The 82nd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 24, 1998. This was the third Indianapolis 500 run as part of the Indy Racing League, but the first fully-sanctioned by the IRL after they relied on USAC to sanction the 1996 and 1997 races. The race was part of the 1998 Pep Boys Indy Racing League season.
Eddie Cheever, a former Formula One driver who had competed in Indy car racing since 1990, highlighted his racing career with this lone Indianapolis win. Cheever finished three seconds ahead of second place Buddy Lazier, the 1996 winner. Cheever became the first owner/driver to win the "500" since A. J. Foyt in 1977. During time trials, Billy Boat secured the first pole position at Indy for the Foyt team since 1975. The race is remembered for a chaotic pileup in turn three, which collected six cars and injured Jim Guthrie. Tony Stewart, in his third "500", and last such with Team Menard, blew an engine just after taking the lead on lap 21, and finished last (33rd).
This was the first Indianapolis victory for the Dallara chassis. In the second year utilizing the 4.0 L, normally aspirated, 32-valve production-based engines (Aurora L47 and Infiniti VH), qualifying speeds climbed, topping out nearly six miles per hour faster than 1997. The 1998 race ushered in a compacted, two-week schedule for the Indy 500, omitting an entire week of practice, and trimming qualifying from four days down to two. A morning shower delayed the start of the race by just over a half hour, but the race was run to completion without further interruption.
Schedule For 1998, the schedule for the month of May was trimmed down, in an effort to reduce costs. An experimental "two-week" schedule was utilized, consisting of one week of practice, and two days of time trials. Previously two full weeks of practice was used, along with four days (two weekends) of time trials. A four-day open test was scheduled in April which also included rookie orientation. Race schedule — April, 1998SunMonTueWedThuFriSat12 13 14ROP15ROP16Open Test17Open Test18 Race schedule — May, 1998 1 2Mini-Marathon 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10Opening Day11Practice12Practice13Practice14Practice15Practice16Pole Day17Bump Day18 19 20 21Carb Day22 23Parade24Indy 50025Memorial Day26 27 28 29 30 31 Color Notes Green Practice Dark Blue Time trials Silver Race day Red Rained out* Blank No track activity * Includes days where trackactivity was significantlylimited due to rain
ROP — denotes RookieOrientation Program
Background
Continuing split from CART The ongoing IRL/CART split continued into its third year. The two series began moving further apart, and for the second time, no major teams from the CART ranks entered at Indianapolis. CART teams raced on Saturday at the Motorola 300.
Rule changes After controversy in 1997, the "25/8 Rule", which locked in entries to the starting field based on championship points standings, was scrapped for 1998. The 33-car field would revert to the traditional 33 fastest qualifiers. During qualifying, once the field is filled to 33, cars that subsequently bump their way into the field on the second day of time trials (Bump Day) will at that moment be (tentatively) slotted in the 33rd starting position, regardless of their overall speed rank on the second day. Previously cars that bumped their way into the field lined up based on speed rank of the day they qualified. The change was made to encourage more cars qualifying on pole day. As a result, the field was lined up the order of: first day (pole day) qualifiers, followed by second day qualifiers (those that qualified before the field was filled to 33), followed by cars that bumped their way into the field on the second day. A new rule change for 1998 allowed cars to return to the garage area to make repairs and subsequently re-enter the race. Previously, all repairs (whether major or minor) had to be done in the pit area only. Prior to 1998, any car that crossed the entrance to Gasoline Alley was ruled out of the race, regardless of its condition. Likewise, any stalled car towed back to the garage area through escape roads in the infield (instead of around the circuit itself) was ruled out of the race, even if the issue was something as harmless as running out of fuel (that aspect of the rule was the source of controversy in the 1972 race with Jim Hurtubise). The repair rule change was made at the request of teams, which considered it a safety measure, as well as a fair way to allow more cars to finish the race. Pit crew members working for extended periods of time on the actual pit lane felt exposed to injuries/accidents from other cars entering and exiting the pits literally inches away. It also allowed them access to necessary tools and allowed them to make major repairs. This new rule was similar in practice to the policy that NASCAR had, where cars were allowed to "go behind the wall" to make repairs and re-enter the competition. A limit was enforced, however, such that no car could make repairs and re-enter the race after the leaders completed 190 laps.
Entry list The first entry list was published on April 14. The 34 cars that had run in any of the first two rounds of 1998 were entered, including the #27 Blueprint Racing entry, initially unassigned after Robbie Groff failed to complete a racing lap. The car was initially scheduled to be run by Cary Faas at the Rookie Orientation Program, but the test never happened. RSM Marko also failed to undertake his scheduled Rookie Orientation Program test with driver Dave Steele, and the team would not appear afterwards, while Team Coulson Racing never appointed a driver for the #41 car.
Earlier in the month, D. B. Mann Motorsports had named Dan Drinan in the #24 car driven by Billy Roe at Orlando. Two cars had driver changes before the start of practice due to budgetary issues: Chitwood Motorsports signed Andy Michner in the #17 car the day before ROP in place of Brian Tyler, both passing their tests with the team, and PDM Racing replaced John Paul Jr. on May 5 with rookie Jack Hewitt, who had passed all but one of his rookie test phases in Jack Miller's Sinden Racing entry on April. Finally, Blueprint announced during Opening Day that the #27 seat would go to second-year driver Claude Bourbonnais.
Before the start of practice, eight further car/driver combinations were registered, pushing the total to 40 competitors. Team Scandia announced the signing of Billy Roe for a second car in late March, both Robby Unser and Steve Knapp were announced for additional entries by Team Cheever and ISM Racing on April 9, and Donnie Beechler was confirmed a day later for a new team, Cahill Auto Racing. At the release of the entry list, Lyn St. James confirmed her programme as a driver/owner, while LP Racing entered a second car for Scott Harrington. In the final week leading to practice, Joe Gosek was signed by new outfit Liberty Racing, and veteran Danny Ongais received a call-up before Opening Day to drive for yet another new team, Pelfrey, which had been denied a request to field Shawn Bayliff due to a lack of experience.
DriverTeamChassisEngineTires1 Tony StewartTeam MenardDallaraOldsmobileFirestone3 Robbie BuhlTeam MenardDallaraOldsmobileFirestone4 Scott GoodyearPanther RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear5 Arie Luyendyk Treadway RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone6 Davey HamiltonNienhouse MotorsportsG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear7 Jimmy Kite Team ScandiaDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear8 Scott SharpKelley RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear9 Johnny UnserHemelgarn RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear10 Mike GroffByrd-Cunningham RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone11 Billy BoatA. J. Foyt EnterprisesDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear12 Buzz CalkinsBradley MotorsportsG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear14 Kenny BräckA. J. Foyt EnterprisesDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear15 Eliseo SalazarRiley & Scott CarsRiley & ScottOldsmobileGoodyear16 Marco GrecoPhoenix RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone17 Andy Michner Chitwood MotorsportsDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear18 Jack Hewitt PDM RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear19 Stan Wattles Metro Racing SystemsRiley & ScottOldsmobileGoodyear20 Tyce CarlsonImmke RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear21 Roberto GuerreroPagan RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear22 (absent)RSM MarkoDallaraOldsmobileFirestone23 Paul DurantCBR Cobb RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear24 Dan Drinan D. B. Mann MotorsportsDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear27 Claude BourbonnaisBlueprint RacingDallaraOldsmobileFirestone28 Mark DismoreKelley RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear29 Joe GosekLiberty RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone30 Raul BoeselMcCormack MotorsportsG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear33 Billy RoeTeam ScandiaDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear35 Jeff WardISM RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear40 Jack MillerSinden Racing ServicesDallaraInfinitiFirestone41 (absent)Team Coulson RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone44 J. J. Yeley Sinden Racing ServicesDallaraOldsmobileFirestone51 Eddie CheeverTeam CheeverDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear52 Robby Unser Team CheeverDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear53 Jim GuthrieISM RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear54 Hideshi MatsudaBeck MotorsportsDallaraInfinitiFirestone55 Steve Knapp ISM RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear66 Scott HarringtonLP RacingDallaraOldsmobileFirestone68 (absent)CBR Cobb RacingG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear77 Stéphan GrégoireChastain MotorsportsG-ForceOldsmobileGoodyear81 John Paul Jr.Team PelfreyDallaraOldsmobileFirestone90 Lyn St. JamesLyn St. James RacingG-ForceInfinitiGoodyear91 Buddy Lazier Hemelgarn RacingDallaraOldsmobileGoodyear97 Greg RayKnapp MotorsportsDallaraOldsmobileFirestone98 Donnie Beechler Cahill Auto RacingG-ForceOldsmobileFirestone99 Sam SchmidtLP RacingDallaraOldsmobileFirestone Former winner Indy 500 Rookie
Entered on May 11. Brian Tyler took laps in the spare car on Bump Day while Groff hadn't qualified yet for the race. Switched to the #19 spare car on Bump Day after being bumped from the field. The car was entered without a driver, and never took part in practice. Entered on May 14. Jaques Lazier was entered, but claimed he didn't have a program in place, and neither he or the car took part in practice. Entered on May 14. Danny Ongais, the entry's original driver, was injured in a crash on May 11.
Practice
Sunday May 10 Opening day saw Mike Groff take the honor of "first car on the track." Crashes during the day were suffered by Jack Hewitt and Jimmy Kite, neither were serious. Robbie Buhl was the fastest car of the day, at 219.325 mph.
Monday May 11 Tony Stewart led the speed chart, with a lap of 223.703 mph. It was the fastest lap since the normally aspirated engine formula was adopted in 1997. Eight drivers in total broke the 200 mph barrier.
Danny Ongais suffered the most serious crash thus far for the month, and was sidelined with a concussion. He would never race an IndyCar/Champ Car again. Arie Luyendyk, Mike Groff, Raul Boesel and Tony Stewart all suffered mechanical problems, and required tows back to the garage area.
Off the track, Eddie Cheever announced a sponsorship deal with Rachel's Gourmet Potato Chips.
Tuesday May 12 Tony Stewart nearly matched his speed from a day before, with a fast lap of 223.691 mph. Second best Kenny Bräck was a full 2 mph slower at 221.593 mph.
Sunny skies, with temperatures in the 70s greeted the Speedway for the third day in a row.
Wednesday May 13 Moisture from an overnight shower delayed the start of practice for about a half-hour. Billy Boat took the honors for fastest of the day at 221.691 mph, while Tony Stewart sat out the day. Temperatures topped out at 80 degrees late in the day.
Thursday May 14 Jimmy Kite suffered his second wall contact of the week, backing the car into the wall in turn 4. Another warm, 83 degree afternoon saw Tony Stewart once again on top of the speed chart (223.430 mph).
"Fast" Friday May 15