Texas Motor Speedway
Texas
The first IndyCar race at Texas Motor Speedway ended with the wrong man in victory lane and a fistfight to sort it out.
In 1997, the new speedway in Fort Worth held its first IndyCar race, and the scoring went wrong. Billy Boat was flagged the winner. Arie Luyendyk believed the count was off by a lap and that the win was his. While Boat and his team owner A. J. Foyt celebrated, Luyendyk walked into victory lane and demanded officials explain the scoring. Foyt slapped him on the back of the head and pushed him to the ground. Security pulled the two apart. The next day, after officials rechecked the scoring, the victory was handed to Luyendyk. That was the second stumble of the track's first season. Two months earlier, its opening NASCAR race had drawn rain, cancelled qualifying, soaked grass parking lots, driver complaints about the surface, and a pileup on the first lap.
This is the first of 3 parts. The rest runs about 3 minutes and is read to you as you drive past. Hear the whole piece.
Foyt proceeded to slap Luyendyk on the back of the head and pushed him to the ground before being separated by security. Luyendyk was given the victory the next day after a scoring recheck.
Written from Wikipedia, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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