Scott Goodyear thought he saw the green light. Instead, he saw the black flag. Which meant he never got to see the checkered flag.
"I'm in disbelief right now," Goodyear said, musing how victory in the Indianapolis 500 was snatched away Sunday when he was penalized for passing the pace car with just 11 laps to go. "I feel like we won the race."However, a videotape of the restart provided by the speedway's closed circuit broadcaster clearly shows the yellow light remained on for several seconds after Goodyear passed the pace car heading into the fourth turn.
"If I see a video with the yellow light still blazing, maybe I was guilty," Goodyear conceded.
The crux of the controversy was a restart after Scott Pruett crashed. Goodyear, with Jacques Villenueve right on his back spoiler, came out of the fourth turn trailing the pace car. The yellow lights went off, the green flag waved and Goodyear had already put his foot on the accelerator, extending the lead to five seconds before he reached the end of the front straightaway.
"As soon as it went green, I was on the radio yelling `green,' and off he went," said Steve Horne, the owner of Goodyear's team. "When it goes green, you go racing."
Goodyear saw it the same way. "When I got on the front straight, I saw the green light, and that to me means go."
But as the video showed, Goodyear got the jump by passing the pace car before it veered off the track. That's a no-no, and U.S. Auto Club officials wasted little time waving the black flag at Goodyear.
"The violation took place and I applied the penalty that I have a responsibility to apply," said Tom Binford, calling his last race after 22 years as chief steward.
Binford said he had the option of penalizing Goodyear two laps - as he did with Villenueve for a similar violation earlier in the race - or giving him a stop-and-go penalty. Considering the lateness of the race, Binford chose the latter option. But Goodyear ignored the black flag and kept on racing, so USAC officials didn't count his final four laps.
Villenueve, reveling in Victory Lane after his first Indy 500 victory, said it was clear that Goodyear had illegally passed the pace car.
"I knew on the restart that Scott Goodyear was going to be black-flagged," the Canadian said. "A regulation is a regulation."
But Goodyear's team was livid.
"The pace car had problems all day," Horne said. "On the very first yellow, they couldn't pick up the leader. How long did that take? How many cars ran out of fuel trying to pick up the leader."
Indeed, there were several confusing incidents involving the vehicle which keeps the cars in line when the yellow flag comes out. Villenueve was assessed his penalty on lap 39 when he failed to fall in behind the pace car during a caution period. The pits were closed during the confusion, and Pruett ran out of gas trying to make it back to the pits.
"I don't mean to be critical, but this organization runs only one race per year," Horne said of USAC.
The final laps were surreal. While Goodyear continued to circle the track, knowing that if he stopped for the black flag he had no chance of winning, his team pleaded with USAC officials to reverse their decision.
Could we be headed for another off-the-track battle reminiscent of the 1981 race? That year, Bobby Unser crossed the finish line first, had the victory taken away later in the evening for passing under a yellow flag, only to be reinstated as the winner five months later by a USAC appeals panel.
Horne didn't sound optimistic of winning by similar means.
"It's not a protestable deal," he said. "The only thing I can do is get a video and show the rest of the world."
"I don't think it's set in right now," he said. "I know my wife is beyond speech. She's sitting in the garage right now, shaking."
Goodyear kept coming back to that word: disbelief.
"I was in disbelief when I saw 24 on the sign board" indicating that he was being black flagged. "I was in disbelief when I went down pit road and I got flagged on past the victory circle."