Interstate Batteries 500
The inaugural Interstate Batteries 500 was held April 6 at Texas Motor Speedway. Dale Jarrett won the pole. This was the first race held at the track. The race was broadcast on CBS.
Top Ten Results
- 99-Jeff Burton*
- 88-Dale Jarrett
- 18-Bobby Labonte
- 5-Terry Labonte
- 10-Ricky Rudd
- 3-Dale Earnhardt
- 22-Ward Burton
- 4-Sterling Marlin
- 21-Michael Waltrip
- 41-Steve Grissom
Failed to Qualify: 19-Gary Bradberry, 27-Rick Wilson, 29-Robert Pressley, 46-Wally Dallenbach Jr., 66-H. B. Bailey, 74-Randy LaJoie, 95-Ed Berrier, 96-David Green, 02-Mike Bliss
- This was Jeff Burton's first career Winston Cup victory.
- This race was marred by two huge crashes. The first occurred just after the start between turns 1 and 2, which involved at least 15 cars, including Dale Earnhardt, who was able to continue. Near the halfway point of the race, Rusty Wallace struck the wall off turn 4 and dropped oil on the track near the tri-oval, into which Mike Skinner, Brett Bodine and Sterling Marlin spun. Ernie Irvan, who was catching up to race leader Terry Labonte to try to get a lap back ahead of the caution, got into the oil and slammed into the back of slower-moving #20 Ford of Greg Sacks. Irvan hit the outside wall of the tri-oval and was then hit from behind by Jeff Gordon.
- Ricky Craven suffered a concussion in a practice crash and was forced to sit out. This was the beginning of a series of injuries that adversely affected Craven's career over the next 4 years. Todd Bodine subbed for Craven in this race and ran very well until he crashed out of the lead.
Read more about this topic: 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Famous quotes containing the words interstate and/or batteries:
“At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)