NASCAR Winston Cup Pennsylvania 500 Preview -- #98 John Andretti
17 July 1997
#98 John Andretti, RCA Ford Thunderbird
NASCAR Winston Cup Series
Pennsylvania 500 Advance
Pocono Raceway
ELLIOTT "WINS" TV; RCA TEAM WINS MOMENTUM
LONG POND, PA - Bill Elliott earned a new RCA TV. John Andretti earned
his first Winston Cup victory.
With the win in the Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway, the
RCA Racing team earned some valuable momentum, it doesn't plan on
relinquishing any time soon.
"We may not know until three months from now exactly what the win
meant to us," Andretti said. "I feel really good about where we are
right now."
With good reason.
Following the win at Daytona, the RCA Racing team traveled to New
Hampshire and qualified eighth. Andretti was on his way to an
eighth-place finish when an accident involving the lapped car of
Jeremy Mayfield relegated him to 14th. But he still gained two spots
in the point standings to 22nd. And the prospect for another top-10,
or better, at Pocono this weekend are good.
Andretti qualified the RCA Ford ninth for the June Pocono event, but
an oil pump belt failure sent the team home early.
"That was the first time I have broken a motor with this team and it
wasn't the motor's fault, it was disappointing in one respect, but it
was very good in another," Andretti said. "It was a very good
qualifying effort for us and we had a good race car. We're looking to
go back with the same race car and try to step it up a couple of
steps."
The team had other reasons to be pumped up about the quality of the
Pocono car. It was the first car that the team had hung the body on
itself. Many teams send cars out to have the bodies hung, and the RCA
crew was among those. But it was time they gave it a try themselves.
It worked.
"When you know you have talented people and you can use them to do
other things, than to just try to get the cars to the race track,
that's important," Andretti said. "Without that we have no hope of
building into the team we want to be. Things don't happen
overnight. But the most important thing on a race team is the people
and they proved they can step up to any level at any job."
Andretti has been quick to thank Elliott for giving him the help he
needed to get around Mark Martin and win at Daytona. Elliott was a
couple of laps down at the time, so it was really a matter of who
Elliott wanted to see win.
"He said that he went with me because I had such a good race car, we
had run a really good race and we deserved to win," Andretti
said. "And, he said, 'I need a TV.'"
Andretti promised in numerous television and radio interviews to buy
Elliott a TV as a way to say thanks.
"I told him I'd get him an RCA catalog and get him whatever he wants."
NOTE - The RCA team will be testing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Monday and Tuesday, July 21 and 22nd. Andretti will remain in
Indianapolis through the off weekend and Brickyard week.
RCA RACING JOHN ANDRETTI 1997 SEASON RESULTS
DATE EVENT START FINISH MONEY STATUS POINTS POSITION
2-16-97 Daytona 500 32 25 $63,325 Running 25
2-23-97 Goodwrench 400 25 34 $19,015 Running 32
3-2-97 Pontiac 400 22 31 $20,615 Running 33
3-9-97 Primestar 500 33 15 $31,805 Running 28
3-23-97 TranSouth 400 33 25 $21,165 Running 30
4-6-97 Interstate 500 30 12 $80,300 Running 27
4-13-97 Food City 500 26 24 $23,490 Running 27
4-20-97 Goody's 500 27 28 $19,615 Running 25
5-4-97 Save Mart 300 17 30 $31,710 Running 26
5-10-97 Winston 500 1 4 $57,920 Running 22
5-17-97 Winston Open **12 9 $7,500 Running ** non-points
5-25-97 Coca-Cola 600 26 30 $28,450 Running 24
6-1-97 Miller 500 23 29 $25,490 Running 26
6-8-97 Pocono 500 9 40 $17,265 Engine 26
6-15-97 Miller 400 40 37 $21,890 Running 27
6-22-97 California 500 35 21 $34,975 Running 27
7-5-97 Pepsi 400 3 1 $109,525 Running 24
7-13-97 Jiffy Lube 300 8 14 $33,425 Accident 22
JOHN ANDRETTI POCONO RACEWAY CAREER RESULTS
YEAR EVENT START FINISH LAPS MONEY STATUS
1997 Pocono 500 9 40 121/200 $17,265 Engine
1996 Teamwork 500 20 16 200/200 $21,205 Running
1996 Miller 500 36 23 199/200 $20,100 Running
1995 Teamwork 500 29 30 195/200 $11,925 Running
1995 Miller 500 36 38 136/200 $8,390 Engine
1994 Teamwork 500 21 35 N/A $11,450 Engine
1994 Miller 500 36 25 N/A $12,460 Running
By RCA Racing Public Relations