The race was branded as the 1997 U.S. 500 Presented by Toyota, for sponsorship reasons, and in an attempt to create a link to the 1996 U.S. 500, which had been run on Memorial Day the previous season.

In 1996, CART attempted to compete with the Indy Racing League and the Indianapolis 500 by scheduling the U.S. 500 at Michigan on the same day.

While the U.S. 500 had a high amount of spectators and television viewers, CART chose not to compete directly with the Indy 500 again.

The decision for Michigan 500 to take the U.S. 500 name while losing the prestige drew attention to CART's problem of not having a flagship race.

"[7] Motorsports writer for the Los Angeles Times, Shav Glick, noted that the 1996 U.S. 500 was promoted "as if it were the Super Bowl.

"[8] The difference between the U.S. 500 in 1996 and 1997 highlighted CART's strategy that no race should stand above all others as the flagship race, as President Andrew Craig explained, "While the Indy 500 was a part of the series, it was always a little unclear in peoples' minds as to what was important, winning the Indy 500 or winning the championship.

"[9] Entering the U.S. 500, CART officials added tunnel blocks to take away downforce and in theory reduce the speeds that had climbed over 235 mph in recent years.

[10] In Friday's opening practice session, Maurício Gugelmin posted the fastest speed with a lap at 234.283 mph.

Despite CART's efforts to slow the cars, Pruett's pole speed was only a tenth of a second slower the track record set by Jimmy Vasser in the 1996 Michigan 500.

Al Unser Jr., Jimmy Vasser, and Alex Zanardi competed in both IROC and CART.

On lap 54, Parker Johnstone cut a tire and crashed in turn two, hitting the wall with the right side of his car.