1997 Daytona 500

1997 Daytona 500
Race details
Race 1 of 32 in the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season
	1997 Daytona 500 logo
Date	February 16, 1997
Location	Daytona International Speedway ; Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.
Course	Permanent racing facility; 2.5 mi (4.02336 km)
Distance	200 laps, 500 mi (804.672 km)
Weather	Temperatures hovering around 63 °F (17 °C); wind speeds reaching up to 23 miles per hour (37 km/h)
Average speed	148.295 miles per hour (238.658 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Mike Skinner ;
Qualifying race winners
Duel 1 Winner	Dale Jarrett
Duel 2 Winner	Dale Earnhardt
Most laps led
Driver	Mark Martin
Laps	52
Winner
No. 24	Jeff Gordon
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Ken Squier, Buddy Baker, and Ned Jarrett
Nielsen Ratings	8.6/23 ; (12.8 million viewers)

Last updated November 12, 2024

The 1997 Daytona 500, the 39th running of the event, was held on February 16 at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Consisted of 200 laps and 500 miles, it was the first race of the 1997 Winston Cup season. Mike Skinner, driving the #31 car for Richard Childress Racing, won the pole and Jeff Gordon, driving the #24 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, won the race. The race was broadcast on television by CBS. This would be the last Daytona 500 attempt for Delma Cowart.

Background

Daytona International Speedway is a race track in Daytona Beach, Florida that is one of six superspeedways to hold NASCAR races, the others being Michigan International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Talladega Superspeedway.^[2] The standard track at Daytona is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long. The track also features two other layouts that utilize portions of the primary high speed tri-oval, such as a 3.56-mile (5.73 km) sports car course and a 2.95-mile (4.75 km) motorcycle course.^[3] The track's 180-acre (73 ha) infield includes the 29-acre (12 ha) Lake Lloyd, which has hosted powerboat racing. The speedway is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation.

The track was built by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. to host racing that was being held at the former Daytona Beach Road Course and opened with the first Daytona 500 in 1959.^[4] The speedway has been renovated three times, with the infield renovated in 2004,^[5] and the track repaved in 1978 and 2010.^[6]

The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar.^[7] It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is virtually unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start. Since 1995, U.S. television ratings for the Daytona 500 have been the highest for any auto race of the year, surpassing the traditional leader, the Indianapolis 500 which in turn greatly surpasses the Daytona 500 in in-track attendance and international viewing. The 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.^[8]

Race recap

Notes

Joe Nemechek's car owner Felix Sabates bought the #73 entry of Phil Barkdoll, who had qualified 38th. Nemechek went to the #73 for the 500.
Remington Arms placed their sponsor logos on the #19 Ford driven by Loy Allen Jr. for Tri-Star Motorsports after Rick Mast failed to qualify the RahMoc car.
Robert Pressley's car caught air after he spun on lap 10. The rear of the car lifted so much, the car was temporarily sliding across the track on its nose. The landing was quite hard, so after the crew repaired the car, then Busch Series competitor and future 2-time Camping World Truck Series Champion Todd Bodine hopped in to complete more laps.
Dale Earnhardt was involved in a crash in a six-way battle for the lead with 12 laps to go, in which his #3 Chevrolet scraped the backstretch wall by itself, then made contact with Dale Jarrett causing Earnhardt's car to roll over. While his car was on its roof, Earnhardt was contacted by Ernie Irvan in the #28 Ford. The hood of Irvan's car detached and sailed into the backstretch grandstand, injuring a few spectators. Earnhardt famously noticed that his tires were still on the car after the crash, had his car taken off the hook, and drove it back to pit road. The car was repaired and Earnhardt was able to return to the race, 5 laps down in 31st.
The race ended under caution after the Big One occurred on lap 196, involving 13 cars.
Hendrick Motorsports posted a 1-2-3 finish with Gordon winning the race, Terry Labonte finishing second, and Ricky Craven finishing third. The team used a formation finish as the race ended under the safety car, which was possible at the time.
At age 25, Jeff Gordon became the youngest Daytona 500 winner ever. Richard Petty had previously been the youngest winner in 1964, when he won the 500 at age 26. Gordon's record was surpassed when Trevor Bayne won the 2011 Daytona 500 at age 20.

Results

Pos	Grid	Car	Driver	Team	Make	Laps	Laps led	Status
1	6	24	Jeff Gordon	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	40	Running
2	18	5	Terry Labonte	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	0	Running
3	40	25	Ricky Craven	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	0	Running
4	8	94	Bill Elliott (W)	Bill Elliott Racing	Ford	200	30	Running
5	9	4	Sterling Marlin (W)	Morgan-McClure Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	8	Running
6	21	37	Jeremy Mayfield	MK Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
7	11	6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing	Ford	200	52	Running
8	17	22	Ward Burton	Bill Davis Racing	Pontiac	200	0	Running
9	13	10	Ricky Rudd	Rudd Performance Motorsports	Ford	200	0	Running
10	22	17	Darrell Waltrip (W)	Darrell Waltrip Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	0	Running
11	23	99	Jeff Burton	Roush Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
12	1	31	Mike Skinner (R)	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	200	1	Running
13	41	16	Ted Musgrave	Roush Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
14	30	44	Kyle Petty	PE2 Motorsports	Pontiac	200	0	Running
15	39	43	Bobby Hamilton	Petty Enterprises	Pontiac	200	0	Running
16	20	40	Robby Gordon	SABCO Racing	Chevrolet	200	0	Running
17	24	71	Dave Marcis	Marcis Auto Racing	Chevrolet	200	0	Running
18	37	11	Brett Bodine	Brett Bodine Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
19	28	8	Hut Stricklin	Stavola Brothers Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
20	5	28	Ernie Irvan (W)	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	200	13	Running
21	15	18	Bobby Labonte	Joe Gibbs Racing	Pontiac	200	0	Running
22	36	81	Kenny Wallace	FILMAR Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
23	3	88	Dale Jarrett (W)	Robert Yates Racing	Ford	200	0	Running
24	35	9	Lake Speed	Melling Racing	Ford	199	0	Flagged
25	32	98	John Andretti	Cale Yarborough Motorsports	Ford	198	0	Flagged
26	33	19	Loy Allen Jr.	TriStar Motorsports	Ford	198	0	Flagged
27	38	73	Joe Nemechek ²	Barkdoll Racing	Chevrolet	196	0	Accident
28	16	30	Johnny Benson	Bahari Racing	Pontiac	195	0	Accident
29	42	1	Morgan Shepherd	Precision Products Racing	Pontiac	195	0	Accident
30	27	90	Dick Trickle	Donlavey Racing	Ford	195	0	Accident
31	4	3	Dale Earnhardt	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	195	48	Flagged
32	12	21	Michael Waltrip	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	188	5	Flagged
33	10	33	Ken Schrader	Andy Petree Racing	Chevrolet	173	0	Flagged
34	25	7	Geoff Bodine (W)	Geoff Bodine Racing	Ford	148	0	Flagged
35	7	23	Jimmy Spencer	Travis Carter Enterprises	Ford	146	0	Flagged
36	29	36	Derrike Cope (W)	MB2 Motorsports	Pontiac	124	0	Accident
37	34	20	Greg Sacks	Ranier-Walsh Racing	Ford	120	3	Accident
38	31	77	Bobby Hillin Jr.	Jasper Motorsports	Ford	111	0	Engine
39	19	29	Robert Pressley	Diamond Ridge Motorsports	Chevrolet	91	0	Accident
40	2	41	Steve Grissom	Larry Hedrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	88	0	Accident
41	14	2	Rusty Wallace	Penske Racing South	Ford	47	0	Engine
42	26	46	Wally Dallenbach Jr.	SABCO Racing	Chevrolet	32	0	Engine
Failed to Qualify
		75	Rick Mast	Butch Mock Motorsports	Ford
		97	Chad Little	Mark Rypien Motorsports	Pontiac
		15	Larry Pearson	Bud Moore Engineering	Ford
		42	Joe Nemechek ²	SABCO Racing	Chevrolet
		78	Billy Standridge (R)	Triad Motorsports	Ford
		96	David Green (R)	American Equipment Racing	Chevrolet
		95	Gary Bradberry (R)	Sadler Brothers Racing	Chevrolet
		91	Mike Wallace	Pro Tech Motorsports	Chevrolet
		0	Delma Cowart	H. L. Waters Racing	Ford
		84	Norm Benning (R)	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet
"1997 Daytona 500 - Racing-Reference.info" . Retrieved 2012-06-15.
Notes: After Rick Mast failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, his sponsor Remington Arms signed an agreement to sponsor Loy Allen's entry for the Daytona 500. After Joe Nemechek failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, his SABCO team reached an agreement to purchase Phil Barkdoll's entry and compete in the Daytona 500 in Barkdoll's car.

Media

Television

The Daytona 500 was covered by CBS for the nineteenth time in the United States. Ken Squier, two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Ned Jarrett and 1980 race winner Buddy Baker called the race from the broadcast booth. Mike Joy, Dick Berggren and Ralph Sheheen handled pit road for the television side.

CBS
Booth announcers		Pit reporters
Lap-by-lap	Color-commentators	Pit reporters
Ken Squier	Ned Jarrett Buddy Baker	Mike Joy Dick Berggren Ralph Sheheen

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References

↑ Weather information for the 1997 Daytona 500 at Old Farmers Almanac
↑ "Race Tracks". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
↑ "Track facts". DaytonaInternationalSpeedway.com. Daytona International Speedway. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
↑ "The History of ISC". InternationalSpeedwayCorporation.com. International Speedway Corporation. June 14, 2015. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
↑ "Daytona Announces Facility Renovation Plans, No Track Alterations". Roadracing World. Lake Elsinore, California: Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. March 24, 2004. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
↑ "Daytona International Speedway set to repave following the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola". DaytonaInternationalSpeedway.com. Daytona Beach, Florida: Daytona International Speedway. April 24, 2010. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
↑ What Makes Daytona Special. Daytona International Speedway. May 10, 2012. 2:51 minutes in. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.
↑ "World's most watched TV sports events: 2006 Rank & Trends report". Initiative. January 19, 2007. Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved November 24, 2015.

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[1] Weather information for the 1997 Daytona 500 at Old Farmers Almanac

[2] "Race Tracks". NASCAR. Turner Sports. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved November 23, 2015.

[3] "Track facts". DaytonaInternationalSpeedway.com. Daytona International Speedway. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2015.

[4] "The History of ISC". InternationalSpeedwayCorporation.com. International Speedway Corporation. June 14, 2015. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017. Retrieved November 23, 2015.

[5] "Daytona Announces Facility Renovation Plans, No Track Alterations". Roadracing World. Lake Elsinore, California: Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. March 24, 2004. Retrieved November 23, 2015.

[6] "Daytona International Speedway set to repave following the Coke Zero 400 powered by Coca-Cola". DaytonaInternationalSpeedway.com. Daytona Beach, Florida: Daytona International Speedway. April 24, 2010. Archived from the original on September 23, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.

[7] What Makes Daytona Special. Daytona International Speedway. May 10, 2012. 2:51 minutes in. YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21.

[8] "World's most watched TV sports events: 2006 Rank & Trends report". Initiative. January 19, 2007. Archived from the original on February 8, 2007. Retrieved November 24, 2015.

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