Track: Texas Motor Speedway
Date: Saturday, June 7, 1997
Start time: 8:00 PM EDT
Weather: Warm
Serial: #6 of 10 in 1996-1997 season
History: IRL race #1, Indycar race #1 at this track
Config: 1.5-mile, quad-oval, high banked
Wing package: Speedway
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.
Fin St Qual Car C/E/T Driver Entrant Laps Status Laps Pts
Spd # Led
1 11 158.791 5 G/A/F Arie Luyendyk Treadway 208 Running 20 35
2 21 No Spd. 11 G/A/G Billy Boat Foyt 207 Running 10 33
3 9 159.103 14 G/A/G Davey Hamilton Foyt 207 Running 4 32
4 5 165.293 6 G/A/F Scott Goodyear Treadway 207 Running 31
5 1 167.133 2 G/A/F Tony Stewart Menard 206 Engine 100 33
6 7 161.606 51 G/A/G Eddie Cheever Cheever 206 Running 5 29
7 22 No Spd. 7 D/A/G Eliseo Salazar Scandia 205 Running 3 28
8 6 162.125 97 D/A/F Greg Ray Knapp 204 Running 27
9 17 151.010 8 D/A/G Vincenzo Sospiri Scandia 204 Running 26
10 23 No Spd. 10 G/I/F Johnny Unser Byrd-C'ham 203 Running 25
11 14 153.856 28 D/A/G Mark Dismore Kelley 203 Running 24
12 26 No Spd. 34 D/A/F Alessandro Zampedri Scandia 201 Running 23
13 19 152.873 21 D/I/G Roberto Guerrero Pagan 201 Running 22
14 25 154.652 18 D/A/G Tyce Carlson PDM 184 Running 21
15 13 165.946 30 G/A/G Robbie Groff McCormack 173 Engine 3 20
16 2 165.318 3 G/A/F Robbie Buhl Menard 167 Engine 19
17 4 165.480 91 D/A/F Buddy Lazier Hemelgarn 157 Engine 57 18
18 3 158.792 4 G/A/G Kenny Brack Galles 118 Water Leak 17
19 10 152.745 12 G/A/G Buzz Calkins Bradley 98 Head Gasket 16
20 16 160.997 17 D/A/G Affonso Giaffone Chitwood 82 Electrical 15
21 8 149.586 27 D/A/F Jim Guthrie Blueprint 81 Crash FS 6 14
22 18 134.136 44 D/A/G Allen May May/Sinden 36 Crash T2 13
23 20 149.197 16 D/A/F Sam Schmidt Blueprint 36 Crash T2 12
24 17 No Spd. 40 D/I/F Jack Miller Sinden 24 Crash T3 11
25 24 No Spd. 33 D/A/G Fermin Velez Scandia 1 Withdrawn 10
26 12 158.496 22 D/A/G Marco Greco Scandia 0 Engine 9
Laps under green: 142 of 208 laps (68.3%)
Caution flags: 8 for 66 laps (31.7%)
#1: lap 1, blown engine (Greco), T1, 19 laps
#2: lap 24, stalled car (Miller), BS, 4 laps
#3: lap 39, crash (May, Schmidt), T2, 10 laps
#4: lap 81, crash (Guthrie), FS, 12 laps
[during caution: lap 86, stalled car (Giaffone), T4]
#5: lap 137, water leak (Brack), T3, 6 laps
#6: lap 143, spin (Carlson, Goodyear), FS, 7 laps
#7: lap 168, blown engine (Buhl), T4, 5 laps
#8: lap 207, blown engine/crash (Stewart), T1, 2 laps
[race ended under caution]
Red flags: 0 for 0 minutes
Lead changes: 14
St: Stewart 1-68
#1: Salazar 69-71
#2: Hamilton 72-75
#3: Guthrie 76-81
#4: Boat 82-84
#5: R. Groff 85-87
#6: Lazier 88-120
#7: Cheever 121-125
#8: Boat 126-132
#9: Stewart 133
#10: Lazier 134-157
#11: Stewart 158-169
#12: Luyendyk 170
#13: Stewart 171-189
#14: Luyendyk 190-208
C/E/T finish averages (# started / avg finish):
Dallara: 15 / 16.8
G-Force: 11 / 9.0
Aurora: 23 / 13.2
Infiniti: 3 / 15.7
Firestone: 11 / 12.8
Goodyear: 15 / 14.0