|| *Comments on the 1998 Pepsi 400 Presented by DeVilbiss:* View the most recent comment <#31> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. webmaster posted: 11.19.2003 - 1:33 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) The first NASCAR race I ever attended - and a great result! 2. Chris posted: 10.12.2004 - 7:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Fourth win in a row for Jeff Gordon, as he lead only the final 9 laps. 3. HomeDepot20TS posted: 03.09.2006 - 9:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) I know Gordon fans were happy that day, but unless you flat hate Mark Martin, I don't see how anybody else could. Its sad to think about. 4. brandon posted: 03.19.2006 - 4:01 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) yeah i was at this race and everyone there seemed to be pulling for mark just days after his father's plane crash. i remember when gordon took the lead it was crushing 5. NascarMan posted: 04.18.2006 - 3:28 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Frank Kimmel's first Cup Start subbing for Jimmy Spencer!!!! 6. SK posted: 04.11.2007 - 4:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Two crashes took place in the first seven laps, a very bizarre occurrence at Michigan - the announcers were quick to point this out. But ultimately it would turn out to be another typical MIS 400-miler chock full of long green flag runs, as the yellow flew only once more during the course of the race, when Ward Burton's motor expired and dropped oil on the track. 7. Anonymous posted: 06.22.2007 - 9:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Derrike Cope crashed into Morgan Shepherd and peeled his hood off frontwards, as I remember. 8. BurtonRuddFan posted: 09.24.2007 - 1:32 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) What a good run for "Swervin' Irvan" This track was evil to him. It is also too bad that Mark Martin didn't win this race because of what happened with his family that week. 9. RaceFanX posted: 01.10.2008 - 12:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Elliott ran a special McDonald's paint job to promote the Happy Meal in this race. The paint job was a tie-in, as McDonald's had just started their annual Hot Wheels/Barbie one and the 1998 edition featured toy NASCARs with Bill running a special paint job each week to tie-in with the car being given away. The four cars given away were... Week 1 (MIS) Happy Meal Week 2 (Bristol)Mac Tonight Week 3 (NHIS) Kyle Petty's #44 Hot Wheels Week 4 (Darlington) NASCAR 50th Anniversity 10. Art D posted: 06.26.2009 - 11:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) 37th career win for J. Gordon 11. Sébastien posted: 03.14.2010 - 4:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Shepherd #91 was unsponsored. 12. 18fan posted: 04.25.2010 - 2:33 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The ESPN crew mentioned that Mark had an ignition problem when Gordon passed him as his car backfired in turns 1 & 2 when he changed ignitions. 13. 18fan posted: 08.19.2010 - 9:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Also, it is very interesting that Gordon took two tires on the last pit stop and Bobby Labonte took four tires, Labonte had been faster than Jeff all day, yet in the last five laps Gordon opened his lead from 1.5 seconds when Labonte cleared Mark and DJ to 1.8 seconds at the checkered. Ward Burton was running 7th when his motor blew that brought out the caution. That's the way Ward's year went, whenever he had a good run going, something seemed to happen. 14. Walleyewacker posted: 06.02.2011 - 6:07 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Tiregate. Jack Roush claimed that Gordon's two tires were illegally soft via a chemical treatment. 15. Mr. Sportsmanship posted: 06.02.2011 - 7:13 pm Rate this comment: (3) (2) #14: Yeah, that's where I gained a lot of respect (NOT!) for Jackass Jack. I remember Ray Evernham's comment when Roush tried to bully his way into the 24 team's garage: "It's just water, Jack!" Of course NASCAR had to bend over backwards to placate the whiner, but try as they might they could not find anything wrong with Gordon's tires. Even before that I had no use for Roush or most of his drivers, and nothing's changed my opinion in the 13 years after the incident. 16. RaceFanX posted: 08.28.2011 - 7:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bill Elliott's sponsor was McDonald's Happy Meal for this race. Cue a big Ronald McDonald graphic on his hood. 17. Dave posted: 12.06.2011 - 2:39 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) To clarify the "Tiregate" incident. That happened at New Hampshire not Michigan, and Evernham said "it's air jack, air." 18. RaceFanX posted: 03.29.2012 - 8:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsors: #98 Rich Bickle- Thorn Apple Valley 'Gone Grill Crazy' #5 Terry Labonte- Kellogg's Marshmallow Blasted Froot Loops #21 Michael Waltrip- Citgo / Woody Woodpecker Kevin LePage makes his first start for Jack Roush, the Busch series standout would run for Roush in the #16 until the end of 2000. LePage was replacing Ted Musgrave in the #16 Ford but Ted didn't miss out on this race. Instead he ran it in Bud Moore's iconic #15 Ford which was making its first start of 1998. 19. CBASS posted: 05.14.2012 - 10:24 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Some sponsor corrections using CIA Stock Photography's photos #9 Cartoon Network- "Happy Birthday NASCAR!" #75 Remington Arms/ Mossy Oak #22 MBNA Platinum/ Detroit Red Wings 20. b4il3y posted: 07.17.2013 - 5:00 am Rate this comment: (1) (2) worst areo package in history...gordon layed his way into this one.. 21. M posted: 07.14.2017 - 5:06 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The Jeff Gordon Train keeps rolling. 4 wins in a row and he defeats Mark Martin and Jack Roush who turned into crybabies and conspiracy theorists when they couldn't beat him. I'm sorry Mark's father died but that's not an excuse to have 42 other cars pull over and give him the race. By this point, Mark had won enough Michigan races already and this was Gordon's 1st after numerous races where he dominated but couldn't get the win. So no, I don't feel sorry at all for Martin and I sure as hell didn't feel sorry for Ford and Jack Roush around this time. 22. Greg24ChaseFan posted: 08.23.2017 - 8:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember this race. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but just typical 24 team at the time. Always fastest at the end. 23. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 7:41 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) First start for Roush Racing for Kevin Lepage. 24. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 7:41 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Ernie Irvan matches his best finish of the season. Best finish of 98 for Steve Park. First start in the 13 car for Dennis Setzer. Only start of 98 for Frank Kimmel. First start for Ted Musgrave in the 15. 25. JoeyLoganoFan22 posted: 07.01.2019 - 8:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bajillion-time ARCA Champion Frank Kimmel's NASCAR Cup Debut 26. joey2448 posted: 09.26.2019 - 8:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Jeff Gordon wins four in a row, and his points lead goes from 52 to 97. Lol because Mark Martin had finishes of second, second, second and fourth to minimize the damage. 27. nohbody posted: 10.06.2019 - 10:41 pm Rate this comment: (1) (1) Another cheated win from the 24 team. NASCAR did find an issue with his tires here and at New Hampshire, but could not "identify" what it was. 28. Jason24 posted: 10.06.2019 - 11:35 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Lol, the Gordon haters still come out of the woodwork every now and then. Probably the same people who threw Budweiser cans at him at Talladega. Just jealous because the leader of their "Nation" didn't have the talent or work ethic to contend with Jeff. 29. Jimnsimforever posted: 04.21.2020 - 1:52 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) It wasn't just Mark Martin's father he lost in that plane crash. Also dying in the crash were his step mother and his sister. That's tough. There were a ton of changes during the 1998 Winston Cup season in the cars. Just glancing through, there were probably only 9 or 10 cars that had the same driver plus qualified for all 33 races. A few of the regular teams went through 3 to even 6 different drivers in the same season. It was the same in the Busch Series and Truck Series in 1998. An abnormal amount of drivers being fired or injured and teams not deciding on permanent replacements for the remainder of the season. 30. Cash posted: 07.27.2020 - 6:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race had a ton of good examples of why Michigan can be a fun track to race at. Early in the race, the entire top 5 were within a second of each other as they took turns swapping positions. Ernie Irvan had a very strong car, but it seems like it went sour around the time where they took 2 tires on the 2nd-to-last stop and he had issues getting through traffic, which ultimately shuffled him back. Mark Martin's car was especially strong in the middle of the corner. You won't find too many better examples of a car rolling perfect in the center than what he had for most of this race. I know from time to time teams take tires from others, but Jeff Burton must've borrowed a set from Mark Martin on his final pitstop as he had red rims on his right side and the traditional black rims on the left. Made the 99 car very funny looking. Burton also had a shot to win, but he needed to come back and make another stop to tighten up some lugnuts on the right side. Had he not done that, he would've lined up 2nd on the final restart. Right before the final restart, Bob Jenkins teed up some radio chatter from some drivers. But it only lasted several seconds as one of the conversations picked up (sounded like Mike Skinner) had a driver say "I'm a lap ahead of that son of a b****!" Afterwards, Jenkins can only say "Well we shouldn't have listened to some radio chatter." Throughout the 2nd half of the broadcast, they were talking about how much better Jeff Gordon's car was than it was in the 1st half and how he was running laps mirroring the leaders. The only problem was how far back he was during the long green flag run. So it shouldn't be surprising once he got near the front that his car started to stand out and race for the win. IMO the Tiregate example from this race (more so than at Loudon in 2 weeks) was very weak for that very reason. 31. possum posted: 07.27.2020 - 8:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @30 - the rules for tires were very different back then. Today, a team is only allowed a certain number of tires, and they have to be mounted on the team's wheels. However, Goodyear is required to take back and give a credit for the cost of any unused tires, so pretty much every team mounts up as many tires as they're allowed before the race starts. Back in the day you could have as many tires as you wanted, but if you bought it you owned it, Goodyear would not take it back. So teams would only mount up what they thought they'd use, say 4 sets, and if during the race it looked like they'd need an extra set, a crewman would be sent over to the Goodyear trailer with a set of wheels (and a check), and Goodyear would mount up a new set of tires. But that idea didn't work so good if for some reason everyone underestimated how many tires they'd need, and a big line would form outside the Goodyear trailer, with teams waiting to get new tires. Then you could have a crisis if pitstops were coming up, and your guy was still in line...so then you started looking for someone who had some tires they weren't going to use (because they'd crashed out or whatever) and tried to quick make a deal to buy those tires (and wheels) before your driver pitted. And then, of course, your car ended up with "wrong" colored wheels, but at least he had good tires. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: