1997 Interstate Batteries 500 Review

Ahhh yes.... the embarrassing show that was the inaugural Interstate Batteries 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. There were problems with water seeping through the track all weekend, the racing groove was only one lane wide, and worst of all, those condos just outside of turn 2 weren't completed yet.

For shame!

I remember thinking this was an awesome race, simply due to the fact that I loved first time winners. In reality, it was pretty bad; almost no side-by-side racing, wrecks everywhere, cars damaged and so far off the pace it was dangerous. 8 cars on the lead lap, most of them involved in a wreck in some way, shape or form during the day. Sterling Marlin wrecked twice and finished 8th, I think. Crazy.

Looking back however, Texas has come a long way, and this was a rather entertaining way to kick it all off.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• 1997 Interstate Batteries 500
• Texas Motor Speedway
• Jeff Burton
• First Career Win
• Crash
• Pileup
• Jeff Gordon
• Dale Jarrett
• Bobby Labonte
• Terry Labonte
• Dale Earnhardt
• Winston Cup Series
• Johnny Benson
• Joe Nemechek
• Darrell Waltrip
• Bobby Hamilton
• Todd Bodine
• Steve Grissom
• Mark Martin
• Blown Engine
• Window Net
• Ernie Irvan
• Greg Sacks
• Racing Back to the Caution
• Jimmy Spencer
• Rusty Wallace
• Brett Bodine
• NASCAR

[erasetoimprove]

Personally I think they should have kept the track this way. Yeah the groove wouldn't be very wide - but I think NASCAR Cup racing has an over-abundance of wide-grooved race tracks. The narrow groove tracks have put on some of the greatest races in NASCAR history.... just look at Darlington. Gotta remember that this was on a new surface, so the racing wasn't going to be very good anyway.

[kornnut43]

@erasetoimprove I don't want to seem like I disagree with you too much... I mean, it's nothing personal. haha But I do disagree, here.

Darlington as we know it isn't a one-grooved race track. Sure, it might be a futile gesture trying to to pass in certain spots, but it's just as tough to pass in others. The cars seem to get unstable when trying to pass guys in certain spots, but it's still raceable. This track's one groove was great, but outside of it was so bad it wasn't even funny.

[kornnut43]

@erasetoimprove Again, nothing personal. I seem to recall disagreeing with you in prior comments. lol I just wanted to clear that up!! haha

[TheAntihero6212]

Ken Squier FTW. He could make a staring contest seem like the most exciting thing in the world. He was definitely one-of-a-kind, Kenny was. He was a storyteller at a time when storytelling was beginning to come out of vogue. Very versatile announcer, too. People always forget that he also did F1, IndyCar AND IMSA at one point or another in his career and he was always very knowledgeable in all of them. And to think now that we live in an era of such duds as Marty Reid and Vince Welch. So Sad.

[kornnut43]

@TheAntihero6212 Weird, I almost said in my description how much I actually dislike Ken Squire.

Sure, he's been around forever, and yeah, I'll give him the benefit of being around long enough to cultivate a story or two. But the guy was so biased, it was disgusting. He also had a tendency to misspeak, which drove me crazy. Even in this video - "50 mph one way, 50 mph in the other... that's a hard hit (referring to the 30 and 42 wreck)"... that's uh, not the case in this wreck, Ken.

[erasetoimprove]

hmm weird I can't see any of the comments on your youtube for some reason. Don't worry, I don't mind being disagreed with. I just feel that the original Texas was more unique and had more character than the current Texas. Then again, I do like the track as it is today since it's got an old surface now and is hard to drive.

[krammit087]

Awesome window net cam! They just don't do cool shots like that anymore. You'd think with better technology we'd get even better onboard camera shots. All we get now are the same 3 cameras on every car. Roof, driver and rear bumper.

[JoeytheHDK]

All I could think of on this day was how I missed North Wilkesboro, and how it as almost appropriate that there was a huge wreck on the first lap.

[IamTheShermanator]

Get pumped LarryMac! haha

[Jayc28777]

I used to be a huge Jeff Burton Fan. i don't recall this race, sure was a wreck fest.