The NTT IndyCar Series and the state of Texas have a long and storied history which dates back 75 years and has included stops in Arlington, College Station and Austin.
Since 1997, IndyCar has called the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth home, a partnership that is now the third-longest in the series behind the Indianapolis 500 and the Grand Prix of Long Beach. The series returns to TMS this weekend for the PPG 375, as the season resumes after a four-week break since the 2023 season opener in St. Pete.
More than any other track, TMS truly represents the evolution of IndyCar since the mid-1990s. Its first race in June 1997 was held just over a year after the CART/IRL split and featured a 26-car field made up of a collective of young drivers like future NASCAR Cup champion Tony Stewart, drivers who likely would never have reached the top level of American open-wheel racing without the IRL, and old CART holdovers like Arie Luyendyk and Scott Goodyear.
In a crazy scene that was a harbinger of things to come at TMS, the race win was awarded to Billy Boat and saw a shoving match between Luyendyk and A.J. Foyt in Victory Lane, with the Dutchman claiming he was the winner of the race. Luyendyk appealed and was declared the winner after a review proved he had completed one more lap than the rest of the field.
With the IRL embracing a low horsepower/high downforce package, races at TMS were often high stakes Texas shootouts, with pack racing leading to plenty of thrilling racing and memorable finishes, and also plenty of danger.
On more than one occasion, the dark side of the sport also reared its ugly head, with several drivers took trips to the hospital as the result of injuries sustained from crashes on the high-banked, 1.5-mile oval.
Davey Hamilton suffered a huge, career-altering crash in 2001, and in 2003, 1999 Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack went up into the catch fence at the end of the back straightaway, suffering severe injuries that all but ended his career. Brack’s impact was measured at 214g’s, making it one of the biggest impacts in IndyCar history.
While the pack racing mentality…
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