1997 Indy 500 win bittersweet for Luyendyk

Arie Luyendyk came to a realization on the way to becoming a two-time Indy 500 winner in May of 1997.

Just 12 months prior, the Dutch speed king set the fastest qualifying laps ever recorded at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but once those wickedly fast CART cars were replaced by the Indy Racing League's new chassis and engine formula, Luyendyk could sense his competitive flame was starting to flicker.

With his first Indy 500 win coming in 1990, adding a second was a crowning achievement for the aging star – at least numerically. Most Indy winners love to spin yarns about their victories, and while Luyendyk has fond memories of No. 1, the unloved cars and low-tech nature of the 1997 Dallaras and GForces and their production-based Oldsmobile and Infiniti engines has left lukewarm feelings about No. 2.

"I won that race with a car that was good, I don't think it was great," he said of the No. 5 Treadway Racing GForce-Olds. "I don't think anybody had a great car. I just think the concept was created with the new chassis with the G-Force and the Dallaras, with the massive gearbox in the back hanging out there. And the heavy engines, the Oldsmobiles, the Infinitis ... the weight that was hanging off the back of the car was such a mess. The back end always had that little uneasiness to it. And every day getting in that car was just a little bit nerve-racking."

Although Luyendyk earned the distinction of becoming the first driver to win Indy with the new IRL cars, the numerous crashes, concussions and broken bones suffered leading up to and through May 1997 had the 43-year-old questioning his role as a full-time driver in the all-oval series.

"You see that happen – guy hits the wall and there's another guy with a head injury," he recalled. "Or guys with skull fractures. What happened to Davy Jones ... I'm thinking, man, I'm too old for this because there is too much that could go wrong. Anyway, what stood out for me in that race was how did we manage to get through the whole month and qualifying and the race without hitting the wall?

"To me, that was like, 'Wow, that is amazing that we did that.' Yeah, it was definitely not easy. Running that 218 to get the pole was so much harder than running the 237 the year before. There was not even a comparison. What stands out with me is that the car was just difficult."

Spread across three rain-filled attempts to complete the 81st running of the Indy 500, the Sunday May 25 race was pushed to Monday, and with more rain falling, the May 26 race was red flagged after 15 laps. Lighter skies made it possible to resume and finish the race on Tuesday the 27th, and set in front of a relatively small crowd, Luyendyk, emerging start Tony Stewart and motorcycle legend Jeff Ward led most of the remaining 185 laps.

In spite of the stop/start nature of the 1997 race, its winner says he was unfazed by the three attempts to reach the checkered flag.

"It [was] easy; I always found this amazing about Indianapolis and actually running there," he said. "So, you would run on Monday, Tuesday practice. And then Wednesday it would rain, Thursday it would rain. I always, as far as self-coaching myself, I would always rule out the weather is going to affect me or another delay is going to affect me, because I know when I get in the car I will just do it right away again. So, at any given time of day, I can get in the car and just do it."

Luyendyk’s comfort, as he reveals, extended only to minor delays.

“I was just really nervous about the fact that they might run it on the following weekend,” he said. “I didn’t want to wait that long to get back in the car. So I was really happy when they decided after the couple of laps we did on Monday to finish the race on Tuesday.”

Scott Goodyear, his Treadway teammate (pictured above), would complete a 1-2 for the team at Indy. As Luyendyk admits, with the Canadian holding the lead going into the final restart with eight laps to go, the need to pass the famed 1992 Indy 500 runner-up came with mixed feelings.

“As far as when I passed him at restart, I had this… one side of my brain said, I feel pretty bad that I am passing him; the other side said to me I’ve got to make it stick,” he admitted.

“Of course, I wanted the win but it felt a little bit bad about the fact that it was my teammate. And it was him. But that is racing, you go for it and you want to win. And in the end, of course, I was happy that I won. I was lucky that on that restart at the end the whole field didn’t just gobble me up because I had no idea it was going to go green.”

Dreadful officiating by USAC, the IRL’s original sanctioning body, created havoc during the series’ inaugural season. The aforementioned final restart, which was waved green by the starter, created confusion due to the yellow caution lights being left on leading to the restart. Surprised by the waving green flag, drivers then navigated most of the 2.5-mile oval during the restart and found the yellow lights were still on...

“[The] real mess-up by USAC was to just throw the green when it was unannounced,” he said of the one-lap sprint to the finish line. “We all thought we were going to finish on the yellow. And I’m in the wrong gear and I’m thinking, oh boy, everybody is going to come around me. But nobody came. I’m like great, everybody got caught out.”

The new IRL cars might not have warmed Luyendyk’s heart, but the enormity of winning Indy a second time could not be ignored.

“Well, by then I was an experienced Indy 500 competitor so I knew a lot better what to say in Victory Lane than the first time,” he said. “I was one of the old guys, so to me, the elation wasn’t like 1990. I mean, inner elation, because obviously, I didn’t show it in 1990. But I was really happy to finally win the second 500.”

Luyendyk would return for one more season with Treadway before stepping away from full-time driving. He’d go on to make three more Indy 500 starts, adding another pole in 1999 along the way, and bid farewell to the track that made him famous after finishing 14th in 2002.

“I think all racecar drivers are a little bit nuts, and I’m certainly one of them,” said the driver-turned-IndyCar race official. “You would think that I should’ve just retired then [at Indy in 1997], that would’ve been the perfect timing.

“But then the team had sponsorship from Sprint PCS and from Radio Shack and we all these sponsors for 1998, so Treadway pleaded with me to stay on board, and that is what I did. And then 1998 was a miserable year. We won the last race of the year and that is when I decided I should hang it up.”

Listen to the full podcast below with Luyendyk; his reflections on the 1997 race start at the 45min mark.