristol bump and run a major incident. After this race, they had run-ins at Richmond Spring 2001 and Bristol night race 2002. They raced clean for the win multiple times including California 2001 and Rockingham 1998. There was the 1999 Daytona 500 pass on the apron but Rusty likely lost this race with a decision to take no tires on the final caution. All this proves most Jeff/Rusty run ins were after this race. Each prevented a win for the other but Rusty took Jeff out of the race. 44. Rich posted: 08.06.2020 - 9:27 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: