1997 Miller 500

{{Short description|12th race of the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series}}

{{Infobox NASCAR race report|Type=NASWINSTON|Scheduled_km=804.672|Official_name=29th Annual Miller 500|Caption=The 1997 Miller 500 program cover, featuring Rusty Wallace and Miles the Monster. Artwork by NASCAR artist Sam Bass.|Radio=Motor Racing Network|Network=TNN|First_Team=Rudd Performance Motorsports|Most_Team=Robert Yates Racing|First_Driver=Ricky Rudd|Most_Driver=Dale Jarrett|Pole_Team=Joe Gibbs Racing|Pole_Driver=Bobby Labonte|Most_laps=255|Car=10|Distance_km=804.672|Location=Dover, Delaware, Dover Downs International Speedway|Scheduled_laps=500|Scheduled_mi=500|Distance_laps=500|Avg={{convert|114.635|mph|km/h}}|Date=June 1|Pole_Time=23.562|Course_km=1.6|Course_mi=1|Race_Name=Miller 500|Year=1997|Season_No=32|Race_No=12|Distance_mi=500|Announcers=Eli Gold, Dick Berggren, Buddy Baker|Image=1997_Miller_500.jpeg}}

The 1997 Miller 500 was the 12th stock car race of the 1997 NASCAR Winston Cup Series and the 29th iteration of the event. The race was held on Sunday, June 1, 1997, in Dover, Delaware at Dover Downs International Speedway, a 1-mile (1.6 km) permanent oval-shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 500 laps to complete. In the final laps of the race, Ricky Rudd, driving for his owner-driver team Rudd Performance Motorsports, would manage to take advantage of mishaps from numerous different dominant cars to take his 18th career NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory.{{Cite web |last=Poole |first=David |date=June 1, 1997 |title=Trouble opens path to victory for Rudd |url=http://www.thatsracin.com/97/docs/0601.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000815213514/http://www.thatsracin.com/97/docs/0601.htm |archive-date=August 15, 2000 |access-date=September 26, 2022 |website=That's Racin' |publisher=The Charlotte Observer}}{{Cite news |last=McCollister |first=Tom |date=June 2, 1997 |title=Martin unable to pass Rudd |pages=25 |work=The Atlanta Constitution |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/110226729/martin-unable-to-pass-rudd/ |access-date=September 26, 2022 |via=Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} To fill out the top three, Mark Martin and Jeff Burton, both drivers for Roush Racing, would finish second and third, respectively.

Background

File:Dover_International_Speedway.svg, the venue where the race was held.]]

Dover International Speedway is an oval race track in Dover, Delaware, United States that has held at least two NASCAR races since it opened in 1969. In addition to NASCAR, the track also hosted USAC and the NTT IndyCar Series. The track features one layout, a 1-mile (1.6 km) concrete oval, with 24° banking in the turns and 9° banking on the straights. The speedway is owned and operated by Dover Motorsports.

The track, nicknamed "The Monster Mile", was built in 1969 by Melvin Joseph of Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company, Inc., with an asphalt surface, but was replaced with concrete in 1995. Six years later in 2001, the track's capacity moved to 135,000 seats, making the track have the largest capacity of sports venue in the mid-Atlantic. In 2002, the name changed to Dover International Speedway from Dover Downs International Speedway after Dover Downs Gaming and Entertainment split, making Dover Motorsports. From 2007 to 2009, the speedway worked on an improvement project called "The Monster Makeover", which expanded facilities at the track and beautified the track. After the 2014 season, the track's capacity was reduced to 95,500 seats.

= Entry list =

(R) denotes rookie driver.

class="wikitable" style="font-size:95%"

!Driver

!Team

!Make

!Sponsor

|Morgan Shepherd

|Precision Products Racing

1997 Miller 500

Background

= Entry list =

Qualifying

= Full qualifying results =

Race results

References