1997 Indianapolis 500

Practice (week 1)

Saturday May 3 - Opening Day

The first day of practice, set aside for Rookie Orientation, was rained out.^[17]

Sunday May 4 - Rookie Orientation

The first day of track activity saw six rookies take laps, with Vincenzo Sospiri leading the speed chart at 211.964 mph.^[18] Jack Miller blew an engine, in what was the only remarkable incident of the day.^[19] Robbie Groff also took laps for McCormack Motorsports, as the former Indy Lights driver, with two CART races under his belt back in 1994, had struck a deal to drive with the team, in detriment of Jeret Schroeder.^[20]

In a press conference,

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	8	Vincenzo Sospiri  R	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	211.964
2	51	Jeff Ward  R	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	205.780
3	4	Kenny Bräck  R	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	204.997

Monday May 5 - Rookie Orientation

A very windy day saw minimal activity, with only four cars taking a total of 80 laps before rain closed the track at 4:30 p.m.[21] Kenny Bräck turned the fastest lap at 205.597 mph.^[22]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	4	Kenny Bräck  R	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	205.597
2	16	Sam Schmidt  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	198.325
3	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	185.494

Tuesday May 6

The first full day of practice saw heavy activity. Arie Luyendyk set the fastest lap thus far of the month at 5:24 p.m., at 218.707 mph. The only incident of the day occurred early on, when rookie Jeff Ward blew an engine and spun into the wall in turn 3.^[23]

Later on, five rookies (Kenny Bräck, Robbie Groff, Greg Ray, Vincenzo Sospiri and Affonso Giaffone) completed their rookie test, and Sinden Racing Services confirmed that Steve Kinser, a 14-times World of Outlaws sprint car champion, would drive their #44 at-large entry.^[23] Kinser had tried to qualify for the race 15 years earlier, when a practice crash ended his chances in 1981, and had never competed in an Indy car race.

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	218.797
2	42	Robby Gordon	Team SABCO	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.569
3	2	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	214.337

Wednesday May 7

Arie Luyendyk became the first and only driver to go over 220 mph during the month, with a lap of 220.297 mph. At 4:12 p.m., Scott Sharp crashed in turn 1, heavily damaging his primary car. He had just run a lap of 217.402 mph.^[25]

Lyn St. James's 34 laps were her first on a race car since her collision at the previous year's Indy 500, as her broken right wrist had healed improperly. Rain closed the track about 10 minutes early.^[25]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	220.297
2	1	Scott Sharp	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	217.402
3	27	Jim Guthrie	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	216.076

Thursday May 8

Rain kept the track closed until 3 p.m., and the final three hours saw average activity, including the first laps for Steve Kinser and Stéphan Grégoire. Just minutes after the track opened, Arie Luyendyk spun in the southchute, and tagged the wall, suffering minor nose cone damage. He was uninjured. Later, Luyendyk returned to the track, and once again, led the speed chart at 217.318 mph.^[26]

In the later stages of the day, Alessandro Zampedri's car caught fire, having blown an engine coming out of Turn 4.^[26] After struggling to compete for the top spots during two days of practice with Goodyear tires, Team Menard switched back to mounting compounds from Firestone.^[26] Right away, Tony Stewart and Robbie Buhl were able to challenge Luyendyk's lap times, ending the session just behind him.

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	217.318
2	2T	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.822
3	3T	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.708

"Fast" Friday May 9

The final day of practice before pole qualifying saw heavy action, and cool temperatures. The speed chart was competitive, with Arie Luyendyk, Tony Stewart, and Robbie Buhl trading fast lap for the afternoon. At the end of the day, Luyendyk was fastest, sweeping the chart all four days of veteran practice. His lap of 218.325 mph was a mile per hour faster than Stewart in second place.^[27]

Two incidents, however, overshadowed the action. At 12:42 p.m., John Paul Jr. crashed in Turn 4, and suffered a broken lower right leg and a broken left heel. With 43 minutes left, Scott Sharp also crashed exiting Turn 4, and suffered a concussion. Sharp had been knocked unconscious in the crash with his foot on the throttle, and the destroyed car kept going for a while in the front stretch alongside the outside wall with its wheels spinning. Both Paul and Sharp would be forced to sit out the rest of the month. In another incident, Stéphan Grégoire's car suffered minor damage against the inside guard rail after a spin in the warm-up lane.^[27]

During the day, Jack Miller, Steve Kinser and Sam Schmidt passed the final phases of their rookie tests,^[27] Jeff Ward completed his 20-lap refresher test, and driver-owner Eddie Cheever turned his first laps of the month, having concentrated so far in getting Ward's car up to speed.^[28] EuroInternational also completed their first laps with Billy Roe, albeit at a slow speed. With them, 30 of the 32 confirmed car-driver combinations had taken to the track before Pole Day qualifying, the exceptions being Mark Dismore due to the lateness of the ownership and crew switch in the #28 entry, and Scott Harrington, as Johansson Motorsports saw its Oldsmobile engine deal being scuppered.

Besides Harrington, some Oldsmobile entries were experiencing engine shortages. After Jim Guthrie had a timing chain failure, Blueprint Racing was left with no powerplants available, as the three engines they had put a deposit on had not been delivered. Team Menard refused to supply them, having previously committed to Steve Kinser for technical assistance.^[29] Other Aurora-supplied teams also faced similar issues, like Team Scandia, which was switching their few engines between their entries.^[30]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	218.325
2	2	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	217.355
3	3	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.899

Time trials (weekend 1)

Pole Day - Saturday May 10

Pole day time trials took place under mostly sunny skies, but cool temperatures, which forced the Pole Day morning practice to be delayed due to low track temperature for the first time in history.^[31] Tony Stewart led the charts at 219.085 mph.

After two days of on-truck struggles in the 209 mph range, Hemelgarn Racing announced Saturday morning that Buddy Lazier would use Oldsmobile powerplants instead of Infiniti's, citing a lack of speed and sponsor deference. Due to contractual obligations on fielding a second Infiniti engine, the team entered Johnny Unser to drive in Lazier's car, renumbered as #90, while Lazier would qualify with his back-up. Because of the shortages being faced from Oldsmobile, their first Aurora engine was loaned by driver-owner Stan Wattles, whose upstart operation Metro Racing Systems was yet in the planning process.^[32]

The first car out on the track to qualify was Mike Groff. He became the first driver to complete a run in a normally aspirated car since 1987, and the first to qualify one since 1984. His speed also tentatively broke existing normally aspirated, stock block, track records with an average of 208.537 mph.^[32] A total of nine cars went out for runs during the first segment, however, only five were run to completion. Jeff Ward sat on the provisional pole at 214.517 mph, which would eventually be good for seventh on the grid.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Arie Luyendyk took to the track, and began the second wave of qualifiers. His run of 218.263 mph put him firmly on the pole position, with Tony Stewart close behind at 218.021 mph. Rookie Vincenzo Sospiri surprised many by rounding out the front row at 216.822 mph, beating Robbie Buhl, who qualified on his third attempt,^[32] Scott Goodyear and Jim Guthrie, who was on a popularity peak after his surprise Phoenix 200 win and had run competitively during the week. Guthrie had been able to qualify after a long overnight rebuild of his lone engine.

With his new engine, Buddy Lazier substantially improved his pace to qualify in the top 10. There were several wave offs during qualifying attempts, and three drivers didn't got to complete theirs. Robbie Groff brushed the wall at the exit of Turn 1 in his second lap and had to wave off, Fermín Vélez blew an engine during his second lap, and Sam Schmidt spun on the warm-up lane, hitting the inside wall. Also, Eliseo Salazar had to wave off his first qualifying attempt after hitting a bird on Lap 3.^[32]

At the end of pole day, 21 cars were in the field, with Roberto Guerrero slowest thus far at just over 207 mph. The Colombian qualified with his back-up car, which left him without his locked-in status, but Pagan's team manager John Barnes had petitioned for it to become the primary car while it was already in the qualifying lane. The change was not made before Guerrero took to the track, but USAC allowed it to be considered as a primary car the following day, securing Guerrero's place in the grid.^[33] That decision put Alessandro Zampedri in an early bubble among the at-large entries, having qualified at barely 209 mph. A week later, during Bump Day, USAC allowed a similar change to Buddy Lazier's car at the request of Ron Hemelgarn, despite being safely in the field at 214.286 mph.^[34]

Pole Day
Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed	Entry status
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	218.263	Locked-in
2	2	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	218.021	Locked-in
3	8	Vincenzo Sospiri  R	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	216.822	At-large
4	3	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.102	Locked-in
5	6	Scott Goodyear	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.811	Locked-in
6	27	Jim Guthrie	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	215.207	Locked-in
7	52	Jeff Ward  R	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	214.517	At-large
8	14	Davey Hamilton	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	214.484	Locked-in
9	7	Eliseo Salazar	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	214.320	Locked-in
10	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	214.286	Locked-in1
11	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	214.073	Locked-in
12	42	Robby Gordon	Team SABCO	G-Force	Oldsmobile	213.211	At-large
13	77	Stéphan Grégoire	Chastain Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	213.126	Locked-in
14	17	Affonso Giaffone  R	Chitwood Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	212.974	Locked-in
15	4	Kenny Bräck  R	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	211.221	Locked-in
- 2	90	Lyn St. James	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	210.145	At-large
16	12	Buzz Calkins	Bradley Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	209.564	Locked-in
17	40	Jack Miller  R	Arizona Motorsports	Dallara	Infiniti	209.250	Locked-in
- 2	34	Alessandro Zampedri	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	209.094	At-large
18	10	Mike Groff	Byrd-Cunningham Racing	G-Force	Infiniti	208.537	Locked-in
19	21	Roberto Guerrero	Pagan Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	207.371	Locked-in1
	33	Fermín Vélez	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Engine trouble	Locked-in
	30	Robbie Groff  R	McCormack Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	Waved off	Locked-in
	16	Sam Schmidt  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Crashed	At-large

Second Day - Sunday May 11

As the majority of drivers had qualified by Saturday, only four machines started qualifying attempts on the second day. Two of them were added to the field; Steve Kinser completed a run early in the day, while Robbie Groff finished just before the track closed in his last attempt. The first one was nullified by an engine misfire, and the second, by a cold track surface. Greg Ray, in an at-large entry, was set for a 215 mph qualifying run before he ran out of fuel in his last lap. The priority in engine usage at Team Scandia forced Marco Greco to become the only available first-week competitor to sit out during Pole Day weekend.^[33]

In the morning,

Second Day
Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed	Entry status
20	44	Steve Kinser  R	Sinden Racing Services	Dallara	Oldsmobile	210.793	At-large
21	30	Robbie Groff  R	McCormack Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	207.792	Locked-in
	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Out of fuel	At-large
	1T	Billy Boat  R	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Warm-up laps	At-large

Practice (week 2)

Monday May 12

Another cool and windy day saw 18 cars practice. Arie Luyendyk continued his dominance, and led the practice chart for the seventh consecutive day before sitting out for the rest of the week. He did not come back on track until Bump Day practice, which he also led. Billy Boat was able to complete his refresher test, while Billy Roe became the ninth driver to pass his rookie test.^[36][37]

Off the track, A. J. Foyt announced that he was working on a deal for John Andretti to replace the injured Scott Sharp in the #1 entry, providing that travel and scheduling constraints were arranged with his NASCAR team owner Cale Yarborough.^[36] Johansson Motorsports confirmed they would use an Infiniti engine provided by Hemelgarn Racing, after plans to run an Oldsmobile engine for Scott Harrington fell through.^[36][38]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	217.103
2	6	Scott Goodyear	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.092
3	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.600

Tuesday May 13

Ten drivers turned their fastest laps of the month, including Buddy Lazier, who led the speed chart, and Billy Boat, the fastest of the non-qualified cars. At over 214 mph, Boat was four miles per hour faster than the others,^[39] including Dennis Vitolo, who blew an engine before getting up to speed.^[35]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	91T	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	217.040
2	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.909
3	6	Scott Goodyear	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.513

Wednesday May 14

Buddy Lazier and Billy Boat repeated their efforts from the previous day, as the fastest already-qualified, and fastest non-qualified cars of the day.^[38] High winds blew debris onto the track causing several yellow lights throughout the afternoon.^[40]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	91T	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	216.570
2	2T	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.466
3	14	Davey Hamilton	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.972

Thursday May 15

Most of the cars that took to the track were among those not yet qualified. Several veterans sat out the afternoon. Sam Schmidt found his way to the top of the speed chart, at over 211 mph. His team, Blueprint Racing, confirmed a third entry for Claude Bourbonnais, the 1993 Atlantic Championship runner-up and fourth in the 1996 Indy Lights season, who had run five CART races in 1994. Bourbonnais was due to take over Jim Guthrie's back-up car.^[41]

Like the Canadian, Johnny Unser and Johnny O'Connell run laps over 200 mph, also taking to the track for the first time all month, as well as Mark Dismore and his new teammate Tyce Carlson, who passed his refresher test.^[41] In a windy day, both drivers got to do laps in the 210 mph range early in the day before parking the cars early, as PDM Racing was out of spare engines.^[42]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	16	Sam Schmidt  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	211.989
2	14T	Davey Hamilton	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	211.456
3	42	Robby Gordon	Team SABCO	G-Force	Oldsmobile	211.164

Friday May 16

The final full day of practice saw heavy activity among qualified and non-qualified drivers. With

Among the un-qualified cars, both Greg Ray and Fermín Vélez went back on-track for the first time since Pole Day weekend. Meanwhile, the three already qualified drivers from Team Scandia sat out the whole week of practice because of the lingering engine parts shortages, including Alessandro Zampedri despite his bubble spot. This reduced running for both Marco Greco and Vélez to a combined 47 laps. Similar issues also kept Jim Guthrie out of the track during the week. Up to six locked-in entries were yet to qualify, and the remaining seven un-qualified cars were set to battle on time trials, as well as the slower at-large qualifiers of Pole Day weekend (Steve Kinser, Lyn St. James and Zampedri), as four open spots were still up for grabs.

Off the track, the Indy Racing League confirmed the technical specifications for 1998 and beyond, which included the elimination of the 25/8 Rule, that had grown in controversy beyond its alleged CART-blocking purposes.^[44] During the week, competitors and officials alike were growing apprehensive of the rule, as it became increasingly possible that the "fastest 33 cars", a cornerstone Indy tradition, could not necessarily make the field. At-large entries were expected to be over 210 mph to make the race, while four locked-in entries had settled with just being over the 203 mph minimum speed required. There had also been some disconformity with some teams that were selling, or trying to sell, their locked-in berths.^[45]

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	2T	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	216.388
2	4T	Kenny Bräck  R	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.074
3	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	215.069

Time trials (weekend 2)

Third Day - Saturday May 17

The third day of qualifying saw sunny skies and warm temperatures. A busy day of time trials saw the field fill to 31 cars. Billy Boat set the early pace with an average of 215.544 mph, sixth fastest on the whole grid and faster than team leader Davey Hamilton. Several "locked-in" drivers took runs, and within an hour, eight consecutive time trials were run to completion, including another 215 mph run by Sam Schmidt which closely mirrored that of the sister car of Jim Guthrie. Johnny Unser couldn't attempt to qualify after a piston failed in the morning practice, Greg Ray suffered an engine failure during his warm-up lap and Claude Bourbonnais, looking to qualify on the later stages of the day, damaged his car after tagging the wall twice.^[46]

When the track closed for the day, only two positions were unfilled, and 22 of the 23 original "locked-in" entries were already in the field. The only original "locked-in" entry yet unqualified was the #1 of

Third Day
Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed	Entry status
22	11	Billy Boat  R	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	215.544	At-large
23	16	Sam Schmidt  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	215.141	At-large
24	50	Billy Roe  R	EuroInternational	Dallara	Oldsmobile	212.752	At-large
25	28	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing - PDM	Dallara	Oldsmobile	212.423	Locked-in
26	18	Tyce Carlson  R	PDM Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	210.852	Locked-in
27	22	Marco Greco	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	210.322	Locked-in
28	54	Dennis Vitolo	Beck Motorsports	Dallara	Infiniti	207.626	Locked-in
29	33	Fermín Vélez	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	206.512	Locked-in
	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	engine trouble	At-large

Bump Day - Sunday May 18

Going into the final day of qualifying, two positions were open. One final "locked-in" position was available (

In the first fifteen minutes, Johnny Unser (209.344 mph) and Greg Ray (213.760 mph) filled the field to 33 cars with at-large entries.^[34] Since 22 of the cars were locked-in, they put Alessandro Zampedri on the bubble. Zampedri had qualified 19th on pole day with a 209.09 mph, and was the 28th-fastest car on speed at the time, ahead of five "locked-in" cars.

At 11.30 a.m.,

Johnny Unser was now on the bubble with the 26th-fastest car in the field, as the slowest at-large entry. At 2:08 p.m., Claude Bourbonnais easily bumped out Unser with a 210.523 mph qualifying attempt, and put Lyn St. James on the bubble. She had qualified 16th on pole day, was 25th-fastest overall and the fastest Infiniti-powered car, but the eight cars below her were locked-in. Immediately after Bourbonnais's attempt, and with rain approaching, Alessandro Zampedri took to the track in his back-up car. His run of 211.757 mph was enough to bump St. James, and put Bourbonnais on the bubble.^[34]

Minutes later, rain began to fall and closed the track for the next hour. Despite being bumped,

The track was dried and re-opened at 3:15 p.m, with Scott Harrington as the lone car preparing to qualify. Unable to go over 200 mph during practice on Saturday, Johansson Motorsports took possession of Davey Hamilton's back-up chassis from Foyt, and changed its number to #36 to make it their primary car.^[47] With just 25 practice laps in the car, Harrington got out to qualify at 5:51 p.m, with nine minutes left in the day. After a quick first lap of 214.061 mph, he crashed heavily after losing control in the middle of turn 2. Harrington, who was extricated from his car, was awake and alert, and was transferred to Methodist Hospital, but was not seriously injured.^[34]

Post-qualifying controversy

When the gun was fired at 6 p.m., teammates Lyn St. James and Johnny Unser were the lone two drivers to have been bumped out of the starting field. Both of them, like Alessandro Zampedri before he managed to re-qualify, had posted qualifying speeds among the fastest 33 cars, which were also faster than eight of the "locked-in" entries.

Scott Harrington was the lone driver that failed to qualify for the race. Unaware of the developing situation during Bump Day, Harrington could've been among the 33 fastest drivers just by beating Dennis Vitolo, who had qualified at a mere 207.626 mph, three miles per hour slower than Bourbonnais's bubble speed, and well below what Harrington was running at the time of his crash. However, it is unknown if Harrington would've been reinstated in that case; while USAC's decision was taken to ensure that the 33 fastest drivers would start the race, the official ruling stated that only bumped cars were eligible for the procedure.

It was the first Indy 500 field since 1979 that had exceeded the traditional 33-car grid. It featured the second highest rookie field since 1930 with 13 rookies, only behind the previous year's race. With nine of the 17 rookies from 1996 also on the field, only 13 drivers had taken part in the Indianapolis 500 before the formation of the IRL.

Bump Day
Pos.	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed	Entry status
30	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	213.760	At-large
31	34	Alessandro Zampedri	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	211.757	At-large
32	72	Claude Bourbonnais  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	210.523	At-large
33	1	Paul Durant	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	209.149	Locked-in
Reinstated
34	90	Lyn St. James	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	210.145	At-large
35	9	Johnny Unser	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	209.344	At-large
Failed to qualify
	36	Scott Harrington	Johansson Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	Crashed	At-large

Carburetion Day

Final practice - Thursday May 22

Tony Stewart turned the fastest lap of the day, at 215.502 mph.,^[49] while polesitter Arie Luyendyk completed only two laps at speed, using the session mostly as a system check exercise.

Robby Gordon blew an engine, while Dennis Vitolo, Marco Greco and Paul Durant experienced mechanical trouble.

Top practice speeds
Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Speed
1	2	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	215.502
2	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	214.807
3	6	Scott Goodyear	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	212.972

Pit Stop Contest

The

The last three places were determined in a preliminary round on May 12, with 7 entries against the clock in a single-run format. Kenny Bräck (with a time of 12.597 seconds), Robby Gordon (13.721 seconds) and Eddie Cheever (14.409 seconds) gained access to the competition, defeating Steve Kinser (14.721 seconds), Jeff Ward (15.447 seconds), Jack Miller (17.245 seconds) and Roberto Guerrero, who failed to register a time.^[36] However, both Hamilton and Grégoire's entries were withdrawn by Foyt and Chastain from the competition, allowing Kinser and Ward to take part in the event.^[50]

Galles Racing and driver Kenny Bräck defeated Team Cheever with driver/owner Eddie Cheever in the finals.^[49]

System check runs

On Saturday May 24, the day before the race, arrangements were made for a special practice session. Due to the new engine package, some teams had requested additional track time for system check runs. A very brief green light period, with a 190 mph speed limit, was conducted for five cars.^[51]

Starting grid

Row	Inside	Middle	Outside
1	5 - Arie Luyendyk  W	2 - Tony Stewart	8 - Vincenzo Sospiri  R
2	3 - Robbie Buhl	6 - Scott Goodyear	27 - Jim Guthrie
3	52 - Jeff Ward  R	14 - Davey Hamilton	7 - Eliseo Salazar
4	91 - Buddy Lazier  W	51 - Eddie Cheever	42 - Robby Gordon
5	77 - Stéphan Grégoire	17 - Affonso Giaffone  R	4 - Kenny Bräck  R
6	12 - Buzz Calkins	Jack Miller  R	10 - Mike Groff
7	21 - Roberto Guerrero	44 - Steve Kinser  R	30 - Robbie Groff  R
8	11 - Billy Boat  R	16 - Sam Schmidt  R	50 - Billy Roe  R
9	28 - Mark Dismore	18 - Tyce Carlson  R	22 - Marco Greco
10	54 - Dennis Vitolo	33 - Fermín Vélez	97 - Greg Ray  R
11	34 - Alessandro Zampedri	72 - Claude Bourbonnais  R	1 - Paul Durant
12	90 - Lyn St. James	9 - Johnny Unser

  Reinstated to the field by the officials after the close of time trials

  Dropped out during the pace laps, and did not start the race

Alternates

• First alternate: #34 - No driver listed (Alessandro Zampedri's primary entry - bumped)

Rain delay

Sunday May 25

The race was originally scheduled for 11 a.m. EST on Sunday May 25. Rain in the morning delayed the activities, but the skies appeared to lighten, and the cars were placed in the grid at 11:45 a.m. At 12 p.m., the skies opened up, and heavy rain began to fall. The cars were wheeled back to the garage area. At 1:30 p.m., track officials rescheduled the race for Monday.^[52]

Robby Gordon, driving for Felix Sabates' Team SABCO, had planned on driving the Indy 500/Coca-Cola 600 "Double Duty". At 1:45 p.m., Gordon left the grounds, and flew to Charlotte. The Coca-Cola 600 also suffered a rain delay, but did eventually see the green flag fall. Gordon wrecked out on lap 186, and finished 41st.

Monday May 26

On

On the first parade lap, Dr.

Arie Luyendyk led the field to the green flag, but Tony Stewart slipstreamed past him after Turn 4 to lead the first lap. Team Menard would later register an official complaint over Luyendyk's start, after Stewart argued that Luyendyk had tried to crowd him towards the outside wall. During these first laps, Vincenzo Sospiri was overtaken by Robbie Buhl and a fast starting Robby Gordon, who climbed eight spots in only two laps. Jim Guthrie also passed Sospiri and briefly pressured Gordon, but at the end of the sixth lap he pulled into the pits with a sizeable water leak. Also, Eddie Cheever fell down the order after pitting because of a stuck gearbox.

On Lap 10, Claude Bourbonnais, running in 26th place, blew his engine, the three Blueprint Racing drivers having fallen by the wayside with mechanical issues after the team worked on their engines for the whole week. Moments after the caution came out, a light drizzle started falling around the track. During the caution, Guthrie's crew frantically tried to fix the leak, but he lost seven laps. On lap 15, the rain started to fall harder, and the race was red flagged. With rain continuing to fall, the cars returned to the garage area at 12:30 p.m., and fans began to leave the grounds. The race had to go at least 101 laps to be considered official; with only 15 laps completed, the race would have to be resumed.

After negotiations between IMS, series officials, and television executives, the decision was made at 2:15 p.m. to resume the race on Lap 16 the following day, Tuesday May 27 at 11 a.m. The arrangement was similar to the one that occurred during the

Tuesday May 27

With skies finally clearing, the race finally was able to get underway. Mari Hulman George delivered the "re-start" command at 11 a.m., and the race resumed at lap 16. Of the 35 qualifiers, 29 cars lined up single-file for the restart. The grandstands were only partially full, and it marked the first time since 1973 that the race was held mid-week. ABC-TV made a special arrangement to cover the race live as planned.

Race running

Re-start

The race picked up single-file from the pits at lap 16. The first two laps were run under caution as warm-up laps, however, they counted towards the race total. On lap 18, the green flag came out with Tony Stewart resuming the lead against a very bunched-up field. Robby Gordon was practically alongside Robbie Buhl when the green flag dropped, stripped him of the 3rd place and rapidly closed up on Arie Luyendyk on the backstretch, but he suddenly veered to the warm-up lane in Turn 3, as his engine had caught fire. Gordon jumped out of the car, with his driver's suit burning from leaked methanol in the cockpit, and began rolling vigorously in the grass to put the fire out.

The caution came out, and the car was returned to the pits, with Gordon still willing to drive, but he had to retire from the race with first and second-degree burns on his wrists and right thigh, for which he would miss an entire month of Winston Cup competition. This would eventually lead to Gordon being released at the end of the year, after falling out of grace with Felix Sabates,^[53] who later said that his team would not be back to the Indy 500, being displeased with the attitude of the paddock and the style of Indy car racing.^[54]

As the field lined up for the restart on Lap 23, four cars tangled in turn 4. Steve Kinser, up to 10th place, misjudged the procedure and tagged Eliseo Salazar from behind. In the ensuing avoiding measures, Mark Dismore slowed down in 13th place, only to be rear-ended by Roberto Guerrero, retiring on the spot. Salazar and Guerrero would lose laps with extensive repairs, but Kinser only had to replace his front wing. The first significant green flag racing of the week finally began at Lap 28, with Stewart leading Luyendyk and Buhl. Jeff Ward and Buddy Lazier were fourth and fifth in front of Vincenzo Sospiri and Scott Goodyear, having gained two and four positions respectively on the previous restart.

First half

Arie Luyendyk tried to pass Tony Stewart on the inside, but couldn't complete the move. The lost momentum allowed Robbie Buhl to pass him in Turn 3, and even Buddy Lazier, after passing Jeff Ward, had a chance to attack the pole-sitter. The top 4 drivers soon pulled away from their competitors, with Stewart maintaining a 2-second lead and Luyendyk repassing Buhl on Lap 44. The leaders made their first pit stop around Lap 50, when Team Menard discovering they had no telemetry read from Stewart's car. On Lap 59, Jim Guthrie brought out the yellow, as his engine finally gave up. Vincenzo Sospiri had pitted earlier than anyone else, but had to make an unscheduled pit stop during the caution because of a malfunctioning fuel alarm. He rejoined in 10th place as the last car in the lead lap, behind Scott Goodyear, Buzz Calkins, a recovering Eddie Cheever and Davey Hamilton.

On the Lap 62 restart, Luyendyk jumped to the front, putting a 4-second lead over Stewart in 13 laps. Buhl and Lazier ran nose-to-tail within 10 seconds of Luyendyk, while the other lead lap drivers had fallen at least 20 seconds behind. Luyendyk made his second pit stop on Lap 79, and a brief issue with the air jack put him behind Stewart, but he reclaimed the lead going around the outside in Turn 1. Buhl, hampered by a failed rear wing change, and Ward also lost places to Lazier and Goodyear, although Lazier could not join the two leaders after being held up by the lapped car of Steve Kinser. At the longest green flag run of the day at 32 laps, Davey Hamilton was lapped, Eddie Cheever had to retire with a broken timing chain, and Buzz Calkins lost two laps after running out of fuel entering the pits.

On Lap 93, a loose brake caliper forced Eliseo Salazar, who was already 23 laps down, to stop the car in Turn 2, bringing out the yellow flag. Robbie Buhl, Vincenzo Sospiri and Jeff Ward pitted for fuel and tires, but Sospiri was shown the black flag for passing Ward under caution. Sospiri served his penalty on Lap 100, but he stopped again four laps later with an electronic coil failure, and spent much of the second half of the race in the pits trying to figure out the issue. By the halfway point, thirteen cars had dropped out, and six stayed on the lead lap, with Billy Boat, Marco Greco, Paul Durant and Davey Hamilton in the top 10.

Second half

The race was restarted at the halfway mark, just one lap before the race became official. Buddy Lazier briefly pressured Tony Stewart, but the latter picked up the pace and caught Arie Luyendyk within five laps. Luyendyk made his pit stop on Lap 111, one lap before Stewart and Scott Goodyear, but he had issues again, this time on the left front tyre, and Stewart emerged in front of him after his stop. Buddy Lazier, Robbie Buhl and Jeff Ward, meanwhile, elected to stretch their stints, and their choice initially paid off when the 5th caution of the day came out on Lap 114.

From 33rd on the grid,

Ward and Lazier made their pit stop under caution, with Ward rejoining between Stewart and Luyendyk, but Lazier ran out of fuel entering the pits and lost half a minute. Surprisingly, Buhl elected not to pit despite being on the same pit sequence as the leaders and, after the '1 to go' signal prevented a late change of mind, he restarted as the race leader. Luyendyk charged again, passing Ward on the restart and Stewart on Lap 128, and inherited the race lead when Buhl pitted four laps later. Trying to navigate through traffic while losing power, Lazier had a heated argument with Marco Greco when the Brazilian held him up, waving angrily at him as he made it past.

The yellow flag was waved again on Lap 138, when Jack Miller, running four laps down, crashed out of 17th place after losing control of his car in Turn 3. Mike Groff, the IRL points leader, spun trying to avoid him, having already lost six laps. Luyendyk, Stewart and Goodyear pitted under caution, leaving Ward and Lazier in front. On the Lap 143 restart, Stewart struck back by passing Luyendyk and Lazier on one lap. Lazier kept dropping back, and was swiftly passed by Luyendyk and Goodyear. Despite his great restart, Stewart suffered from a push condition and lost ground to Ward, falling 7 seconds back on just five laps. Luyendyk eventually took advantage and passed him on Lap 159, with Goodyear closely behind. Six laps later, Tyce Carlson spun in Turn 2 just after being passed by Stewart. The caution ended Buhl's chances, as he had pitted just seconds before, losing a lap to the leaders.

Both Ward and Lazier pitted before anyone else on Lap 166 to gain track position, gambling on a caution-less finish. Luyendyk, Stewart and Goodyear pitted three laps later, but Stewart stalled his car and placed behind Goodyear on the Lap 170 restart. Both were able to pass Luyendyk, who also developed understeer in his car, and Lazier became vulnerable against all three of them on Lap 175. Twenty laps from the end, Stewart passed Goodyear but, five laps later, he went high on the exit of Turn 4 to avoid the slowing car of Buzz Calkins, which allowed Goodyear to regain the position. Luyendyk tried to follow his teammate, but Stewart closed the door on him in the backstretch, forcing Luyendyk to put two wheels on the grass. Goodyear was running 13 seconds behind Ward, but had the potential race lead, as Ward needed one final splash-and-go fuel stop before the finish.

Controversial finish

With eleven laps to go, Steve Kinser crashed out of 9th place when his rear left tyre touched with the front right tyre of Buzz Calkins, whom he was lapping on the outside of Turn 4. Lyn St. James, coming from behind after being passed by Kinser, run high trying to avoid him and clipped the wall, damaging a suspension. The ensuing caution flag saw leader Jeff Ward head to the pits for a splash of fuel, as well as Tony Stewart, who was two gallons short per his team. With 8 laps left, Scott Goodyear and his teammate Arie Luyendyk led the order, followed by Buddy Lazier, while Ward and Stewart had a group of six lapped cars in front. They were the only five drivers on the lead lap.

The green flag came back out on Lap 194, and Luyendyk passed Goodyear on Turn 3 to take the lead. Trying to make it to the end in 5th place, Lazier lost his right-side rear-view mirror two laps later. The mirror got stranded in Turn 2, causing another caution for debris, and the green came back out at the conclusion of Lap 197, with three laps to go. As Luyendyk and Goodyear crossed the start/finish line to complete lap 198,

"I saw the green and white flag wave and I thought 'Hell they better know what they're doing' and I will keep doing what I've been doing. This is a lot better than my first in 1990."

His teammate Scott Goodyear was satisfied but still disappointed at the outcome:

"That's the key lap of the whole race obviously because you want to get a draft, get the guy going and lead coming out the backstretch. I don't think Arie even expected it. Overall a 1-2 finish for Treadway is a bonus but...disappointed that I didn't win."

After brushing the wall late, Tony Stewart limped around on the final lap with a bent suspension arm. After leading the most laps, he held on to finish in 5th place, the last car on the lead lap. It was his best Indy finish, and only career top-five at the Indy 500.

Box score

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Chassis	Engine	Tire	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Pts.
1	5	Arie Luyendyk  W	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	F	200	3:25:43.388	1	37
2	6	Scott Goodyear	Treadway Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	F	200	+ 0.570	5	33
3	52	Jeff Ward  R	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	200	+ 4.081	7	32
4	91	Buddy Lazier  W	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	200	+ 10.330	10	31
5	2	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	F	200	+ 28.613	2	31
6	14	Davey Hamilton	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	199	+ 1 lap	8	29
7	11	Billy Boat  R	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	199	+ 1 lap	22	28
8	3	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	G-Force	Oldsmobile	F	199	+ 1 lap	4	27
9	30	Robbie Groff  R	McCormack Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	197	+ 3 laps	21	26
10	33	Fermín Vélez	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	195	+ 5 laps	29	25
11	12	Buzz Calkins	Bradley Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	188	Half shaft	16	24
12	10	Mike Groff	Byrd-Cunningham Racing	G-Force	Infiniti	F	188	+ 12 laps	18	23
13	90	Lyn St. James	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	F	186	Accident	34	22
14	44	Steve Kinser  R	Sinden Racing Services	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	185	Accident	20	21
15	54	Dennis Vitolo	Beck Motorsports	Dallara	Infiniti	F	173	+ 27 laps	28	20
16	22	Marco Greco	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	166	Gearbox	27	19
17	8	Vincenzo Sospiri  R	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	163	+ 37 laps	3	18
18	9	Johnny Unser	Hemelgarn Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	F	158	Oil pressure	35	17
19	18	Tyce Carlson  R	PDM Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	156	Accident	26	16
20	40	Jack Miller  R	Arizona Motorsports	Dallara	Infiniti	F	131	Accident	17	15
21	1	Paul Durant	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	111	Accident	33	14
22	50	Billy Roe  R	EuroInternational	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	110	Accident	24	13
23	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	84	Timing chain	11	12
24	7	Eliseo Salazar	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	70	Accident	9	11
25	97	Greg Ray  R	Knapp Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	48	Water pump	30	10
26	27	Jim Guthrie	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	43	Engine	6	9
27	21	Roberto Guerrero	Pagan Racing	Dallara	Infiniti	G	25	Steering	19	8
28	28	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing - PDM	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	24	Accident	25	7
29	42	Robby Gordon	Team SABCO	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	19	Fire	12	6
30	72	Claude Bourbonnais  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	9	Engine	32	5
31	77	Stéphan Grégoire	Chastain Motorsports	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	0	Accident	13	4
32	17	Affonso Giaffone  R	Chitwood Motorsports	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	0	Accident	14	3
33	4	Kenny Bräck  R	Galles Racing	G-Force	Oldsmobile	G	0	Accident	15	2
34	16	Sam Schmidt  R	Blueprint Racing	Dallara	Oldsmobile	F	0	Engine	23	1
35	34	Alessandro Zampedri	Team Scandia	Dallara	Oldsmobile	G	0	Oil leak	31	1

 W  Former Indianapolis 500 winner

 R  Indianapolis 500 Rookie

Race statistics

Standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings

Pos	Driver	Points
1	Mike Groff	148
2	Davey Hamilton	143
3	Buzz Calkins	137
4	Tony Stewart	133
5	Marco Greco	131

• Note: Only the top five positions are included for the standings.

Aftermath

After the 25/8 qualifying controversy, rain delays, and bungling of the final lap by the officials, as well as the scrapping of the split-calendar IRL schedule, the 1997 Indy 500 represented a relative low-point for the then-fledgling

The race also marked the end of the IRL's lucrative initial exclusive contract with ABC Sports, which was not renewed in its entirety. While the Indy 500 itself would remain on ABC, as well as a handful of other races, the IRL would have to complete their TV scheduling with other networks for two and a half years.

The first move to make amends was to drop the 25/8 rule permanently. Two weeks later at

In just his second Indy car race, and as a one-off driver, Jeff Ward finished in a remarkable 3rd place, winning Rookie of the Year honours. After battling with Luyendyk for most of the race, Tony Stewart could only finish the race in 5th place, behind Buddy Lazier. Indy car debutant Billy Boat and rookie Robbie Groff also finished in the top-10, with Robbie Buhl in between. Mike Groff finished as the highest Infiniti placed driver in 12th place despite losing 12 laps and retained the IRL points lead, with a 5-point advantage over Davey Hamilton, who finished sixth.

Broadcasting

Radio

The race was carried live on the IMS Radio Network. Bob Jenkins served as chief announcer for the eighth year. Johnny Rutherford served as "driver expert", and at the start of the race, also drove the pace car. The race was heard on roughly 500 affiliates.

The crew for the 1997 race remained the same from 1996. The broadcast featured rain delay coverage on Sunday, live coverage of the start on Monday, and live coverage of the conclusion on Tuesday. All members of the crew participated on all three days. After serving as a guest booth analyst the previous two years, Chris Economaki spent all three days in the pits as a roving reporter. Economaki conducted interviews and offered observations at various points during the race. In the pit area, Mark Jaynes covered the north pits, Mike King began the race in the center pits, and Vince Welch began the race in the south pits. In the second half of the race, King and Welch shared duties in the south and center pits, focusing on the race leaders.

Television

The race was carried live flag-to-flag coverage in the United States on ABC Sports. Paul Page served as host and play-by-play announcer. Tom Sneva joined the crew, and served as booth analyst. Bobby Unser (turn 2) and Danny Sullivan (turn 4) served as turn reporters, and this would be the final 500 on ABC for both Unser and Sullivan.

The race was scheduled for Sunday May 25, but rain postponed the start. ABC stayed on as scheduled on Sunday, and the broadcast was filled with highlights, interviews, and talk. On Monday May 26, ABC returned to broadcast the race live, preempting regularly scheduled programming. The broadcast came on-air live at 11 EDT, and featured a one-hour pre-race, mirroring the traditional Sunday broadcast format. The race started, but was halted again on lap 15 due to rain. When it was announced that the race would be postponed again, ABC signed off and returned to their regularly scheduled lineup.

On Tuesday May 27, ABC returned once again to air the remainder of the race live. Unlike a similar situation in 1986, officials decided to resume the race on Tuesday, rather than wait until Saturday. ABC again preempted their afternoon lineup, and carried the entire conclusion.

Practice and time trials were carried over three networks: ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2.

• Live Daily Reports (ESPN2): Paul Page, Dave Despain, Jon Beekuis, Dr. Jerry Punch, Gary Gerould, Mike King
• Time trials (ABC): Paul Page, Tom Sneva, Jack Arute, Gary Gerould
• Time trials (ESPN): Dave Despain, Tom Sneva, Jack Arute, Dr. Jerry Punch, Gary Gerould
• Time trials (ESPN2): Paul Page, Tom Sneva, Dr. Jerry Punch, Jon Beekuis, Mike King
• Carb Day (ESPN): Dave Despain, Jon Beekuis, Dr. Jerry Punch, Mike King
• RPM2Day at Indy (ESPN2): Kenny Mayne, Marlo Klain

Gallery

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1997 Indianapolis 500.

• 
  1997 Oldsmobile Aurora pace car

Notes

References