|| *Comments on the 1997 Indianapolis 500:* View the most recent comment <#38> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. MegaRacer posted: 01.30.2009 - 1:39 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This race was scheduled for Sunday May 25 but was postponed to the 26th due to all day rain. Only the first 15 laps were run on Monday before rain halted the action. The race was resumed Tuesday the 27th on a clear but cool day and was run to conclusion. 2. Indycar1 posted: 01.31.2009 - 12:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Arie Luyendyk becomes the first 2-time winner in IRL history. Scott Goodyear finishes second for the second time in the race, other time was in 1992 in the closest finish in Indy 500 History. King of the Outlaws Steve Kinser makes his only IRL Start. First of two straight races that USAC messed up the outcome of the race. Tony stewart brushed the wall with two laps to go, Yellow flag is waved, pace car never comes out, and they wave the green flag the next time around, despite the caution lights still being on. 3. Darrell posted: 01.31.2009 - 3:47 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Failed to qualify: Scott Harrington (#36) 4. RaceFanX posted: 01.31.2009 - 6:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Robby Gordon becomes the second driver to attempt the Indy 500/Coke 600 double and first in the IRL era. Gordon it turned out to be a bad decision, Gordon ran in the top-10 early in the race but just laps after the restart on Tuesday the car caught on fire and Robby was badly burned, causing him to miss a few NASCAR Cup races in the aftermath. It took the announcers a moment to figure out what happened due to the invisible methanol flames. Future Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack's first appearence in the event ends in a wreck at the start 5. RaceFanX posted: 02.03.2009 - 3:54 pm Rate this comment: (3) (0) Jack Roush's first Indy 500 win... Yes you read that right. Roush Racing oddly built the Oldsmobile Aurora engines that teammates Arie Luyendyk and Scott Goodyear used to finish 1-2. 6. Anonymous posted: 02.04.2009 - 10:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) An argument between sanctioning bodies and subsequent court case meant 35 cars started this 500, the most in decades. 7. Pacer posted: 04.21.2009 - 5:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The pace car for this Indy 500 was an Oldsmobile Aurora. 8. CHAD posted: 05.08.2009 - 9:47 pm Rate this comment: (2) (5) I SAW THE WRECK WITH 2 TO GO AND I THINK THE RACE SHOULD END UNDER CAUTION CAUSE IF THE CAUTION COMES OUT THE RACE IS OVER THAT MEANS WE WOULD NOT SEE A GREEN WHITE CHECKERED LIKE THE NASCAR TRUCK SERIES AND THE NEED TO BE A SHAMED OF THERE SELF 9. CHAD posted: 05.09.2009 - 11:01 am Rate this comment: (2) (7) WHT IS BUDDY LAZIER WIFE MIDDLE NAME 10. Unser1 posted: 05.31.2009 - 11:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) CART semi-regular Dennis Vitolo makes his only IRL appearence and finishes 15th 11. Anonymous posted: 11.24.2009 - 10:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First time a non-american won an IRL race 12. Steve posted: 12.25.2009 - 11:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Wasn't that the whole idea behind the IRL? Americans winning the races? Look at where they are 12 years later... 5 full time American drivers 17 of 17 races won by non-US drivers (ironic, isn't it?) No American manufacturers Plans to take the series to Brazil and China (ideas previously "poo-pooed" by the IRL) "Road to Indy" development ladder includes Star Mazda and USF2000 road racing series (there goes the all oval series...) The IRL is almost everything that they were against (CART), except: Lower car count (21 or 22 compared with 26) Unattractive cars No turbochargers (why?) Lower TV ratings and fewer races on national TV (5 compared with 10 or more) Lousy broadcasting crew on national TV (Paul Page, please!) Little interest in fans' opinions or concerns Maybe Jeff Belskus will listen to us. 13. RaceFanX posted: 09.29.2010 - 7:40 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Alessandro Zampedri's first IRL race since his big accident on the last lap of the previous Indy 500 14. Unser1 posted: 01.24.2011 - 10:37 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the death of the 25/8 rule the IRL originally had... Only 36 cars attempted this race (as said earlier Scott Harrington was the lone DNQ) but two of the cars that missed the field, Lyn St. James and Johnny Unser, actually ran faster than cars that made the race due to the rule. USAC still had some sanctioning over Indy at the time and stepped in to add St. James and Unser to field to assure the race featured the "fastest 33" cars as always. As such this was the first 500 since 1979 with a field greater than 33 cars. Tony Stewart scores his best finish in the 500 (to date anyway) with a 5th. 15. RaceFanX posted: 09.18.2011 - 2:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Failed to qualify: #36 Scott Harrington- Gold Eagle (G/O Johansson Motorsports) G-Force/Oldsmobile/Goodyear Harrington crashed during his qualification run. 16. Unser1 posted: 06.09.2012 - 3:33 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Sponsors: #3 Robbie Buhl- Quaker State / Menards #10 Mike Groff- Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria / Bryant H & C #18 Tyce Carlson- Klipsch / Overhead Door #54 Dennis Vitolo- SmithKline Beecham / Firestone / Kroger #97 Greg Ray- Tobacco Free Kids / Arizona Diamondbacks (The D-Backs were an expansion team at the time) *Buzz Caulkins started 16th, not 26th. 17. RaceFanX posted: 08.25.2013 - 5:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Race run Tuesday May 27, not Thursday May 29. 18. most posted: 07.16.2014 - 2:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The sad thing is, had he known that 2 cars would be added, Harrington wouldn't have pressed so hard, he would have easily beat Unser and St James for the 34th spot. Instead though, he had a VERY HARD crash trying to get in the show. 19. FortiFord posted: 04.10.2015 - 10:10 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Greg Ray's IRL debut 20. joebev910 posted: 04.22.2015 - 12:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) for what team fortiford? 21. FortiFord posted: 04.22.2015 - 1:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Knapp Motorsports 22. joebev910 posted: 04.22.2015 - 1:33 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Arizona Diamondbacks fortiford 23. FortiFord posted: 06.11.2015 - 8:03 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Billy Boat's first IRL start 24. FortiFord posted: 09.12.2015 - 3:54 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew #1 Scott Sharp (Owner: A. J. Foyt, Sponsor: Conseco, G/A/G) #18 John Paul, Jr. (Owner: Paul Diatlovich, Sponsor: Klipsch/Overhead Door, D/A/G) 25. FortiFord posted: 11.14.2015 - 6:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Best IRL finish for Paul Durant. 26. FortiFord posted: 11.28.2015 - 5:08 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Withdrew: #? Johnny O'Connell 27. CHAD posted: 05.02.2016 - 6:22 pm Rate this comment: (1) (5) I TELL YOU WHAT THAT OL USAC SANCTIONING BODY COULDNT SANCTION A JACKRABBIT STEALING A BOWL OF CORNMEAL THAT BOY ARIE DIDNT DESERVE THAT WIN REAL RACIN IS RACIN TO THE FLAG NOT THAT HELTER SKELTER DROP THE GREEN AND YELLOW AT THE SAME TIME NONESENSE 28. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 08.31.2016 - 12:48 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) First Indy 500 starts for Jeff Ward, Billy Boat, Tyce Carlson, Dr. Jack Miller, Billy Roe, Greg Ray, Kenny Brack, and Sam Schmidt. Only Indy 500 starts for Robbie Groff, Steve Kinser, Vincenzo Sospiri, Claude Bourbonnais, and Affonso Giaffone. Last Indy 500 starts for Fermin Velez, Dennis Vitolo, Paul Durant, and Alessandro Zampedri. 29. jensenators posted: 12.14.2017 - 11:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I always found it ironic that because of a court ruling 35 cars started the race, but 5 didn't make it 1 lap, so really only 30 started. 30. RaceFanX posted: 05.16.2019 - 10:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Arie Luyendyk's win here was his second in the Indianapolis 500. The Flying Dutchman became the only driver to win it as both a CART/USAC race and is an IRL one in the process. Luyendyk was the only former winner to side with the IRL in the split and it paid off with a second bottle of milk in victory lane. 31. Unser1 posted: 05.23.2019 - 11:09 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Dennis Vitolo's son gave him a good luck charm to have in his #54 during this race, a little toy of Looney Tunes character Wile E. Coyote. It must have had some luck as Vitolo's second 500 went much better than his first one infamously did in 1994. 32. RaceFanX posted: 05.23.2019 - 11:26 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the first Indy 500 where the IRL ran its own equipment, compared to 1996 where all the teams ran cars that were close to being CART racers or were surplus from that series. As such it marked the Indy 500 debut of the Dallara chassis that would come to exclusively dominate the race in future years along with the alternate G-Force chassis. The change also saw the arrival of non-turbocharged Oldsmobile Aurora and Nissan Infiniti engines...and a 20-per-hour drop in speeds. The race began on Monday after the first rainout but there was little chance to build up much momentum before the rains moved in for the first time, minus the final pace lap crash that wiped out Stephan Gregoire, Affonso Giaffone, and Kenny Brack's cars. Brack's first 500 was over before it began but at least his Gallas Racing team had won the pit stop challenge during the lead up to the race. When the green flag first flew Tony Stewart jumped out in front with polesitter Arie Luyendyk second early on before the rain moved in. The 500 would have to be run on a Tuesday for the first time since 1961. 33. RaceFanX posted: 05.23.2019 - 11:51 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) When the race restarted on Tuesday it was again Tony Stewart and Arie Luyendyk up front but visiting NASCAR racer Robby Gordon was fast and coming hard. In the opening laps after the restart Gordon had manuevered the Coors Light #42 up to third place and had just passed Luyendyk for second when he suddenly pulled off the track in Turn 3 due to his infamous race-ending fire. He suffered third degree burns in the incident. Steve Kinser got up into the top-10 early on but the King of the Outlaws rear ended Eliseo Salazar under the Gordon caution and fell back. With Gordon gone the race fast became the youth vs. experience battle everyone wanted with sophomore Stewart facing former winner Luyendyk in a showdown of the IRL's two biggest names. Their shootout up front got so intense Smoke drove the Flying Dutchman right down to the track to the point Luyendyk got two tires in the grass but he stayed on the throttle and #5 stayed under control. Arie eventually won the fight and pulled away to a five-second lead. In the second half of the race Indy rookie Jeff Ward used pit strategy to take the lead as Stewart's Menards entry started to have an push issue and fell back. The motocross iconic led 49 laps late in the race but had to pit with just seven laps to go handling the lead to the Treadway Racing pair of Scott Goodyear and Luyendyk. Luyendyk blew past his teammate on the outside to set himself up for a second 500 win. Arie later noted he felt bad passing Goodyear, remembering the controversy that cost Scott the win in 1995, but said that this is Indy and you have to do whatever you can to win. With two laps to go the caution waved after Tony Stewart caught the wall off turn 4, seemingly ending the race under yellow. Stewart would still limp home fifth to claim his best finish in the Indianapolis 500 among his five starts in the race, despite the incident this was the only year during his tenure with Menard as a series regular that his car held together and allowed him to finish the 500. As noted earlier while the race should have ended under caution things quickly turned to pure chaos when the race suddenly went green without warning for the last lap despite the caution laps still being on. Luyendyk took no chances and mashed the gas while Goodyear had to wait a moment trying to figure out if he could race and pass him before going. Luyendyk zoomed around for the win with Goodyear making it a Treadway 1-2 under circumstances that were more controversial than they needed to be. ABC put up some race radio during the last lap with someone (Goodyear? Arie?) clearly stating "What the f**k are they doing" as the situation played out. The last lap chaos strained the relationship between the IRL and USAC a tad. What no one knew at the time was that this would be the penultimate race where they worked together. A scoring error in that next race at Texas that saw the wrong car flagged as the winner would led to the sanctioning bodies going their separate ways for good. 34. SweetRich posted: 02.26.2020 - 12:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Paul Page, Bobby Unser, Danny Sullivan And Tom Sneva. The Pit Road Reporters Were Jerry Punch, Jack Arute And Gary Gerould. 35. 23andJoe posted: 05.25.2020 - 3:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Additional DC: Johnny O'Connell in the #1 (order was Sharp injured > replaced by O'Connell > O'Connell injured > replaced by Durant) 36. Aldo posted: 06.05.2020 - 4:18 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This seemed to be an IndyLight race. Very poor and slow starting field. The sound of engines was awful for openwheelers. 37. danny posted: 08.23.2020 - 5:50 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Takmuma Sato now the oldest Indy 500 winner since this race in 1997 I said 1993 and Emo I was wrong I forgot 1997. But I got the first two time indy winner since 2015 part right and first indy 500 to end under yellow since 2013. I wonder when a driver in the 30 car won at indy most recent until today. 38. Rich posted: 12.23.2020 - 6:38 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Along with being the play by play announcer, Paul Page was the studio host. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: