Report
Pre-Race
Less than a month after the season opener at New Hampshire, the Indy Racing League was set to cut the ribbon of the new Las Vegas Motor Speedway, even though some amenities and facilities within the track were still under construction. In the meantime, Michel Jourdain Jr. raced in the last two Indy Car events of the year at Vancouver and Laguna Seca, sharing the grid in the latter with Richie Hearn. Tony Stewart took part in all three of the NASCAR Busch Series held between the IRL events, and John Paul Jr. had successful outings in IMSA GT, with a win at Mosport and a third place in a street course at Dallas.
In the meantime, the League secured the addition of another new venue, the Texas Motor Speedway. The 500-kilometre race, to be held on June 7, 1997, was announced as the first round of the planned 1997–98 season, despite being scheduled just two weeks after the Indianapolis 500.[4] Before the announcement Team Menard held a private test at Atlanta Motor Speedway, another track owned by Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports, which fueled speculations about a future IRL round. Tony Stewart's fastest lap was reportedly in the 213 mph range.[5]
The entry list was unveiled on September 4, with 26 drivers listed. Treadway Racing added a two-year-old car for Johnny O'Connell, who skipped the New Hampshire race after losing his ride with Byrd-Cunningham Racing. Dave Steele, having failed to pass his rookie test before the New Hampshire round, and Juan Carlos Carbonell, who also failed at New Hampshire but got to pass his test on an August 25 test at Phoenix, were entered again by ABF Motorsports and Tempero–Giuffre Racing, while Johnny Parsons and Michel Jourdain Jr. were back in their regular Team Blueprint Racing and Team Scandia rides after missing the previous round. IndyCar team Walker Racing entered a car without a driver assignment, and Lyn St. James also filled an entry without a car assigned. It would not be found in time for the race weekend, eventually forcing her to withdraw.[6] One week before the race, Della Penna Motorsports announced it would leave the IRL in 1997 to complete its expected full-time move to the IndyCar World Series, with Richie Hearn as a driver.[7]
Practice and qualifying
More entries were filled on race week for total of 29 drivers, a new record for a non-Indy 500 IRL race. On September 11, Walker confirmed that Robby Gordon would drive with the team at Las Vegas, this being his last race with the team as he was bound to NASCAR for 1997. Gordon had ended a lacklustre IndyCar season the week prior, but was considered by the media as the marquee name of the event.[8] Scandia also entered another car, to be run as a second centry by the Arizona Motorsports crew, for Brazilian rookie Affonso Giaffone, who had finished third in the 1995 Indy Lights season. Despite being absent from the first entry list, Tyce Carlson and Brad Murphey were confirmed to retain their drives at PDM Racing and Hemelgarn Racing.[9] Like Carbonell and Steele, Giaffone was required to pass the USAC rookie test, along with Stan Wattles, who had not run in a superspeedway-type event during a race weekend.[10]
The track was deemed to be even more dirty than in June testing as practice opened.[10] Buddy Lazier led the Friday morning practice with a 221.766 mph lap, followed by Richie Hearn and Eliseo Salazar.[11] In the afternoon practice, Lazier finished third and was the first driver to beat Richie Hearn's unofficial lap record from testing.[10] Neither of them got even close to Arie Luyendyk, who led the proceedings with an impressive lap of 229.768 mph, leading Mark Dismore by almost 5 mph.[12] Luyendyk remained as the pace-setter on Saturday morning practice with a lap of 226.757 mph, faster than anyone else by 2 mph.[13] Roberto Guerrero finished second ahead of Mike Groff, but he crashed in Turn 2 one hour into the session. Guerrero was testing Pagan's backup car, a Reynard 94I that offered less drag and was being prepared to qualify before the crash. With the session nearing its end, Dave Steele also crashed between Turns 1 and 2. He had been allowed to qualify despite topping at 202 mph, but his Lola T92 was too damaged and ABF Motorsports lacked a back-up car, which forced them to withdraw from the event.[14]
In qualifying, championship leader Scott Sharp was the first driver to go over 220 mph with a 222.322 mph lap, being edged first by Mike Groff first and then by Robby Gordon. Tony Stewart had mechanical issues on Friday afternoon and had finished 12th in all practice sessions, but Team Menard found enough speed to put Stewart on the provisional pole with a 224.225 mph lap. However, it would not be a match for Arie Luyendyk, as the Dutch was the only driver to lap under 24 seconds with two laps in 226 mph, and scored his third career pole position with a best lap of 226.491 mph. Stewart qualified second, with Gordon and Lazier making up the second row. Davey Hamilton and Groff qualified in a career-best fifth and sixth place, in front of Sharp.[15]
Among the newcomers, Affonso Giaffone qualified in 23rd place and Juan Carlos Carbonell was last with a very slow lap of 181.208 mph, six seconds off Luyendyk's time. During practice, Carbonell had not turned a lap above 194 mph. Michele Alboreto was restricted to an 18th place with pop-off valve issues; Michel Jourdain Jr., tenth fastest in morning practice, qualified in 22nd place after he waved off his first lap and lost a cylinder, and Eddie Cheever suffered an engine failure just before taking the green flag, which left him in 27th place.[14]
That morning, Galles Racing announced it would field a team in the Indy Racing League in 1997 with Davy Jones, who finished second at the Indy 500 and had taken the place of Eddie Lawson a few months earlier, as their driver. Also, three-time Tour de France winner Greg LeMond announced he would start a career in open-wheel racing in Indy Lights, although he later decided to race in the lower U.S. F2000 Championship instead. During a Shelby Pro Series support race, held before the last IRL practice session, a 49-year-old retired Las Vegas police officer named R.C. "Rod" Mathis suffered multiple injuries in a crash at Turn 4, at 3:20 p.m.[14] He was airlifted to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, where he was pronounced dead at 10:49 p.m., becoming the first fatality at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.[16]
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Meaning
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Rookie (in 1996)
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Season rookie
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Past winner
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Failed to qualify or withdrew
Race
An estimated crowd of 67.132 spectators made it to the yet unfinished Las Vegas Motor Speedway for its first big race, despite long traffic jams that continued throughout the race. Windy conditions during the afternoon played havoc with the track, blowing sand onto the outside line.[17] Arie Luyendyk kept the lead at the start, as Tony Stewart conceded second place with Robby Gordon in Turn 3. Electrical issues left Davey Hamilton immediately out of contention, and John Paul Jr. took advantage of some drivers checking up, jumping from 12th to 6th. He would later pass Mike Groff for fifth. Gordon began to reel in Luyendyk, but the lapped cars of Juan Carlos Carbonell and Brad Murphey allowed Stewart to retake second place on Lap 8. In the next lap, Johnny Parsons suffered an engine failure while running 19th. He failed to keep the control of the car and spun on his own oil, crashing in Turn 4.[16] This was the last start of his Indy car career, which harkened all the way back to 1969.
After a long cleanup, the green flag was shown on Lap 19. Stewart's crew were unaware of the restart, which costed Stewart three spots to Gordon, Buddy Lazier and Paul Jr. Shortly after, Lazier's pace faded, dropping places with an unspecified issue that eventually left him out of the race. Michel Jourdain Jr., who had gone from 22nd to 14th at the end of Lap 2, entered the top 10, with the Mexican being eighth by Lap 28. With traffic as a factor, Gordon caught Luyendyk and both drivers passed one another from Lap 26 to 28. After Gordon took the lead for the second time, Eddie Cheever, running in 18th place, was rammed from behind by Brad Murphey, who was a lap down in 26th place, and both made hard contact with the wall. Stéphan Grégoire, running 21st at the time, hit a loose tire and tried to get past between the two destroyed cars while they were still moving, but crashed with the back end of Cheever's car. Murphey had to be extricated from his car and airlifted to University Medical Center with a broken right thighbone, pelvis and hip. He underwent various surgeries and, although he recovered successfully, he would never race again in the IRL.[18][19]
During the caution, John Paul Jr. served a pit stop from third, and Tony Stewart did so a few laps later as a precautionary measure, removing a punctured tire in the process. At the restart, Gordon and Luyendyk pulled away from Mike Groff, while Roberto Guerrero dropped from fourth in the order with handling issues. On Lap 55, while running in 16th place, Tyce Carlson collided with the lapped car of Carbonell, in 22nd place at the time, and crashed in Turn 2, coming to rest on the sandy surface alongside the backstraight. All of the front runners who had not yet pitted made their first pit stop on the ensuing caution, conceding the lead to John Paul Jr. over Tony Stewart. Mark Dismore had also stopped in the previous caution, and was now in fourth place between Gordon and Luyendyk. Richie Hearn gained positions over Groff and Scott Sharp, and battled with Luyendyk for fifth place after the race went back to green, both closing on Gordon and Dismore afterwards. Michel Jourdain Jr. followed suit, passing Groff and Sharp on track.
Stewart followed Paul Jr. closely in the following laps, but he was unable to make a pass. On Lap 78, just as Luyendyk was passing Dismore for fourth, Stewart's car suddenly snapped on Turn 2, crashing sideways. He suffered a broken left collarbone and neck ligament damage, being transported to University Medical Center by ambulance.[18] With Paul and Dismore pitting during the caution, Gordon retook the lead over Luyendyk and Richie Hearn. After repelling a pass by Jourdain, Hearn became the new race leader by passing Luyendyk on Lap 93 and Gordon on Lap 100 with identical moves in the exit of Turn 4. Gordon was saving fuel, and Luyendyk took advantage two laps later. During these laps, John Paul Jr. suffered a wheel bearing failure and retired while running in seventh place, and Mike Groff had to do a green flag pit stop on Lap 104.
On Lap 107, Luyendyk caused the fifth caution of the day after crashing in Turn 1 due to another wheel bearing failure. There were six cars on the lead lap, among them Michele Alboreto in third after passing Jourdain and Sharp in the pit stops, and Johnny O'Connell in sixth place. Jourdain and Sharp would engage in battle when the race resumed, with Sharp as the early victor. On Lap 125, Stan Wattles suffered a left-rear puncture and crashed in Turn 4. He was not injured, but lost consciousness and had to be slowly extricated from his car.[16] During this caution period, ABC signed off their TV broadcast in the East Coast, as the slow, caution-filled pace had consumed the allotted TV window with around 68 laps to go. Due to scheduling conflicts, the race couldn't be moved to ESPN, and only a few selected moments of the remaining laps were aired on late-night news. As of 2023, the West Coast version of the broadcast has not surfaced.[20]
During this caution, Alboreto encountered a problem in his car on Lap 138 and had to pit, losing three laps as the race went back to green a lap later. Mark Dismore was the best driver not on the lead lap in sixth place when he had the seventh crash of the day on Lap 151, being removed in a stretcher with pelvis and left hip socket fractures.[18] The order at the top remained unchanged in the subsequent pit stops, but Gordon regained the lead over Hearn at the restart on Lap 161, just before a brief caution period for debris. Hearn went back to the lead on Lap 169, and Sharp could not join the fight as he had a wheel bearing failure on that same lap. Gordon remained within 1.5 seconds of Hearn when, ten laps later, he suffered the fourth wheel bearing failure of the day and retired from the race.
The high attrition had promoted Johnny O'Connell to third, until he crashed in Turn 4 with 15 laps left due to a mechanical failure. His car went upside down on the right side, and the race was red-flagged, only for O'Connell to climb out of the car before the medical car arrived.[16] After a 20-minute stoppage, the race was restarted for its final 15 laps. With just two cars on the lead lap, only Michel Jourdain Jr. was in position to fight for the win, but Richie Hearn had a great restart and maintained a small gap until the end. His IRL farewell brought Hearn the only Indy car win of his career, as well as his last podium finish. For Jourdain, it would be his lone Indy car podium until the 2001 Michigan 500, and his best result until the 2003 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, as well as his last IRL race during the Split. Coincidentally, both drivers had competed in selected CART races that season, having partaken in the IRL as a stepping stone for a full-time switch in 1997.
Mike Groff took the lead of the championship with his podium finish, and Roberto Guerrero overcame his handling issues to finish fourth in front of Michele Alboreto and Buzz Calkins, who had finished all IRL races outside the Indy 500 in the top 6 like Groff did. Calkins wsd tied for second in the standings with Alboreto, who also left the League for 1997. Affonso Giaffone managed to finish his first IRL race in the Top 10. Juan Carlos Carbonell saw its only IRL start ended early by a black flag on Lap 147 for spraying oil on the track, while running 35 laps down on the leaders for his early contact with Tyce Carlson.[16]
