|| *Comments on the 1998 Dura Lube / Kmart 500:* View the most recent comment <#35> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. tquievryn posted: 01.02.2005 - 7:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rusty Wallace dominated at Phoenix. However, his victory was rain-shorted because of RAIN. Comments: Jeff Gordon's streak of 17 straight top-5s ended with a 7th. It was a modern-era record (as of the end of 2004) 2. Darrell posted: 11.12.2005 - 8:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Michael Waltrip DNQ-d marking the first time since his rookie season he had ever missed a race. Also, Jimmy Kite's ride I believe was a team car to Brett Bodine. 3. Darrell posted: 11.20.2005 - 6:45 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Nope my bad. It was Jeff Ward, not Kite who attempted this race(DUH!), and it was not a Scandia team, as they had shut down earlier in the year. 4. STbastien posted: 03.01.2006 - 11:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 600th straight for Iceman. 5. Thomas posted: 03.04.2006 - 12:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Michael Waltrip missed the race in his Citgo Ford, but filled in for an ailing Dale Jarrett midway through the rain-shortened race. 6. Mike posted: 05.04.2007 - 10:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rusty Wallace's 30th win for Penske. 7. FHgrad99 posted: 08.25.2007 - 12:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) This was the first and to date only time that a Phoenix Cup race has been shortened due to rain. 8. adamal82 posted: 02.26.2008 - 9:00 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The only top-5 finish for the Elliott/Dan Marino owned #13 9. Anonymous posted: 04.07.2009 - 9:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ted Musgrave's last top 5. 10. John posted: 02.27.2010 - 10:36 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ted ran very well in this race. Was up in 2nd for a long period of time before fading at the end. No one was gonna beat Rusty though. 11. josh posted: 06.14.2010 - 9:44 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) although rusty led alot of laps here, this wasnt one of his better tracks. I remember numerous occasions where he would have tires go flat, mechanical issues or would be caught up in crap not of his doing. Did have 1 win, 7 top 5s and 8 top 10s in 19 starts. 12. 18fan posted: 09.09.2010 - 8:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) If the final pit stop had come under green, Ted Musgrave's team would've changed only right side tires, but under caution they changed four. If they had changed two, Musgrave would have had his first career Winston Cup win. 13. OldSchoolNascarDude1 posted: 10.11.2010 - 11:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I can't believe no one gambled on the last caution. It would have paid off. It was fun to watch Burton and Earnhardt slice up through the field. No one had anything for Rusty, though. Dale Jarrett gave it his all to complete the race. The long green run was just to rough on him. 14. Anonymous posted: 10.18.2011 - 2:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Terry Labonte's 600th straight start, at the time a record. He ran well and got a top ten out of it. 15. The Real Thomas posted: 12.20.2011 - 6:46 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I remember that there was a paper plate stuck on the front grill of Rusty's car just before the red flag. Of course, the teams can't touch the cars under red, so if it hadn't fallen off and the race had restarted, he would have had to pit. 16. RaceFanX posted: 03.20.2012 - 6:33 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Sponsor: #5 Terry Labonte- Kellogg's Corn Flakes / 600 Straight (in reference to his achievement) #9 Jerry Nadeau- Cartoon Network / Scooby Doo on Zombie Island 17. We need more Onion posted: 01.15.2014 - 1:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Not only the only top-5 finish for the Elliott-Marino #13, but the car's only finish better than 17th. 18. Derek posted: 03.14.2014 - 7:31 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Can someone explain to me how Michael Waltrip failed to qualified. The #21 would have been 16th in owners points which should have gotten him a provisional. 19. 23andJoe posted: 06.19.2014 - 5:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) #45 owner: Bill Strauser 20. Steven posted: 07.07.2014 - 3:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @Derek It's cause 6 drivers higher than him in owner points needed a provisional. The 7th was the past champions provisional for DW 21. myself posted: 04.16.2015 - 12:43 pm Rate this comment: (3) (2) Likely a much safer race since Michael Waltrip wasn't on the track. 22. Anthony Nagle posted: 11.07.2015 - 9:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) myself, Mikey was in the race for a significant amount of time filling in for Dale Jarrett, who had kidney stones. Dale would only get the surgery after the year was over, but not before notching two second-place finishes to, you guess it, Jeff Gordon. 23. RaceFanX posted: 02.13.2016 - 7:59 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ted Musgrave's top-5, his only one in Cup after he had to leave Roush Racing, was the best run for the infamous Bill Elliott-Dan Marino FirstPlus Financial #13 Ford team. The team used five drivers throughout the 1998 season and finished no better than 17th in any other race. 24. Jared DiCarlo posted: 08.20.2016 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) There has been only one other rain-shortened race at Phoenix: last year's fall race. 25. SK posted: 03.08.2017 - 7:30 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Relief driver: #88 - Michael Waltrip 26. most1305 posted: 03.28.2017 - 9:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Michael also squeezed into a Dale Jarrett firesuit! Think if someone had stayed out though, Musgrave, Bickle, etc could have won! 27. Greg24ChaseFan posted: 08.23.2017 - 8:45 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) 13th straight year with a win for Rusty. I think it was the current longest streak at the time. 28. Corey posted: 08.23.2017 - 9:02 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @27. Ricky Rudd extended his streak to 16th consecutive years earlier in the season at Martinsville 29. CJ posted: 04.18.2018 - 7:40 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Final career top 5 for Ted Musgrave. Only top 5 for 13 team. 30. Ryan posted: 04.26.2019 - 9:07 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) If I'm not mistaken (and I'm sure someone will correct me) This was the first time since the 1993 Save Mart 300 that a Hendrick driver did not finish in the top 5. 31. Pacer posted: 04.26.2019 - 9:52 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) @31 Jeff Gordon was dominating in 1998 and Hendrick was leading the charge for the Chevrolet teams this year but they weren't invincible week in and week out. Near as I can tell this is the fourth time in 1998 that none of the the team's cars placed in the top-5 but the first since Texas way back in the spring. Hendrick also got locked out of the top-5 at the Daytona 500, Las Vegas, and Atlanta early in the spring before Jeff Gordon and his stablemates got hot. 32. TylerTaylor posted: 03.04.2020 - 7:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) How come Ernie Irvan didn't finish the season? Craven replaced him starting this race and the final 2 after this 33. ScottB posted: 03.04.2020 - 7:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Ernie was still suffering the after effects of injuries from his Talladega crash. It wasn't diagnosed immediately, that's why raced the Pepsi 400 before being taken out of the car. 34. Anonymous posted: 03.04.2020 - 8:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Irvan had been injured in a crash at Talladega a few weeks before this race. At Daytona the week before this race, Craven relieved him after Irvan started. It was the beginning of the end for him, he had been running competitively, leading laps and finishing just outside the top five several times. When he came back in 99, he had very few good runs before the wreck in the Busch car at Michigan and the Dr basically told him "retire unless you want to die". 35. Jimnsimforever posted: 05.02.2020 - 9:26 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) This was the first time since Bristol in August of 1984 that the Wood Brothers #21 was not in a Cup race. Buddy Baker was their driver then, and they weren't in that race because they didn't enter it. They didn't run a full schedule and ran about 70% of the races. They started running every race on the schedule in 1985 with the hiring of Kyle Petty as their driver. This was the first time in the modern era and maybe ever that the Wood Brothers #21 actually DNQ for a race. To be fair to Michael Waltrip, it was very strange to have every provisional needed by teams that were so high in the points. Plus you had his brother, DW needing the past champions provisional every week which took away an additional spot for the other teams. Sterling Marlin had to hitchhike from Tucson to get to the race. Kind of a weird thing to do in 1998, more of a 1968 kind of thing but Sterling was an old fashioned guy. You had to go back to the 11th spot on the starting grid to find a driver that had won a Cup race in 1998. That's pretty amazing for race 31 of 33. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: