1998 Indianapolis 500 (FULL, COMPLETE RACE) 

Why did the crash get called “fill in the blank” ?

@@robminmonaca probably because they have no fucking idea who crashed because they are no names

@@robminmonaca Because the third car that crashed landed right in the middle of where the other two was. If you watched the replay at the timestamp that I linked, you would see that.

I remember this crash very well, and am surprised it has been so under-analyzed. The most telling looks come at 1:59:43, 2:00:13, and 2:02:19 -- especially the slow-motion replays from that angle. The big issue for me, which no one seems to talk about, is how the orange car on the left (Davey Hamilton) pinches down hard on the yellow car of Sam Schmidt on the right as they approach turn one. There is no room left for Schmidt and soon he has his left front tire on the grass. He then spins out and the melee ensues. I find it remarkable that the announcers never once mentioned Hamilton's role in their breakdown of the incident. I also still don't fully understand why Jim Guthrie just flew in quite late and practically T-boned the wall at full speed. I realize that he ran directly into Schmidt's wing debris, but still -- no apparent attempt either to turn or slow down. Very easily could have died.

@@pnutbutrncrackers I rewrote the accident for a fanfiction in 1999, with the difference that I put on the crash Paul Tracy, Dennis Vitolo, "the wreckers" Jim Guthrie and Sam Schmidt... And Tony Kanaan took debris like Guthrie in the real accident... But at maximum speed and... Kanaan ended up like Gordon Smiley. At last Italian treble: Sospiri, Zanardi, Papis, then Cheever and Davey Hamilton. I put in also Gregg Moore: short of fuel while he could win. Wrote it in October 1999...

Nathan de Rover Kind of gods why of saying to IMS and Tony George that those cars were not worth being at the museum and that it should have been the real INDYCARs with CART chassis and engine.

Dover wasn't the next race. Texas was.

@@robminmonaca What a load of crap so typical of a CART bootlicker. You're talking about the same kind of car Greg Moore later died in, right?

@@robminmonaca These were real INDYCARs. CART was nothing more than a glorified version of Formula 1.

Amen to that. It's so nauseating to see CART bootlickers like Rob Mush (who weren't even alive during all this) spouting the hate propaganda that tries to push the false canard that there was something illegitimate about this era of Indy 500 history.

@@epaddon Rob Mush spews his IRL hate on anything Indy related on RU-vid. He doesn't really understand the dynamics of the split.

Add to those important names Roberto Guerrero, probably one of the nicest guys in the paddock who deserved so much better luck through the years at Indy

@@andresgutierrez8383 You're so right, Andres. Sorry about missing Roberto Guerrero -- a driver I always liked. Still remember his super-cool DayGlo orange racing car! (1987?)

@@andresgutierrez8383 Met Roberto at Watkins Glen 3 years ago. One of the nicest men I've ever met. He was busy working as an instructor but still took the time to talk to me and he wouldn't leave until he found something to autograph!

MetalMastodon Tony should have kept some kind of turbo charged engines at the beginning of the IRL.

MetalMastodon he alienated the loyal Midwest INDYCAR base. However CART around this time was still getting big crowds but CART made dumb moves as well. However Tony George did most of the damage. All the IRL did was help NASCAR get huge at that time . Now that the IRL is history and now NASCAR is hurting big time. Tony was listening to much AJ Foyt and got what he wanted from the IRL. He hated Penske and other CART drivers and owners but now I read he retreats doing what he did in the 90s.

MetalMastodon at least both sides have learned the hard way what the split caused. Now INDYCAR has a chance to gain now with NASCAR just going into major decline. Hard to believe that it’s been ten years and finally now the series is starting to make gains.

It was that shitty pop off valve that gave everyone trouble they had to make the switch to naturally aspirated for a while

They were loud but complex and powerful. Like the Cadillacs and Auroras ahead of their time for the 90s they all aluminum don’t like heat. Larry Curry wasn’t happy that day.

The racing Gods hate you 😅 no one likes a sniveler

paul page's reply of...okay. is priceless. like...what the hell do i say to that?

Baby turned out to be a lizard

@@SwineBrothers still a great line from both and Paul Page is like wtf did i just hear

@@cool3865 paul described tom as scary to work with, you never knew what he was going to say.

When did he say this? (if you dont' mind, generally)

Electone_Guy the intro was very sad and Paul had to truly sell the Indy 500 in the IRL era with weak no name fields compared to the early to mid 1990s with all those strong CART drivers.

Been looking at some of these guys now on Wikipedia ( ones that have a page) and they basically dropped out of Indycar once the competition came back in a few years.

Ego got in the way didn't it? Tony Jr. invented racing....

its still hurts what they did the Indy 500 but its on its way back Cart had the best drivers and the fans started to stay away and its been over 20 years and the road has been hard!

dominick virgilio the 25/8 rule was the starting point.

@@robminmonaca right.

Great damn racing in those years. I never missed a year and besides the politics I thoroughly enjoyed those years, and the fresh irl package as well, only wish Infiniti could have been more competitive. The fact that it was more blue collar than ever before was enjoyable for me as well

This was a true golden age. The ONLY Indy 500 post-2000 I would ever look at again is 2016. The rest have all been boring and irrelevant from my standpoint.

hahhahahahahahahaha a good point!

Not helped by the fact that Jim (no relation to Janet) Guthrie''s car number wasn't easy to spot based on the color scheme.

Paul Page was always very careful to get things right rather than say the wrong name.

johnnystir in a way I’m glad he stayed neutral and really didn’t say he opinions during the split and did races for both CART and IRL .

@@johnnystir9796 Paul Page is the best.

IRL's obsession with American drivers seems bizarre in the extreme to the outsider. It's a race, the best will win no matter the nationality. If you're not winning, you're not good enough, so Americans just needed to try harder and up their game, not take their bat and ball and make an entire new series just for them. IRL was one of the worst things to happen to Motorsport, period.

@@cdname47 as much as i agree, i think i can explain it. for several decades, the tradition in america was oval racing and american drivers. when road courses started to creep in, europeans took another look at indycar racing. it's a national pride thing. americans want to root for other americans, much as brits want to root for the british guys in f1. personally i've never cared, i've always valued talent over nationality.

He was trying to get Jeff Gordon to join AOWR. NASCAR was booming and a lot of the USAC dirt track drivers were going to there instead of Indy car so Tony George tried to make it as close to the good old days in the 50s and 60s. However he spend so much of his personal family money and fortune on the IRL and it was the Indy 500 that kept the IRL running and don’t forget about the NASCAR race that came around the same time he created the IRL in the mid 90s. Their was some crazy times in AOWR racing in the 90s. However CART wasn’t perfect but made stupid decisions.

Brum Racing the IRL made it worse and had horrible marketing while CART still had the better promotion teams. At Kmart I remember Michael Andretti ads in 2000 at the local Kmarts were I lived.

Joe Joe - Some people just need to let go of the past... The 500 has been back to greatness for at least the past 15 years. Of course that’s all opinion, as is the opposing view... It’s true. The series and race went through a rough patch there for about 5 or 6 years. But as someone who’s been to every 500 since 2002, that old time magic is palpable again for all but the most bitter nostalgic holdouts.

John Barnett well all of the causal fans went to NASCAR and saw that leadership as constant and good. Were as INDYCAR/IRL/IMS/CART leadership wasn’t good at all and this period was what IMS thought there were giving America real INDY drivers and teams. They never really liked CART. USAC was Married to IMS from 1956-1997 and they really hated CART but let them in for them to make money for the track but hated a lot of the owners and Penske thinking they could make the rules. Tony George should have been the mediator instead of playing the homer. The split was a prefect storm of money,power and greed. Now NASCAR seems to be having some of the problems that INDYCAR had in the 90s.

What do you have against Dr Jack Miller, you anti-dentite! He's a racing legend!

@@danschreffler1280 One of those great short track racers who deserved a chance at Indy🙄

After watching the start of US500'96, please no. No. Maybe Greg Moore would be still alive.

@@danschreffler1280 Its amazing how some fans point out IRL's worst drivers, but never mention Juan Fangio II, Gualter Sales, Arnd Meier, Denis Vitolo, Hiro Matsushita, Fredrik Ekblom, Paul Jasper, Charlie Nearburg, Hideshi Matsuda, Luiz Garcia Jr., Naoki Hattori, Jason Bright, Takuya Kurosawa, Michael Krumm .... the CART superstars!

@@kg0173 Most CART drivers were not competitive in that series because only two-three teams ever had a realistic chance of winning. If you didn't drive for Penske, Newman-Haas or Galles, then you had almost no chance of winning. The IRL had much more parity. You didn't know who was going to win each race. No team dominated the series. I have never understood why more racing fans didn't support the original IRL. What is so exciting about watching a race when you almost know beforehand who's going to win? CART had become about as exciting as professional wrestling. And now, today's IRL is CART II and apart from the 500, it's just a predictable.

What a legend....lmao

they remind me of formula 500 motors, just a lot higher...gonna say that was shit too?

MetalMastodon TONY wanted and only cared about the NASCAR fanbase and money. Tony should have had have kind of turbo engine in the IRL. I know the IRL was about cost cutting but they were not making any money and were only funded by the Revenue from the NASCAR Brickyard 400. Now the INDY 500 has to be bringing in so much more revenue with the increasing attendance. The Brickyard 400 has to be not making any money now and only from sponsors and not ticket sales now with the horrible crowds at the NASCAR race at Indy in recent years.

MetalMastodon but the thing is that fans got tired of the IRL and attendance was dropping from close to 400 to 500,000 to only just like 250,000 and while it wasn’t an Armageddon to the race it wasn’t the same draw as it was with the CART teams and drivers. Tony just did all of this at the wrong time in the mid 90s along with CART.

MetalMastodon wow that’s crazy but not surprising because it’s NASCAR. Back then prices were crazy and still more for like hotels and food. No wonder why NASCAR is were there at in terms of fans because of the price gouging. I have never been to a race Because i live outside Pittsburgh and the biggest closest track is Pocono but its like a 4 hour drive and with the way NASCAR is going I will never go to a NASCAR race.

you might be, you might even be a nascar fan

i like nascar, and i agree cart cars sound better for this series, but...i don't know, i like the growl

Apparently you refer to AJ as violent and crazy. I don't think I have ever heard anybody who knows him well call him that. You should not be so quick to judge a great and complex man.

Adam Alexander...Todd Harris...Jim Lampley...Marty Reid...Vince Welch...

For a couple years they were basically cup cars it sounded like lol

Killian Ryan I wonder how many complained to Tony George for those years and he changed the rules for the 2000 season to make them sound more like indycar’s. I wish Tony George would have make an apology for the way he changed rhe Indy 500 for the worst than better as he intended but even with the complaints CART at IMS was better without a 25/8 rule and more open rules but years before then they tired to give an advantage to the smaller teams like menard with boosts but then Penske saw it and took advantage of it and then IMS and the USAC guys got pissed off so much to get Tony George to change to formula to benefit them.

And open wheel almost dies.

Especially the Gen 7 sounding almost exactly like this

@@robertmusgrave9236 the Mernard engines were originally the “Buick” engines from the mid to late 80s. Brayton and his dad made them. Those engines were always suspect. Sure, you could take a “Menard” engine and make Pole, but it was never going to last. Find me a Menard/Buick engine that finished the 500 and I’ll buy you a round…

I wonder how they convinced ABC and Disney to want to give them money when the IRL was a massive business failure.

Can't beat the Delta Force opening music.

victango84 Goes to show that they made the wrong moves but don’t tell that to Tony George and IMS at the time. Just now the sport is in decent shape and in the right direction. NASCAR seems to be just like INDYCAR was in the late 90s in total decline.

some of them were name drivers in thier own respective series these were REAL grassroot racers who got a chance not drivers who bought thier seat.

Pssst. Good at piling in and out of the george family clown car. As sad as it is to see ABC go for tradition's sake, at least we won't have to hear about Cheever's "win" anymore. Must have chapped Goodyear hearing that all those times in the booth after what happened to him in '92 and '95.

MetalMastodon I say the last ones with Paul page in like 2003 or 2004 were ok. Then when they brought Todd Harris in ABC coverage of INDY went in a free fall and always sucked.

@@robminmonaca Lets be honest, NASCAR is nowhere near as interesting to watch as Indycar. I am surprised it became as popular as it did... although they did have some really good drivers. I just cant handle THAT amount of oval racing. Indycar had it all.

I remember my grandpa saying "If I wanted hear non-turbocharged engines I'd just watch NASCAR."

They were hideous and they sounded every bit as bad too. Slower cars, worse drivers... IRL was a complete waste of time. CART was still amazing during this time there was no reason to try and create a second league, especially at a time when NASCAR was growing in popularity. Purely created out of one man's overblown ego and greed.

@@foskco87 his concept made sense (it took WAAYYY more money to operate a CART team then it did a nascar team in that era and was pricing out american drivers) but the execution from both sides was poor for the first few years.

CMartin6688 it seemed that emotion was more important than compromising to keep Indycar together. Tony George was only in his 30s then and thought he was young and saving Indycar my trying to bring it back to its “roots”. CART was just as emotional when they still had the best drivers in the late 90s but couldn’t be at Indy due to the politics of the leadership of both organizations.

I was JUST about to say that when I saw this at 37:20. But look how successful Sam is now!! So much more positivity has happened since that accident and I think he would agree! :)

indyracingnut Also, it should be pointed out that his father was also paralyzed in a ATV accident when Sam was a child, which was the reason why his parents forced him to go to college to get a degree to get a 'real job'. (Kinda like what happened with John Andretti, but without the near-fatal accident part, but I digress.) Kinda like a cruel version of the term, "Like Father, Like Son", no? 😞😭

His accident at Texas was so tragic.

Sam's career ending accident was not at TMS, but Walt Disney World Speedway.

Remember no driver was killed in first or secong gen IRL cars (1997-2002). Much better than losing Greg Moore and others forever. But safety was improving.

Swine Brothers he should of win 2 Indy 500s and most of the races he was in.

James Gentry However from the Tony George power play and crap he made NASCAR get huge and why Tony Stewart left the mess that INDYCAR was turning into from the owners and from Tony George.

Dear Mr. Mush. Tony Stewart would NEVER have raced at Indy but for the IRL. That is the point that never seems to register in your brain because you've convinced yourself that CART never did anything wrong and was perfect.

Accurate lmao

Reverend Rasheem Stewart hey at least he left the no money IRL to become a NASCAR legend.

No, It Doesn't!😂🤓😎

He NEVER would have gotten to race ONCE at Indy under CART. That is the point you keep missing in your endeavor to kiss CART's butt on all things.

andradesilva Yeah Cart cars could go up around 220- 240 mph. These 1998 indycars could only top out at 220.

There was no comparison really... worse looking, worse sounding, slower cars, crappier drivers. CART was in a whole other league during the rest of the 90's. Its too bad CART didnt try and race those 8 remaining spots in the Indy 500 in 96 because they probably would have made a mockery out of IRL and it could have possibly put a stop to the IRL right from the get-go

So what? The average fan frankly doesn't give a damn about that kind of thing. Were we supposed to watch cars get more and more fast to the point where no one could see them? Were we supposed to think of speed first instead of competition? We could also add safety, since CART was the circuit in this period that was killing more drivers than ever (Jeff Krosnoff, Gonzalo Marquez, Greg Moore) and then wanted to run unsafe cars at Texas in 2001. The more I read this kind of whining from CART crybabies the more I see what Tony George was dealing with and why the split happened.

David I think Penske now realizes that he made a major mistake with having the US 500 and probably should have been at Indy in 1996 to get back into the Indy 500 after getting bumped in 1995. Their was nothing wrong with bumping and Tony George screwed that tradition up with the 25/8 rule. Their was rumors Penske was wanting a similar one but those have been dead since he bought IMS and Indycar and stepped down as head of his long time racing team.

@@robminmonaca Buddy Lazier was a true champion. Which is more than one can say of Jimmy Vasser. (and if Roger made mistakes, maybe you should have a dream about punching him in the nose?)

Nawnya Businaz yet in 1997 they were to be the future of Indycar racing.

Everyone hates George, but you have to look at it from the GEORGE/HULMAN family perspective - They own the Speedway and it is the Crown Jewel of all motor sports, and the reason cars are called "INDY" cars... Why let another organization run your business? CART was out of control with money and the gap was widening. It was becoming an F1 in America where only a couple of teams matter. The races weren't that good... Look where we are now. Indycar is the best racing on the planet now... Yes the early days were rough on the fans, but it was worth it.

AMEN! I wish "Rob Mush" would be forced to spend in real time the YEARS I spent with increased irritation in the late 80s through 1994 watching races and finding once again it was always going to be Penske or Newman-Haas and maybe one other elite team vying for a race win. Up through 92 at least I could still cheer for the old guard veterans of the 60s-70s who were still around but once they were gone and I saw the horror show that was 1994, that was when I knew this whole sport was suffering from rot underneath and CART was never going to address those problems. Tony George I think had the right idea and unfortunately his bad execution in a couple key areas is what's left him stigmatized, but I blame CART for making Indy racing boring and the 500 increasingly irrelevant (capped by Fiitipaldi pushing away the milk in 93 and the boring snooze-fest that was 1994).

@@doolindanger2459 Unfortunately, today's IRL is just another CART; three teams win almost every race and it's become too expensive for young drivers to find a ride. TG brought parity back to racing. And the thing I hated about CART were all the street races. Those are so boring. Those cars are meant to go 200mph like they do on ovals. But street courses are too narrow to allow much passing and because of all the hairpin turns, they can't go very fast. Tony George didn't "screw up" open-wheel racing. Roger Penske did. And this year's Indy 500 just proved that.

@@epaddon For most of its history, CART was a three-pony horse race. By the early 90s, three teams dominated the series. Sure, other teams would win races occasionally but in general, the races had become too predictable. I always ask fans who blame George for "ruining" open-wheel racing, what was so great about CART? Did you like watching races when you know who was going to win? Since you mentioned 1994, that year, Team Penske won 12 of 16 races. CART had become boring to watch. It had become as exciting as watching Formula 1. It's a shame more fans didn't support Tony George's vision. And unfortunately, today's IRL has become another CART. I hardly watch it anymore.

you mention 2 gm brands, forgetting that most of these motors were oldsmobiles, a gm brand

that's not the problem, the difference was these were stock block motors

they changed the crankshaft in 2000 in order to make them more high pitched

Dr coloso and without Tony George’s help and money as well he gave a lot the those teams in 1996 money just for a spot at the 1996 Indy 500 to create the 25/8 rule.

Ermm... 😬

But it’s the INDY 500 horrible how that only the history is what kept people still involved with the IRL years 1996-99 to want to still race at indy. All Tony George did was try to make it a “Pay to Play” scheme.

There was a team called PDM, Poor Dumb Mechanics. That should tell you all about this era. And the cars sounded bad

@@andrewwinslow9315 I just love this sound. Raw 4.0 NA engines. PDM actually was a good team that survived longer than others. What team did Johnny Herbert attempt to qualify for Indy 500? PDM?

He won the indycar championship in 1997

Tony George should have helped him stay in INDYCAR then but he thought he was the only show at IMS and really didn’t seem to care that much to keep him full time. NASCAR got really huge because of Tony George crap in 1996.

MetalMastodon that is we’re Tony George really screwed up. Jeff Gordon also was big looking into NDYCAR as well. Unfortunately he couldn’t get a seat with a CART team in the early 90s and went to NASCAR when the split took place and was on his way of becoming a NASCAR legend and growing that sport leaps and bounds ahead of CART and IRL. In the end Tony George only seemed to be helping NASCAR than his grandfathers INDYCAR sport.

@@robminmonaca right and i fuking hate nascar Tony George open the door for nascar and took full advantage but the tables are turnig back to Indy cars! Tony Stewart only went to nascar for the money he's a true open wheel guy by heart a throw back to the a.j. foyt era!

dominick virgilio I hope he can get to run at the Indy 500 one more time. However Tony George’s actions helped NASCAR even more than what Tony thought would stop Indycar drivers going to NASCAR in their booming days. However Tony’s complaint was that the USAC and small guys were getting ignored by CART for F1 like talents while IMS thought having USAC midget dirt drivers was an automatic spot at Indy like it was in the 50s and 60s. IMS and CART never liked each other. Tony George thought he could make all kind of money of the IRL. However he used the NASCAR Brickyard 400 to bankroll his IRL and making it look like it was going to have success while it never got of the ground and nearly destroyed all the the Indy 500 legacy.

Agree.

Agreed... dumbest thing they ever did was change that sound... good thing they changed it 2 years later during 2000 season...

Nobody shit on the Indy 500. The Indy 500 made every driver in cart ! See where Cart is now. Dissolved !

No turbos on the new IRL Kit Car. They put turbos back on to makes fans happy who didn’t like open wheel NASCAR 😂 If you don’t know Indy 500 history look it up. IRL was evolving in the late 90s. There were tons of changes as war waged on between the IRL Kit Car Series and CART (Championship Auto Race Teams). The Indy 500 was IRL’s ace card that killed CART

@@freedom6919741 where's Tony George? CART dissolved but the team owners and to this day some drivers saved what was left of open wheel racing.

@@Mario_Ramirez really ? You can’t be serious. They all came back to the 500. Cart drivers didn’t save anything and that’s a fact.

geds7 you can thank Tony George for that.