1997 Indianapolis 500

The 81st Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana, on May 25–27, 1997. The race was scheduled for Sunday May 25, but was postponed until Monday May 26 due to rain. Rain then halted the race after only fifteen laps had been completed. On Tuesday, May 27, the race was resumed and run to completion. Arie Luyendyk won the race from the pole position, his second of two Indy victories. Treadway Racing, in only their second season of competition, finished 1st–2nd with Luyendyk and Scott Goodyear, the first team to sweep the top two finishing positions at Indianapolis since Leader Cards in 1962.

It was the second Indianapolis 500 held as part of the USAC-sanctioned Indy Racing League, and was part of the 1996–97 Indy Racing League season. It marked the introduction of a production-based, normally aspirated engine formula that reduced speeds from the previous year, and of a new chassis design that was noticeably different mechanically and visually.

A controversy during qualifying saw two bumped cars re-added to the starting field after the time trials. The starting grid consisted of 35 cars, up from the traditional 33. It was the first time 1979, and only the second time since 1933 that more than 33 cars made up the field. However, only 29 cars took the green flag after two failed to start due to mechanical problems, and three others were eliminated in a crash during the pace lap.

With two laps to go in the race, Luyendyk led with Goodyear running second. A caution came out on the 199th lap after Tony Stewart brushed the turn four wall. The pace car did not come out to pack up the field. Drivers and crews expected the race would finish under the caution. Without warning, the green and white flag was displayed at the starter's stand on the final lap, signifying the track was back to racing conditions. None of the cars in the field were prepared for the restart, and yellow lights around the course remained illuminated for many seconds afterwards. Luyendyk held on to win, but the officials' handling of the situation drew criticism. This incident, followed by a scoring snafu two weeks later at Texas, led the IRL to oust USAC as sanctioning body in favor of in-house officiating.

The win marked the milestone 50th Indianapolis 500 victory for Firestone tires. It was Luyendyk's second Indy victory, after 1990. Luyendyk became the first driver since A. J. Foyt to win the race with both a turbocharged and a normally aspirated engine. It was Scott Goodyear's second runner-up finish (1992) at Indy, and the third time he narrowly lost the race in the closing stages.

The 1997 race was the last to use the three-week/four-weekend, 23-day month-of-May schedule established in the mid-1970s. Practice started on Saturday, 22 days before the race. It was also the last to use the traditional four days of time trials, along with the original four-day qualifying format that dated to 1952.

A few days before the race, a fire swept through the storage hangar housing the floats for the 500 Festival Parade, slated for May 24 in downtown Indianapolis. Only four floats were spared; Buddy Lazier's 1996 winning car escaped the fire only because the museum had decided to wait a few days before delivering it to the float staging area. The parade went on as scheduled, but in a slightly retooled format.

The 1997 race featured new engines and new cars under changes to Indy Racing League rules intended to cut costs, lower speeds, and bring the racing cars closer together.