1997 True Value 500

  1996–1997 Texas

Race details
6th Round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League season.
Date	June 7, 1997
Official name	True Value 500
Location	Texas Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.500 / 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
Driver	Tony Stewart	Team Menard
Time	32.310 (1 lap + pit stop)
Fastest Lap
Driver	Tony Stewart	Team Menard
Time	24.760 (on lap 97 of 208)
Podium
First	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing
Second	Billy Boat	A. J. Foyt Enterprises
Third	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. Tony Stewart won the pole. Stewart was scored as the leader in the waning laps, and appeared to have nearly a one-lap lead over second place Billy Boat. Stewart was looking for his first career Indy car win, and the first win for Team Menard in Indy car racing. However, as Stewart crossed the line for two laps to go, he blew his engine. The car spun in turn 1, and he crashed into the outside wall. Billy Boat caught up, and appeared to take the lead. Race officials presented the checkered flag to Billy Boat as winner of the race, but Arie Luyendyk stormed to victory lane claiming he had won the race. Boat's owner A.J. Foyt slapped Luyendyk and told him to leave. The race tape was reviewed and it was determined that laps where Luyendyk, and in fact some other drivers, passed through pit road were not properly counted by the scoring system. Officially Luyendyk was declared the winner the following day. The entire top ten was shuffled about when the final official results were posted. Foyt, however refused to return the trophy and retains the original to this day. A duplicate was awarded to Luyendyk.

In the wake of the Texas scoring scandal, and the restart problems two weeks earlier at Indianapolis, USAC was immediately removed from sanctioning the series. The league switched to in-house sanctioning starting with the next event.

References