The 1997 VisionAire 500 was the eighth round of the 1996–1997 Indy Racing League. The race was held on July 26, 1997, at the

Charlotte Motor Speedway Charlotte Motor Speedway (known as Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009 due to sponsorship reasons) is a quad-oval Oval track racing#Intermediate, intermediate speedway in Concord, North Carolina. It has hosted various major races since it ...

Concord, North Carolina Concord ( ) is the most populous city in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 105,240 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Concord is the second-most populous city in the Cha ...

, US. The event was the first Indy Racing League event to be held at Charlotte.

Qualifying Results

# Failed to qualify after breaking a cam sensor in practice, but was allowed to start the race at the back of the field.

Failed to qualify or withdrew

* Buzz Calkins for

Bradley Motorsports Bradley Motorsports was a racing team in the Indy Racing League owned by Colorado convenience store owner Brad Calkins. His son, Buzz Calkins, drove the bright red cars shod in the livery of Bradley Food Marts, Brad Calkins' company. Bradley won th ...

- suffered a concussion during testing on July 8 at

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

and was unable to compete. * Robbie Buhl for Team Menard - entered for the race, but was still recovering from a concussion suffered during testing on June 4. * Jeff Ward R for Team Cheever - withdrew prior to the start of practice.

Race Report

Buddy Lazier beat rookie Billy Boat to take his second IRL victory in the first-ever Indy car race at this long-time stock-car racing venue. The race was dominated by

Tony Stewart Anthony Wayne Stewart (born May 20, 1971), nicknamed "Smoke", is an American semi-retired professional auto racing driver, and former NASCAR team co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing. He currently competes in the NHRA Top Fuel class. He is a four-t ...

at the beginning, but his car developed handling problems after pitting during a caution period on lap 75 and was out of contention thereafter. Lazier stayed out during the caution and assumed the lead, but had to make a green-flag stop on lap 93 and fell a lap down. Mark Dismore moved up steadily through the field but blew an engine at full speed going down the front stretch on lap 99; he spun the car harmlessly into the infield in turn 1. Boat, Roberto Guerrero and Jimmy Kite (in only his second IRL start) swapped the lead until Guerrero touched wheels with points leader

Davey Hamilton David Jay "Davey" Hamilton (born June 13, 1962, in Nampa, Idaho) is a race car driver who competed in the Indy Racing League IndyCar Series and Stadium Super Trucks. He has made 56 series starts and while never winning a race, finished second thr ...

in turn 2 and both cars spun into the wall. Neither driver was hurt, but his resulting 16th-place finish cost Hamilton the points lead. Lazier unlapped himself on the subsequent caution and joined the duel with Boat and Kite; the latter's race ended when his car pushed up into the wall exiting turn 4. After the caution, Lazier took the lead and tried to pull away from Boat, but got caught behind Scott Goodyear who was trying to stay on the lead lap. While Lazier made several high-risk pass attempts (including two runs through the grass in the quad-oval), Boat caught him and briefly assumed the lead, but then Goodyear conceded and Lazier moved back in front for the final 11 laps. In the last few laps,

Kenny Bräck Per Cenny "Kenny" Bräck (born 21 March 1966) is a Swedish former race car driver. Until his retirement from racing, he competed in the Champ Car, CART, Indy Racing League and the IROC series. He won the 1998 Indy Racing League championship and t ...

and Eddie Cheever staged a furious duel for fifth as they picked through traffic, with Bräck coming out on top.

Race Results

Box Score

Race Statistics

*Lead changes: 13 among 6 drivers

Standings after the race

;Drivers' Championship standings * Note: Only the top five positions are included for the standings.

Broadcasting

Television

Although the event was run on July 26, the race was not broadcast live. Instead,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

carried it on a one-day tape delay as part of its sports anthology series, which was known at the time as '' The CBS Sports Show''. Mike Joy was the lap-by-lap commentator.

Scott Sharp Scott Sharp (born February 14, 1968) is an American professional racing driver in the United SportsCar Championship. He is the son of six-time SCCA champion Bob Sharp. Sharp is best known for his years as a competitor in the Indy Racing Leagu ...

, who at the time was nursing injuries that were preventing him from driving, was the driver analyst in the booth. Brian Hammons and Mike King reported from the pits. 1997 IRL Visionaire 500k at Charlotte (Full Race)
/ref>

References

External links

IndyCar official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:VisionAire 500, 1997 1996–97 in IndyCar 1997 in sports in North Carolina