True Value 500

Location: Texas Motor Speedway 1.5 Mile Paved Oval 208 Laps/312 Miles June 7, 1997 Time of race: 2:19:48.116 Average speed of winner: 133.903 Margin of victory: caution Lead changes: 14 among 9 leaders Cautions: 8 for 58 laps Lap leaders: Stewart 1-68, Salazar 69-71, Hamilton 72-75, Guthrie 76-81, Boat 82-84, R. Groff 85-87, Lazier 88-120, Cheever 121-125, Boat 126-132, Stewart 133, Lazier 134-157, Stewart 158-169, Luyendyk 170, Stewart 171-189, Luyendyk 190-208

Summary:

Arie Luyendyk, fresh off of his Indy 500 victory, became the first driver to win two IRL races in a row, but it took almost a week to determine. The outcome of this race had far-reaching implications for the IRL far beyond the race itself. Qualifying took place in an unusual format, with each driver taking two laps with a pit stop in between, accounting for the low qualifying speeds seen in the finish chart below. The powerful Menard team swept the front row, with Tony Stewart taking the pole and teammate Robbie Buhl starting alongside. A surprise in qualifying was unsponsored rookie Greg Ray who started 6th. On 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 ran off and hid, with only Buddy Lazier and Ray able to keep up. However, the four stayed out too long after everyone else had pitted and lost time on old tires; Stewart ran out of fuel on lap 69 and fell a lap down. By lap 70, a four-way duel was occurring for the lead, with popular Jim Guthrie assuming the lead on lap 76. This lead was not held long because on lap 81 Guthrie blew a tire exiting turn 4. Guthrie wrestled the car through a long and lurid spin down the front stretch, making only light contact with the wall and earning applause for his excellent driving. Unfortunately, the contact did damage the car's rear wing mounting and Guthrie was out. Lazier then took over while Luyendyk worked his way towards the front, with rookie Billy Boat within striking distance, and Tony Stewart rapidly reeling them in. It was at about this point that trouble began. Duing a caution around lap 140, 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; the system was not properly counting his laps or the laps of several other drivers, including Scott Goodyear. Tyce Carlson and Goodyear had an embarassing moment when they got bottled up on a restart on lap 143, made contact, and spun into the qual-oval infield. Lazier retired on lap 157 with engine failure and Stewart and Boat appeared to be on the lead lap by themselves. Stewart got "dialed in" and set off to lap the field, which he appeared to have done by lap 180. Finally, it looked like John Menard would have his first Indycar victory. On lap 190, Stewart, in traffic, waved Luyendyk by, thinking that he was a lap down; he didn't realize that he had just handed the lead to the flying Dutchman. A bad situation was spared by the fact that Stewart's engine blew two laps from the finish, but another one occurred instead: due to the scoring error, Boat was flagged as the winner. As Boat and his legendary car owner A. J. Foyt celebrated in Victory Lane, a furious Luyendyk barged in demanding an explanation from the officials. He was intercepted by Foyt and a TV-highlight shoving match ensued before the two were separated. But a scoring recount several days later showed that Luyendyk was right; he had finished on a lap by himself and had actually completed more laps than the scheduled race distance. The results was revised back to the proper ending lap and Luyendyk was declared the winner. 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. But the following week, as a result of the ensuing publicity, the IRL assumed total control of their races and terminated their relationship with USAC, putting that organization completely out of Indycar racing after 42 years. (from IRL Underground)