1998 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World

For the first time in IRL history, torrential rain forced the qualifying session to be cancelled. Thus, the grid was set by 1996-1997 entrant points.[1] The remaining new entries were sorted by practice speeds. The grid was limited to 28 cars due to concerns about safety in the pit area.[2]

Pos	No.	Name	1996-97 entrant points
1	1	Tony Stewart	2780
2	14	Kenny Bräck	2720
3	11	Billy Boat	2400
4	10	Mike Groff	2390
5	5	Arie Luyendyk	2230
6	21	Roberto Guerrero	2210
7	18	John Paul, Jr.	2160
8	91	Buddy Lazier	2090
9	30	Raul Boesel	2080
10	12	Buzz Calkins W	1836
11	40	Jack Miller	1680
12	27	Robbie Groff	1674
13	17	Brian Tyler R	1248
14	3	Robbie Buhl	1141
15	77	Stéphan Grégoire	1092
16	97	Greg Ray	365
17	99	Sam Schmidt	114
18	19	Stan Wattles	27
19	6	Davey Hamilton	New entry
20	8	Scott Sharp	New entry
21	4	Scott Goodyear	New entry
22	28	Mark Dismore	New entry
23	51	Eddie Cheever W	New entry
24	35	Jeff Ward	New entry
25	16	Marco Greco	New entry
26	15	Eliseo Salazar	New entry
27	20	Tyce Carlson	New entry
28	7	Jimmy Kite1	2360
Didn't qualify
29	53	Jim Guthrie	New entry
30	41	Affonso Giaffone	New entry
31	24	Billy Roe	New entry

• John Hollansworth, Jr. R for Blueprint Racing - couldn't pass his rookie test in time for the race. Replaced by Robbie Groff.

Tony Stewart outlasted all challengers to take his second IRL victory. Starting on the pole, he was quickly passed by Roberto Guerrero who pulled away until he got collected in an accident in turn 1. Stewart then led the rest of the first half of the race, which was marked by numerous incidents taking out contenders: Scott Sharp got tangled up with a slower car and had to pit for a new nose, Scott Goodyear slid into the wall in the midstretch and suffered suspension damage, Raul Boesel collided in the pit lane with Robbie Buhl and needed a radiator replaced, and defending champion Eddie Cheever dropped out with engine failure.

Unexpected cold weather caused tire problems for the competitors; Robbie Groff wrecked at the start of the race when his rear tires broke loose under acceleration, and Billy Boat had a grinding crash on the inside wall of the front stretch when the same thing happened to him on a restart. On lap 132, Buddy Lazier took the lead and held it until he got bound up behind a slower car, spun, and hit the back stretch inside wall on lap 166. At that point, all five cars remaining in the lead lap (Stewart, Davey Hamilton, Jeff Ward, Stéphan Grégoire and Mark Dismore) were marginal on fuel mileage. Stewart, Hamilton, and Ward pitted for fuel, while Dismore and Grégoire elected to gamble and assumed the top two places.

After the restart, Dismore held off Stewart (who had moved back up to second) while Grégoire, Hamilton, and Ward all dueled for third. The gamble didn't work for Dismore, and he finally had to pit for fuel on lap 197 after Stewart had passed him two laps earlier when the engine stumbled. On the final lap, Ward passed Hamilton, and then claimed second place as Grégoire ran out of fuel and coasted across the line to a fourth-place finish.

Pos	No.	Driver	Team	Laps	Time/Retired	Grid	Laps Led	Points
1	1	Tony Stewart	Team Menard	200	2:06:07	1	132	52
2	35	Jeff Ward	ISM Racing	200	+ 8.579 sec	24	0	40
3	6	Davey Hamilton	Nienhouse Motorsports	200	Running	19	0	35
4	77	Stéphan Grégoire	Chastain Motorsports	200	Running	15	0	32
5	28	Mark Dismore	Kelley Racing	199	+ 1 lap	22	27	30
6	8	Scott Sharp	Kelley Racing	198	+ 2 lap	20	0	28
7	10	Mike Groff	Byrd-Cunningham Racing	198	+ 2 lap	4	0	26
8	5	Arie Luyendyk	Treadway Racing	197	+ 3 laps	5	0	24
9	99	Sam Schmidt	LP Racing	195	+ 5 laps	17	0	22
10	18	John Paul, Jr.	PDM Racing	194	+ 6 laps	7	0	20
11	20	Tyce Carlson	Immke Racing	192	+ 8 laps	27	0	19
12	15	Eliseo Salazar	Riley & Scott Cars	187	+ 13 laps	26	0	18
13	14	Kenny Bräck	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	174	+ 26 laps	2	1	17
14	12	Buzz Calkins W	Bradley Motorsports	168	+ 32 laps	10	0	16
15	91	Buddy Lazier	Hemelgarn Racing	165	Accident	8	34	15
16	7	Jimmy Kite	Team Scandia	149	Half shaft	28	0	14
17	4	Scott Goodyear	Panther Racing	132	Suspension	21	0	13
18	30	Raul Boesel	McCormack Motorsports	128	+ 72 laps	9	0	12
19	17	Brian Tyler R	Chitwood Motorsports	121	Accident	13	0	11
20	3	Robbie Buhl	Team Menard	100	Electrical	14	0	10
21	11	Billy Boat	A. J. Foyt Enterprises	72	Accident	3	0	9
22	19	Stan Wattles	Metro Racing Systems	64	Accident	18	0	8
23	40	Jack Miller	Crest Racing/SRS	59	Handling	11	0	7
24	51	Eddie Cheever W	Team Cheever	48	Engine fire	23	0	6
25	97	Greg Ray	Knapp Motorsports	29	Accident	16	0	5
26	21	Roberto Guerrero	Pagan Racing	13	Accident	6	6	4
27	16	Marco Greco	Phoenix Racing	12	Accident	25	0	3
28	27	Robbie Groff	Blueprint Racing	0	Accident	12	0	2