1997 True Value 500
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| Race details | |
|---|---|
| 6th round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season | |
| File:TexasMotorSpeedway.svg | |
| Date | June 7, 1997 |
| Official name | True Value 500 |
| Location | Texas Motor Speedway |
| Course | Permanent racing facility 1.500 mi / 2.414 km |
| Distance | 208 laps 312.000 mi / 502.115 km |
| Weather | Dry with temperatures reaching up to 86 °F (30 °C); wind speeds up to 9.9 miles per hour (15.9 km/h) were sighted during the race[1] |
| Pole position | |
| Driver | United States Tony Stewart (Team Menard) |
| Time | 1:36.929 (3 laps + pit stop) |
| Fastest lap | |
| Driver | United States Tony Stewart (Team Menard) |
| Time | 24.760 (on lap 97 of 208) |
| Podium | |
| First | Netherlands Arie Luyendyk (Treadway Racing) |
| Second | United States Billy Boat (A. J. Foyt Enterprises) |
| Third | United States Davey Hamilton (A. J. Foyt Enterprises) |
The 1997 True Value 500 was the sixth round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season. The race was held on June 7, 1997, at the 1.500 mi (2.414 km) Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, and it marked the first American open-wheel superspeedway night race.
Qualifying Report
[edit | edit source]The qualifying format was 3-laps, with the average speed deciding grid positions. During their 3rd lap, every driver had to enter the pit lane (with a 120 mph speed limit), stop in a designated spot 30 feet short of the start/finish line and make a pit stop. A maximum of 3 crew members were allowed: one jacking the car up and the other two changing only the front and rear right tires. Finally, the driver had to cross the finish line to complete his qualifying attempt.[2]
Qualifying Results
[edit | edit source]| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
| R | Rookie |
| W | Past winner |
| Pos | No. | Name | Lap 1 | Lap 2 | Lap 3 | Best (in mph) | Total time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | United States Tony Stewart | 24.971 | 24.943 | 47.015 | 216.494 | 1:36.929 |
| 2 | 3 | United States Robbie Buhl | 25.738 | 25.515 | 46.369 | 211.640 | 1:37.622 |
| 3 | 4 | Sweden Kenny Bräck R | 25.499 | 25.521 | 46.877 | 211.773 | 1:37.897 |
| 4 | 91 | United States Buddy Lazier | 25.618 | 25.638 | 46.737 | 210.789 | 1:37.993 |
| 5 | 6 | Canada Scott Goodyear | 25.906 | 25.576 | 46.526 | 211.135 | 1:38.008 |
| 6 | 97 | United States Greg Ray R | 25.791 | 25.746 | 48.386 | 209.741 | 1:39.923 |
| 7 | 51 | United States Eddie Cheever | 26.591 | 26.230 | 47.243 | 205.871 | 1:40.244 |
| 8 | 27 | United States Jim Guthrie R | 25.877 | 25.777 | 48.969 | 209.489 | 1:40.623 |
| 9 | 14 | United States Davey Hamilton | 25.539 | 25.530 | 50.752 | 211.516 | 1:41.821 |
| 10 | 12 | United States Buzz Calkins | 26.390 | 26.315 | 49.315 | 205.206 | 1:42.020 |
| 11 | 5 | Netherlands Arie Luyendyk | 25.771 | 25.882 | 50.368 | 209.538 | 1:42.021 |
| 12 | 22 | Brazil Marco Greco | 25.986 | 25.950 | 50.275 | 208.092 | 1:42.211 |
| 13 | 30 | United States Robbie Groff R | 25.856 | 25.852 | 53.043 | 208.881 | 1:44.751 |
| 14 | 28 | United States Mark Dismore | 26.023 | 25.641 | 53.629 | 210.600 | 1:45.293 |
| 15 | 21 | Colombia Roberto Guerrero | 26.393 | 26.375 | 53.202 | 204.739 | 1:45.970 |
| 16 | 17 | Brazil Affonso Giaffone R | 26.161 | 26.119 | 53.779 | 206.746 | 1:46.059 |
| 17 | 8 | Italy Vincenzo Sospiri R | 27.437 | 27.401 | 52.440 | 197.073 | 1:47.278 |
| 18 | 44 | United States Allen May R | 26.606 | 26.578 | 55.115 | 203.176 | 1:48.299 |
| 19 | 40 | United States Jack Miller R | 29.131 | 28.237 | 51.213 | 191.238 | 1:48.581 |
| 20 | 16 | United States Sam Schmidt R | 28.290 | 27.413 | 1:05.070 | 196.987 | 2:00.773 |
| 21 | 1 | United States Billy Boat1 R | 25.680 | 25.467 | Unfinished | 212.039 | No time |
| 22 | 7 | Chile Eliseo Salazar2 | 25.676 | Waved off | 210.313 | No time | |
| 23 | 10 | United States Johnny Unser3 | Did not qualify | No speed | No time | ||
| 24 | 33 | Spain Fermín Vélez4 R | Did not qualify | No speed | No time | ||
| 25 | 18 | United States Tyce Carlson5 R | Did not qualify | No speed | No time | ||
| 26 | 34 | Italy Alessandro Zampedri4 | Did not qualify | No speed | No time | ||
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- ^ Could not complete his qualifying run after missing his pit box.
- ^ Entered the pits at the end of the second lap by mistake.
- ^ Named for the ride after qualifying, he was allowed to start the race at the back of the field.
- ^ Could not qualify because of an engine shortage in Team Scandia, but was allowed to start the race at the back of the field.
- ^ Crashed in practice and could not qualify, but was allowed to start the race at the back of the field with a backup chassis loaned by Blueprint Racing.
Failed to qualify or withdrew
[edit | edit source]- United States Mike Groff for Byrd-Cunningham Racing - fractured his lower left tibia during practice. Replaced by United States Johnny Unser
- United States Scott Harrington R for Johansson Motorsports - withdrew prior to the start of practice.
- United States Billy Roe R for EuroInternational - withdrew prior to the start of practice.
- France Stéphan Grégoire for Chastain Motorsports - withdrew prior to the start of practice.
- United States Lyn St. James for Hemelgarn Racing - withdrew prior to the start of practice.
Race Report
[edit | edit source]At the start, Marco Greco's engine exploded and trailed oil and metal pieces all over the track, leading to a lengthy cleanup. When the green flag finally fell on lap 20, the Menard cars pulled off, with only Buddy Lazier and Greg Ray being able to keep up. However, the four stayed out too long after everyone else had pitted and lost time on old tires; Tony Stewart ran out of fuel on lap 69 and fell a lap down. By lap 70, a four-way battle was occurring for the lead, and popular Jim Guthrie assumed it on lap 76, only to lose it five laps later after blowing a tire exiting turn 4. Lazier then took over the lead while Arie Luyendyk worked his way towards the front, having rookie Billy Boat within striking distance, and Stewart rapidly reeling them in.
During a caution around lap 140, the scoring problems began. After Lazier and Stewart had had a furious wheel-to-wheel duel, Luyendyk inexplicably dropped out of the top 10 in the electronic scoring system, which was not properly counting his laps and those of several other drivers, including Scott Goodyear. Tyce Carlson and Goodyear got bottled up on a restart on lap 143, made contact, and spun into the quad-oval infield. Lazier retired on lap 157 with engine failure and Stewart and Boat appeared to be on the lead lap by themselves. Stewart set off to lap the field, which he appeared to have done by lap 180.
On lap 190, Stewart, in traffic, handed the lead to Luyendyk by waving him, thinking the Dutch driver was a lap down. Stewart, thus, was scored as the leader in the final laps, and appeared to have nearly a one-lap lead over Billy Boat. However, as he crossed the line with two laps to go, the engine blew. His car spun in turn 1, and crashed into the outside wall. Boat caught up, appeared to take the lead and, due to the scoring error, race officials showed him the checkered flag as the winner of the race. While Boat and his car owner A. J. Foyt were celebrating in victory lane, Luyendyk stormed in, claiming he had won the race and demanding an explanation from the officials. He was intercepted by Foyt, who slapped Luyendyk, told him to leave and shoved him to the ground before security separated the two and led Luyendyk away. The incident was not shown live in the broadcast, as it happened right after the interviews, but was caught on camera by the TV crew. Foyt and Luyendyk were fined $20,000 and $14,000 respectively, for unsportsmanlike behavior.[3]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
| video icon A. J. Foyt post-race slap on Arie Luyendyk |
The race tape was reviewed and it was determined that Luyendyk was right; he had finished on a lap by himself and had actually completed more laps than the scheduled race distance, being declared the official winner the following day. The results was revised back to the proper ending lap, shuffling the entire top 10. Luyendyk, fresh off his Indy 500 victory, became the first driver to win two IRL races in a row, but it took almost a week to determine. Foyt, however refused to return the trophy and retains the original to this day. A duplicate was awarded to Luyendyk. The outcome of this race had far-reaching implications for the IRL far beyond the race itself. From the beginning of the IRL until this time, USAC performed the timing and scoring of IRL races, as well as other functions such as technical inspection. The following week, in the wake of the Texas scoring scandal, the restart problems two weeks earlier at Indianapolis and the ensuing bad publicity, USAC was immediately removed from sanctioning the series, putting that organization completely out of Indy car racing after 42 years. The league switched to in-house sanctioning starting with the next event.[3]
Race results
[edit | edit source]Original Box Score
[edit | edit source]| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
| R | Rookie |
| W | Past winner |
Revised Official Results
[edit | edit source]Race statistics
[edit | edit source]- Lead changes: 14 among 9 drivers
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Standings after the race
[edit | edit source]- Drivers' Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | United States Davey Hamilton | 175 |
| 2 | United States Tony Stewart | 166 |
| 3 | United States Buzz Calkins | 153 |
| 4 | United States Mike Groff | 148 |
| 5 | Netherlands Arie Luyendyk | 147 |
- Note: Only the top five positions are included for the standings.
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]| Previous race: 1997 Indianapolis 500 |
Indy Racing League 1996-1997 season |
Next race: 1997 Samsonite 200 |
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| Previous race: none |
True Value 500 | Next race: 1998 True Value 500 |