1998 Texas 500

Race details
Race 7 of 33 in the1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
The 1998 Texas 500 program cover, with artwork by NASCAR artistSam Bass.
Date	April 5, 1998
Official name	Second Annual Texas 500
Location	Fort Worth, Texas,Texas Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	1.5 miles (2.41 km)
Distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Scheduled distance	334 laps, 501 mi (806.281 km)
Average speed	136.771 miles per hour (220.112 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Jeremy Mayfield	Penske-Kranefuss Racing
Time	29.047
Most laps led
Driver	Jeremy Mayfield	Penske-Kranefuss Racing
Laps	105
Winner
No. 6	Mark Martin	Roush Racing
Television in the United States
Network	CBS
Announcers	Mike Joy,Ned Jarrett,Buddy Baker
Radio in the United States
Radio	Performance Racing Network

The1998 Texas 500 was the seventhstock car race of the1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series season and the second iteration of theevent. The race was held on Sunday, April 5, 1998, inFort Worth, Texas atTexas Motor Speedway, a 1.5 miles (2.4 km) permanent tri-oval shaped racetrack. The race took the scheduled 334 laps to complete. In the closing laps of the race,Roush Racing driverMark Martin would manage to fend off teammateChad Little to take his 24th careerNASCAR Winston Cup Series victory and his second victory of the season.^[1][2] To fill out the podium, Little andJasper Motorsports driverRobert Pressley would finish second and third, respectively.

Texas Motor Speedway is aspeedway located in the northernmost portion of theU.S. city ofFort Worth, Texas – the portion located inDenton County, Texas. The track measures 1.5 miles (2.4 km) around and is banked 24 degrees in the turns, and is of the oval design, where the front straightaway juts outward slightly. The track layout is similar toAtlanta Motor Speedway andCharlotte Motor Speedway (formerly Lowe's Motor Speedway). The track is owned bySpeedway Motorsports, Inc., the same company that owns Atlanta and Charlotte Motor Speedway, as well as the short-trackBristol Motor Speedway.

• (R) denotes rookie driver.

Originally, four practice sessions were scheduled to be held, with two on Thursday, April 2, one on Friday, April 3, and one on Saturday, April 4. However, due to complaints about poor track conditions on Saturday that had occurred throughout pre-race, the final practice session was cancelled. Drivers had reported major bumps in the exit of turn 4, along with major seepage throughout the racetrack since the opening of the track in 1997.^[3]

The first practice session was held on the afternoon of Thursday, April 2.Jeremy Mayfield, driving forPenske-Kranefuss Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.652 and an average speed of 182.113 mph (293.082 km/h).^[4]

The third practice session was held on the evening of Thursday, April 2.Jeremy Mayfield, driving forPenske-Kranefuss Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.298 and an average speed of 184.313 mph (296.623 km/h).^[5]

The planned third, but eventual final practice session was held on the morning of Friday, April 3.Joe Nemechek, driving forTeam SABCO, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 29.298 and an average speed of 184.313 mph (296.623 km/h).^[6]

While a practice session was scheduled to be run on Saturday, April 4, numerous factors throughout the race weekend would eventually lead to the cancellation of the Happy Hour practice. Two major issues would plague the weekend; first, in response to the track surfacing issues in the 1997 race, turn four was repaved. However, the repavement would lead to a major bump on the exit of turn 4. Many drivers would complain to then-Texas Motor Speedway presidentEddie Gossage about the bump, saying that the transition on the exit of turn 4 should be less severe. However, in response, Gossage would say that the turn was a unique corner of the speedway, comparing the turn to turn 4 atDarlington Raceway, saying "I understand where the Winston Cup drivers are coming from, but this is what we've got. A couple of drivers have said we need to move the wall in Turn 4. They've been saying that for 48 years at Darlington. Darlington should not move the wall back because that's what makes it quaint. Turn 4 is tricky. That's just the way it is.''^[7] The second problem was water seepage problems in every turn but turn 2 due to heavy winter rains within the local area of the speedway, which would eventually lead to postponements of qualifying and practice sessions.^[8][9]

Driver reactions throughout the weekend were mostly negative of the track.Robert Yates Racing driverDale Jarrett would call for multiple-groove racing, saying that "The biggest thing here is that we need more than the one groove we have, and it would make for better racing. Right now it's just going to be a follow-the-leader type deal. If a guy gets out on the outside, he's going to get passed by a lot of cars. Long-time driverDarrell Waltrip would report that while every racetrack had "something wrong with them", that Texas Motor Speedway was new and that "when you build a racetrack new, you're supposed to eliminate all that. There's no reason here not to do what needs to be done."^[10] Most drivers would report that they had felt that their cars had been too loose throughout the weekend, leading to a surplus of wrecks during practice and qualifying.^[11][12] Some drivers felt that the problems had been blown out of proportion, withJeff Burton saying "It definitely has been blown out of proportion. There's too much fuss about it. What we need more than anything else is to work a second groove up higher. Once we do that, I think you will hear a lot fewer complaints."^[13]

Then-Texas Motor Speedway presidentEddie Gossage would face harsh criticism for a lack of safety improvements since the inaugural race, the1997 Interstate Batteries 500 and for trying to turn the complaints into a marketing scheme, with Gossage andSpeedway Motorsports CEOBruton Smith selling "Shut Up and Race" t-shirts at track souvenir stands for US$18 (adjusted for inflation$, 35).^[14][15] In response, Gossage said that the new slogan for shirts would be to "Shut Up and Fix It" and that the track would look into fixing the bump in turn 4 along with fixing the turn 1 seepage issues.^[16]

Qualifying was scheduled to be split into two rounds. Qualifying had run on Friday, April 3; however, after seven drivers made qualifying runs, due to complaints from drivers throughout race weekend, qualifying was eventually postponed to Saturday, April 4 with only one round. The seven drivers were forced to stand on their times on Friday.^[9]

The continuation of qualifying was held on Saturday, April 4, at 9:15 AMCST.^[9] Each driver would have one lap to set a time.Jeremy Mayfield, driving forPenske-Kranefuss Racing, would win the pole, setting a time of 29.047 and an average speed of 185.906 miles per hour (299.187 km/h).^[17]

During qualifying, numerous drivers would crash.Derrike Cope would suffer a crash in turn 4, causing him to miss a race and several broken ribs. Then,Lake Speed would crash also, but would make the race on a provisional.^[3]

Five drivers would fail to qualify:Todd Bodine,Jerry Nadeau,Andy Hillenburg,Billy Standridge, andDerrike Cope.

*Time not available.

The DirecTV 500 was covered byCBS in the United States for the fourth straight year and it was their final DirecTV 500 race as coverage would switch toFox in2001.Mike Joy, two-timeNASCAR Cup Series championNed Jarrett and nineteen timeNASCAR Cup Series race winnerBuddy Baker called the race from the broadcast booth.Dick Berggren,Ralph Sheheen andBill Stephens handled pit road for the television side.Ken Squier would serve as host.

• NASCAR races at Texas Motor Speedway
• April 1998 sports events in the United States
• 1998 NASCAR Winston Cup Series
• 1998 in sports in Texas

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