1998 True Value 500

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1998 Texas I

Race details
4th round of the 1998 Indy Racing League season
Date	June 6, 1998
Official name	True Value 500
Location	Texas Motor Speedway
Course	Permanent racing facility 1.500 mi / 2.414 km
Distance	208 laps 312.000 mi / 502.115 km
Pole position
Driver	Tony Stewart (Team Menard)
Time	24.059
Fastest lap
Driver	Tony Stewart (Team Menard)
Time	22.972 (on lap 86 of 208)
Podium
First	Billy Boat (A. J. Foyt Enterprises)
Second	Greg Ray (Knapp Motorsports)
Third	Kenny Bräck (A. J. Foyt Enterprises)

The 1998 True Value 500 was the fourth round of the 1998 Indy Racing League season. The race was held on June 6, 1998, at the 1.500 mi (2.414 km) Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas.

Report

Key	Meaning
R	Rookie
W	Past winner

Qualifying

Two laps qualifying. The worst lap from any of the drivers were not published, and therefore are unknown. Rain delayed qualifying from Thursday to Friday.

Pos	No.	Name	Lap	Best (in mph)
1	1	Tony Stewart	24.059	224.448
2	11	Billy Boat	24.156	223.547
3	3	Robbie Buhl	24.204	223.104
4	5	Arie Luyendyk W	24.416	221.166
5	16	Marco Greco	24.575	219.736
6	28	Mark Dismore	24.590	219.601
7	4	Scott Goodyear	24.605	219.468
8	21	Roberto Guerrero	24.625	219.289
9	8	Scott Sharp	24.684	218.765
10	12	Buzz Calkins	24.713	218.508
11	14	Kenny Bräck	24.731	218.349
12	10	John Paul Jr.	24.735	218.314
13	35	Jeff Ward	24.823	217.540
14	97	Greg Ray	24.853	217.278
15	6	Davey Hamilton	24.886	216.989
16	77	Stéphan Grégoire	24.929	216.615
17	98	Donnie Beechler R	24.944	216.485
18	15	Eliseo Salazar	24.952	216.416
19	30	Raul Boesel	25.087	215.251
20	51	Eddie Cheever	25.118	214.985
21	40	Jack Miller	25.136	214.831
22	44	J. J. Yeley R	25.138	214.814
23	91	Buddy Lazier	25.181	214.447
24	99	Sam Schmidt	25.211	214.192
25	27	Billy Roe	25.222	214.099
26	19	Stan Wattles	25.325	213.228
27	52	Robby Unser R	25.363	212.909
28	81	Tyce Carlson	25.473	211.989

Failed to qualify or withdrew

• Johnny Unser for Hemelgarn Racing - subbed for Buddy Lazier, who suffered from a stomach illness, in practice sessions on Thursday and was named to qualify the car before it was delayed.
• Jimmy Kite for Team Scandia - The team scaled back its IRL program after Indianapolis to concentrate on NASCAR, and withdrew from the event, along with his #33 entry, initially assigned to Billy Roe.
• Mike Groff for Byrd-Cunningham Racing - fired prior to the start of practice and replaced by John Paul Jr., who was due to drive for Team Pelfrey.
• Steve Kinser R for Team Pelfrey - initially named as a replacement for Paul, Jr, he withdrew prior to the start of practice. Replaced by Tyce Carlson, who was due to drive for Immke Racing.
• Jack Hewitt R for PDM Racing - did not arrive at the track.
• Paul Durant for Cobb Racing - did not arrive at the track.
• Joe Gosek R for Liberty Racing - did not arrive at the track.
• The #20 Immke Racing entry was withdrawn after Carlson signed with Team Pelfrey prior to the start of practice.
• The #17 Chitwood Motorsports entry, which was vacant on the entry list, did not arrive at the track.

Race

The race was the first IRL event run on the newly reconfigured Texas track, which had undergone changes to the corner banking (eliminating the 8-degree portions, originally intended for Indy events) and the transitions out of the corners, plus a complete repaving and drainage work. The new configuration proved to be extremely fast; Tony Stewart broke the IRL new car qualifying record, and ran laps as fast as 228 MPH during the race, believed to be the fastest laps ever turned on a closed course by a car with a normally aspirated engine.

The start was confusing, as Sam Schmidt did not come up to speed due to an electronics problem and Billy Roe spun through the quad-oval grass at the green flag. This was cleaned up, but only a few green flag laps were registered until Roberto Guerrero spun in front of the pack coming out of turn 2. Rookie Donnie Beechler ran hard into the back of Stéphan Grégoire's car, causing a six-car accident that eliminated Eddie Cheever (fresh off of his Indy 500 victory). Beechler ended sliding upside down the length of the back stretch. No one was hurt. Stewart had to pit for a cut tire after running through debris, handing the lead to Arie Luyendyk. The Dutch lead briefly after the green before being overhauled by Boat on lap 22, while Stewart worked his way up from the rear.

By lap 34, when a caution flew for Eliseo Salazar's blown engine, Luyendyk took a gamble by not pitting, but backfired when he had to pit under green on lap 59 and lost two laps. Mark Dismore had something in the rear of the car break on lap 72 which put him hard into the turn 1 wall, suffering a concussion. Under the subsequent caution, Stewart had to make an extra pit stop for a suspected tire problem and went to the rear again. On the restart, Scott Goodyear got the jump on Boat and took the lead; the two then battled until Boat retook the lead five laps later. By halfway, Boat, Stewart, and Greg Ray were running nose-to-tail and attempting slingshots.

As a caution flew on lap 144, Boat banged wheels with J. J. Yeley. The contact left a large "doughnut" on Boat's left sidepod, but he continued with no apparent problems. Stewart jumped Boat on the restart, while Ray, Goodyear, Jeff Ward and Kenny Bräck diced for third. Unfortunately for Ward, his race ended four laps later with engine failure. Stewart had his left sidepod radiator rupture streaked down the front stretch on lap 177, spewing water all over it. His crew tried to replace the faulty radiator in the pits but they ran out of time.

Boat then begin to stretch out his lead over Ray, but on lap 196 he got caught in traffic and Ray begin to close the gap. On lap 200, the Texas native caught Boat and then made a move through the grass in the quad-oval (reminiscent of Buddy Lazier at Charlotte the previous year); as they went down the back stretch Ray split the lapped car of Buzz Calkins and swept into the lead. But on the next lap, Boat used the slingshot to retake it; Ray tried for the next six laps but could not overcome Boat's superior engine, and Billy Boat took his first IRL win. For the top three (Boat, Ray, and Bräck), it was their best IRL career finishes up to that point. Scott Sharp ran a quiet race to finish fifth and move into a tie with Stewart in the points standings. One year after apparently winning at Texas, only to have the win taken away after a scoring recount, Billy Boat won it again, and this time he got to keep the trophy.

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	11	Billy Boat	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	208	2:08:45.543	2	108	54
2	97	Greg Ray	Knapp Motorsports	208	+ 0.928 sec	14	1	40
3	14	Kenny Bräck	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	208	Running	11	0	35
4	4	Scott Goodyear	Panther Racing	208	Running	7	11	32
5	8	Scott Sharp	Kelley Racing	208	Running	9	0	30
6	3	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	207	+ 1 lap	3	0	29
7	6	Davey Hamilton	Nienhouse Motorsports	207	+ 1 lap	15	0	26
8	16	Marco Greco	Phoenix Racing	205	+ 3 laps	5	0	24
9	52	Robby Unser R	Team Cheever	204	+ 4 laps	27	0	22
10	19	Stan Wattles	Metro Racing Systems	198	+ 10 laps	26	0	20
11	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	194	Wheel bearing	23	0	19
12	81	Tyce Carlson	Team Pelfrey	191	+ 17 laps	28	0	18
13	5	Arie Luyendyk W	Treadway Racing	178	+ 30 laps	4	29	17
14	1	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	176	Radiator tank	1	57	19
15	12	Buzz Calkins	Bradley Motorsports	172	+ 36 laps	10	0	15
16	10	John Paul Jr.	Byrd-Cunningham Racing	169	+ 39 laps	12	0	14
17	35	Jeff Ward	ISM Racing	165	Engine	13	2	13
18	99	Sam Schmidt	LP Racing	163	+ 45 laps	24	0	12
19	44	J. J. Yeley R	Sinden Racing	162	+ 46 laps	22	0	11
20	27	Billy Roe	Blueprint Racing	108	+ 100 laps	25	0	10
21	28	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing	70	Accident	6	0	9
22	40	Jack Miller	Crest Racing-SRS	38	Engine	21	0	8
23	15	Eliseo Salazar	Riley & Scott Cars	32	Engine	18	0	7
24	21	Roberto Guerrero	Pagan Racing	4	Accident	8	0	6
25	77	Stéphan Grégoire	Chastain Motorsports	4	Accident	16	0	5
26	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	4	Accident	20	0	4
27	98	Donnie Beechler R	Cahill Auto Racing	4	Accident	17	0	3
28	30	Raul Boesel	McCormack Motorsports	4	Accident	19	0	2

Race Statistics

• Lead changes: 21 among 6 drivers

Standings after the race