1999 Vegas.com 500

Weather conditions towards the start of the race were dry and muggy; air temperatures were at 98 °F (37 °C) and track temperatures were recorded as high as 132 °F (56 °C).^[20][21] Approximately 32,000 people attended the event.^[2] Singer Serena Henry performed the national anthem and judge William D. Jansen commanded the drivers to start their engines. The race began at 11:42 AM PDT (UTC−07:00) with Vegas.com president Danny Greenspun waving the green flag.^[20] In the United States, it was broadcast live on television by ESPN2, with Bob Jenkins and Arie Luyendyk serving as commentators and Jack Arute and Vince Welch taking the roles of pit reporters.^[1] Hamilton was required to fall to the rear of the field during the pace laps for resorting to a backup car prior to the race.^[20]

On the first lap, Dismore accelerated faster than Schmidt and briefly took the lead before the first caution flag of the race was flown for Beechler spinning in turn two.^[20] As Schmidt took back the lead at the end of the lap,^[2] Hamilton spun into the third-turn wall and collided with Grégoire.^[22] Beechler relayed to his team that he suspected oil was spilled on the track and drove into pit road for tires and fuel under the caution period. Dismore led the field back up to speed at the restart on lap 6. Bräck made a failed attempt to pass Schmidt for second place in turn one. Johnny Unser spun in turn four two laps later because of his cold tires, bringing out the second caution. Green-flag racing continued on the ninth lap, with Dismore leading ahead of Schmidt and Bräck. Schmidt caught on to Dismore's slipstream and charged past him in turn one on lap 13 to take the lead. By this lap, Hamilton improved to 16th, while Cheever climbed to third by the 17th lap.^[20] One lap later, the third caution was necessitated when Ribbs spun and made heavy contact with the wall in the fourth turn, with flames briefly shooting from his car upon impact.^[22] During the caution, McGehee made a pit stop to clean any debris he sustained from Ribbs' accident. Beechler's team made adjustments to his car to alleviate the understeer he had been experiencing.^[20]

Racing resumed on the 27th lap.^[2] Dismore drove to Schmidt's left-hand side in turn four to take the lead on lap 28. The two drivers raced alongside each other before Cheever took the second position from Schmidt on the 29th lap and overtook Dismore for the lead two laps later. Schmidt, meanwhile, fell to sixth place as the drivers passing him took air away from the nose of his car, although he managed to get by Goodyear for fifth on the 33rd lap. Ward made a stop six laps later as he believed one of his tires was flattening. Robby Unser took second place from Bräck on lap 41, only for Unser to lose second and third to Bräck and Schmidt, respectively, by the 45th lap. Buddy Lazier struggled with handling and dove into pit road that same lap for his crew to replace his car's CPU.^[20] On lap 49,^[2] the fourth caution was issued after Goodyear made a 180-degree spin into the wall in turn four.^[22] Most of the leaders made pit stops under the caution. Ray and Schmidt's engines stalled but were quickly refired, while Boat was forced to pit twice after an issue with a fuel hose hindered his first stop.^[20]

Grégoire elected not to make a stop and led at the lap-58 restart, followed by Jönsson, Cheever, Bräck, and Dismore. Cheever promptly passed Jönsson for second and took the lead from Grégoire on the 60th lap, by which point Bräck had moved into third place. Grégoire lost the second position to Bräck on lap 64, and by the 70th lap, he fell to fourth behind Dismore. Three laps later, Bräck overtook Cheever for the lead exiting turn two. As Grégoire was relegated further down the running order, Jaques Lazier passed Dismore for third place on lap 76. Meanwhile, Bräck garnered a 2.7-second lead over Cheever by lap 82.^[20] On the 85th lap, Jönsson was forced into an early retirement after a fuel leak burned into his engine's wiring, sparking a fire within his car.^[22] Boat and Grégoire made stops for tires and fuel before Johnny Unser slammed the outside wall in turn four, necessitating the fifth caution. During pit stops, Cheever made slight contact with Buddy Lazier, though neither driver sustained damage. Bräck maintained the lead for the lap-102 restart; the sixth caution was flown three laps later as Ray hit the right-rear tire of Dismore's car and slid up into the marbles in turn one.^[20] The ensuing restart on lap 110 was cut short when Hollansworth Jr. and Boat collided, spinning both drivers into the turn-one wall along with Dismore, bringing out the seventh caution.^[2][21]

Ray's team attempted to repair his engine under the caution before he shut it off and retired from the race. Three laps after the lap-122 restart, the eighth caution was issued when the right-hand side of Beechler's car made contact with the turn-four wall. Bräck continued holding his lead for the restart on the 133rd lap, ahead of Cheever, Jaques Lazier, Calkins, and Schmidt. Carlson and Johncox were both handed stop-and-go penalties for accelerating faster than other drivers before reaching the start-finish line. Over the next three laps, Calkins lost the fourth and fifth positions to Schmidt and Robby Unser, respectively.^[20] Cheever's engine broke on the 138th lap and he exited the race,^[23] relinquishing second place to Jaques Lazier. Robby Unser pulled into pit lane a lap later, also with a failing engine. On lap 145, Schmidt got by Jaques Lazier for second place; he then utilized the draft behind Bräck's car to overtake him through the outside line for the lead on lap 150. Schmidt quickly grew a 0.8-second lead over Bräck, which continued to increase until the caution was flown for the ninth time after Johncox contacted the wall at the exit of the second corner. All the leaders, including Schmidt, made stops for tires and fuel during the caution as Jaques Lazier's car lost power on the blend line.^[20]

Bräck exited pit road before Schmidt and reclaimed the lead ahead of the restart on lap 170, ahead of Schmidt, Buhl, Hamilton, and Calkins. As Hamilton and Calkins dueled for fourth place, Schmidt closed in on Bräck throughout the next 23 laps, but was unable to pass him. On the 193rd lap, Sharp collided into Hamilton in the third turn, sending Hamilton sliding into the outside wall and prompting the tenth caution of the race. Sharp pitted to repair any damage under the caution. As green-flag racing commenced on lap 197, the eleventh (and final) caution was flown a lap later as Salazar spun exiting turn four and stalled on the apron. Bräck maintained his lead for the restart on the 202nd lap, with Schmidt in second and Buhl in third.^[20] Schmidt gradually closed in on Bräck and on lap 206, he steered to the left of Bräck to take the lead on the back stretch.^[21] He held onto the lead for the final two laps and earned his first career Pep Boys Indy Racing League win, 0.617 seconds ahead of Bräck.^[24] Buhl finished third, with Sharp in fourth, Calkins in fifth, and McGehee, Jaques Lazier, Grégoire, Carlson, and Ward rounding out the top-ten finishers. The last classified finishers were Buddy Lazier, Salazar, and Harrington.^[25] There was a total of 11 lead changes among five different drivers and 11 cautions throughout the course of the race. Bräck's total of 118 laps in the lead was the most of any competitor, while Schmidt led four times for a total of 35 laps.^[2]

Schmidt, a native of Las Vegas, celebrated his first win with his team in victory lane and earned $146,200.^[24] While Schmidt acknowledged the adversities he faced in the race, he was pleased with his car's performance, saying: "I felt like we had the best car out there. It was kind of like, 'Catch me if you can.' I don't mean to be arrogant, but we just had a great package today. We could run 200 to 202 mph all day. The cautions messed us up. We were hoping for long runs. All those yellows didn't help us."^[20] It marked Schmidt's only victory in the series before a crash during a testing session at Walt Disney World Speedway in January 2000 left him with a severe spinal injury, thus becoming a quadriplegic.^[26] Schmidt never raced in IndyCar competition again, but continued his involvement with IndyCar by forming the Sam Schmidt Motorsports team in 2001. The team has since won numerous races in the IndyCar Series and Indy NXT.^[27] Second-place finisher Bräck commented on what he felt caused him to lose the race: "The cars were equal. At the end, tires made the difference. We picked up a bit of a vibration at the end. I drove as hard as I could the whole way. I think he would've caught me even if Salazar hadn't stalled."^[20] Buhl was happy with finishing third, stating: "To think we would be on the podium after Friday was a nice surprise. On Friday, we were lost, but the guys did a great job working with the car and the tires. It showed today."^[28]

Championship leader Ray was aggravated at Dismore for damaging his car on the 105th lap: "Unfortunately, Mark Dismore had a hard time with turn four. I had a run on him, but he blocked me low. I have no idea why he came into me. He just moved up and bumped me. We came in and changed the front end, but for some reason the impact broke the timing chain. It's hard that something like that will affect our championship run."^[21] Dismore was similarly disappointed with his crash, saying: "We were running pretty consistently. We were on our program to make the car last until the end. Unfortunately, sometimes racing has accidents."^[20] Goodyear said of his lap-49 accident, which caused a bruise to his left knee: "I could feel something let go and I just got ready for the impact. It happened so quickly and I really felt to that point that I had a great race car. We were just making very slight weight adjustments in the beginning of the race and the car was responding great."^[20][29] Johncox, who suffered a fracture to his left foot,^[22] believed his right-front tire punctured, leading to his accident.^[28] Ray held onto the lead in the Drivers' Championship with 255 points, although Bräck trimmed his advantage over him to 15 points.^[24] Schmidt improved from 12th to third in the standings with 225 points, ahead of fourth-placed Sharp with 209. Goodyear fell to fifth with 207 points as one race remained in the season.^[2]

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Status	Grid	Points
1	99	Sam Schmidt	Treadway Racing	208	Running	1	532
2	14	Kenny Bräck	A. J. Foyt Racing	208	Running	3	433
3	22	Robbie Buhl	TriStar Motorsports	208	Running	21	35
4	8	Scott Sharp	Kelley Racing	208	Running	6	32
5	12	Buzz Calkins	Bradley Motorsports	207	+1 lap	16	30
6	55	Robby McGehee	Conti Racing	207	+1 lap	19	28
7	33	Jaques Lazier	Truscelli Team Racing	205	+3 laps	20	26
8	7	Stéphan Grégoire	Dick Simon Racing	205	+3 laps	11	24
9	20	Tyce Carlson	Blueprint-Immke Racing	205	+3 laps	7	22
10	21	Jeff Ward	Pagan Racing	204	+4 laps	17	20
11	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	199	+9 laps	10	19
12	6	Eliseo Salazar	Nienhouse Racing	196	+12 laps	22	18
13	9	Davey Hamilton	Galles Racing	191	Accident	26	17
14	66	Scott Harrington	Harrington Motorsports	156	+52 laps	12	16
15	17	Ronnie Johncox	TriStar Motorsports	154	Accident	23	15
16	81	Robby Unser	Team Pelfrey	139	Fuel pump	13	14
17	51	Eddie Cheever	Team Cheever	138	Engine	18	13
18	98	Donnie Beechler	Cahill Racing	121	Accident	15	12
19	42	John Hollansworth Jr.	Team Xtreme Racing	110	Accident	18	11
20	28	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing	110	Accident	2	124
21	2	Greg Ray	Team Menard	110	Timing chain	4	9
22	11	Billy Boat	A. J. Foyt Racing	109	Accident	9	8
23	92	Johnny Unser	Hemelgarn Racing	90	Accident	14	7
24	27	Niclas Jönsson	Blueprint-Immke Racing	85	Engine	25	6
25	4	Scott Goodyear	Panther Racing	47	Accident	5	5
26	30	Willy T. Ribbs	McCormack Motorsports	16	Accident	24	4
Sources:[2][25][30]

Notes

• ^2 – Includes three bonus points for winning the pole position.^[31]
• ^3 – Includes one bonus point for qualifying in third place and two bonus points for leading the most laps.^[31]
• ^4 – Includes two bonus points for qualifying in second place.^[31]

Drivers' Championship standings Pos. Driver Points 1 Greg Ray 255 1 2 Kenny Bräck 240 (–15) 9 3 Sam Schmidt 225 (–30) 3 4 Scott Sharp 209 (–46) 3 5 Scott Goodyear 207 (–48) Sources:[2][30]

• Note: Only the top five positions are included.