“It was like he became my American dad,” Luyendyk recalled. “He saved my career and made my career, and he was also a friend of mine.”
Luyendyk won the 1984 Super Vee championship and finished eighth in his Indy car debut at Road America. The following year, he and Groenevelt teamed up for a full season in the CART-sanctioned IndyCar World Series. One of his best races was the Indianapolis 500, where he finished seventh and claimed “Rookie of the Year” honors.
The Dutchman was pretty much a journeyman in the later half of the 1980s, his best year coming in 1987 when he complied eight top-six finishes to end up seventh in the CART championship. His career advanced in 1990 when he joined Doug Shierson Racing; driving the memorable Domino’s Pizza-liveried Lola-Cosworth, he dominated the latter stages of the Indy 500, pulling away to win by nearly 11 seconds over Bobby Rahal.
Although it was Luyendyk’s first Indy car race win, it was anything but a fluke. He always ran well at IMS, and after qualifying third in 1990, he kept leader Emerson Fittipaldi in sight as the Brazilian led 128 of the first 135 laps. But Fittipaldi’s pace may have been too fast, because his Penske-Chevrolet began blistering tires in the searing heat. Fittipaldi would finish third.
It took Luyendyk just 2 hours, 41 minutes and 18.404 seconds to complete the 500 miles, with an average speed nearly 10 mph faster than any other Indy 500 in history or to date.
“The record for the race speed all depends on how many crashes, and there weren’t that many that day (four cautions for 28 laps),” said Luyendyk. “Of course now they close the pits and pack up the field and by the time they let everybody back in a lot of time has passed so the average speed always drops. Then you have the pit speed limit, which we didn’t have.
“After I won the race in 1990 it definitely became a huge part of my life. Obviously the Speedway always wants you around to do certain things and the fans recognize you no matter what you have done outside of the Indy 500. But they always mainly recognize you for winning that race.”
Throughout the rest of his career, Luyendyk’s best performances came at Indianapolis. He finished third in 1991, but after qualifying fourth a year later, was one of many drivers to crash in one of the coldest days in Indianapolis 500 history.