1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series - Mountain Dew Southern 500

Mountain Dew Southern 500

The Mountain Dew Southern 500 was held August 31 at Darlington Raceway. Bobby Labonte won the pole. The race was broadcast on ESPN.

Top Ten Results

  1. 24-Jeff Gordon*
  2. 99-Jeff Burton
  3. 88-Dale Jarrett
  4. 94-Bill Elliott
  5. 10-Ricky Rudd
  6. 5-Terry Labonte
  7. 18-Bobby Labonte
  8. 6-Mark Martin
  9. 21-Michael Waltrip
  10. 33-Ken Schrader

Failed to Qualify:

71-Dave Marcis, 77-Morgan Shepherd, 91-Greg Sacks

  • Jeff Gordon's victory made him the 2nd and final driver to win the Winston Million. The program was replaced after 1997 with the No Bull 5 program, which offered five drivers (that finished in the Top 5 of the last No Bull 5 race) the chance to win 1 million dollars.
  • Dale Earnhardt mysteriously passed out during the pace laps for the race and hit the wall. Nobody is really sure what caused this, but Earnhardt had to step out of the car for the day. Once the car was repaired, Busch Series driver Mike Dillon was tapped to sub in the #3. Dillon drove the car to a 30th place finish, 85 laps down.
  • "Jeff Burton will make a challenge off the corner, onto the straightaway...but Jeff Gordon wins it!"-Bob Jenkins as Jeff Burton tried to challenge Gordon for the victory in the last corners.

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