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Date August 31, 1997 (1997-August-31) Official name Mountain Dew Southern 500 Location Darlington Raceway, Darlington, South Carolina Course Permanent racing facility
1.366 mi (2.198 km) Distance 367 laps, 501.3 mi (806.7 km) Weather Hot with temperatures approaching 91.4 °F (33.0 °C); wind speeds reaching up to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) | ||
The 1997 Mountain Dew Southern 500, the 48th running of the event, was a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race held on August 31, 1997 at Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina. Bobby Labonte won the pole position and Jeff Gordon won the race for the third time in his career.
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Background
Darlington Raceway, nicknamed by many NASCAR fans and drivers as "The Lady in Black" or "The Track Too Tough to Tame" and advertised as a "NASCAR Tradition", is a race track built for NASCAR racing located near Darlington, South Carolina. It is of a unique, somewhat egg-shaped design, an oval with the ends of very different configurations, a condition which supposedly arose from the proximity of one end of the track to a minnow pond the owner refused to relocate. This situation makes it very challenging for the crews to set up their cars' handling in a way that will be effective at both ends.
The track is a four-turn 1.366 miles (2.198 km) oval. The track's first two turns are banked at twenty-five degrees, while the final two turns are banked two degrees lower at twenty-three degrees. The front stretch (the location of the finish line) and the back stretch is banked at six degrees. Darlington Raceway can seat up to 60,000 people.
Summary
Dave Marcis, Greg Sacks and Morgan Shepherd all failed to qualify. The race had 11 cautions for 67 laps.
Dale Earnhardt suffered a blackout during the pace laps and crashed, ending his day. After the car was repaired, Busch Series driver Mike Dillon (the son-in-law of car owner Richard Childress) replaced him in the #3 car and got a 30th-place finish, 85 laps behind winner Jeff Gordon. Popular opinion from NASCAR fans would blame his sudden blackout on an allergic reaction to a combination of tomatoes and Gatorade. A combination of these two items has been known to cause a non-fatal adverse effect in the body that opens up the pores to stimulate the glands.
Several crashes and a brief instance of rain allowed the race to last for four hours and eight minutes. Gordon held off a late charge by Jeff Burton to win his ninth race of the year and the Winston Million by less than 0.2 seconds (his 28th overall). ESPN's Bob Jenkins called the ending thus:
The only other driver to have accomplished the Winston Million was Bill Elliott, who finished fourth and led the most laps. Rusty Wallace finished 43rd after a crash that collected Kyle Petty, Robby Gordon, and Todd Bodine on lap 5. He ended up with $29,270. The total winners' purse was $1,202,356 ($1,793,813.46 considering inflation). Gordon won $131,330 for winning plus an additional $1,000,000 for winning the Winston Million.