Rick Mears Edges Al Unser Jr. at Pocono

Rick Mears, who has been trying to find his way back to the top since a 1984 crash that almost ended his auto racing career, outran Al Unser Jr. on Sunday to win the Domino’s Pizza Pocono 500 at Long Pond, Pa.

“This did a lot for me therapy-wise,” said Mears, still recuperating from severe foot and leg injuries suffered in a crash last September in St. Pie, Quebec.

“There are no words for it,” he said. “We’ve got to put it (the accident) behind us, and this will do a lot toward that goal.

“But there never was a time I felt I wouldn’t be back. As soon as I saw that both feet were still on my legs, I knew I’d be back.”

It was Mears’ 20th Indy-car victory and the first since he won his second Indianapolis 500 in May 1984.

Mears, who won the Pocono 500, the third of three 500-mile races for Indy cars, in 1982, said he was nervous in the final few laps as Unser tried to chase him down.

“My mirrors were all covered and smeared with oil and dirt and I really couldn’t see much behind me,” Mears explained. “My crew told me that I was ahead of Al about 2 1/2 seconds, but that didn’t seem like very much, particularly when I got behind Emerson (Fittipaldi).

“I was a nervous wreck. I just knew Al was catching me and I wanted desperately to get by Emerson.”

Mears moved into the lead just five laps from the end of the 500-mile race on Pocono International Raceway’s 2 1/2-mile tri-oval. He averaged 151.676 m.p.h. and earned $86,284 from the total purse of $494,000.

Unser Jr. finished in second place, 2.18 seconds behind Mears.

Al Unser Sr., one of Mears’ teammates, was a close third. The finish moved Unser Sr. into the CART-PPG season point lead, past Mario Andretti and Fittipaldi, who had led Unser by one point coming into the event.

Johnny Rutherford, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner, was leading going into the first turn on lap 135 when the rear end of his March suddenly whipped around and the car slammed hard into the concrete wall.

Rutherford, 47, suffered a bump to the left side of his head and was held about an hour in the infield medical center for observation.

Among others who had problems were four-time Indianapolis 500 winner A.J. Foyt, who went out of the race with a bad vibration, and two-time Indy-car champion Tom Sneva, who ran out of fuel prior to his first pit stop.

Prior to the race, driver Michael Andretti and two other men received minor injuries, when a helicopter carrying them to the Pocono 500 race became entangled in power lines and crashed.

Race-car driver Kevin Cogan, who was riding in the helicopter that crashed, said the aircraft backed into high tension wires while hovering about 50 feet in the air waiting for a second helicopter to take off.

Michael Andretti, the oldest of Mario Andretti’s two race-car driving sons, was treated at Wayne County Memorial Hospital in Honesdale and later released. He arrived by helicopter at the Pocono Raceway at noon, an hour before the race was to begin.

A hospital spokesman said Robert Hinkle, 63, and pilot John Pipkin, 41, were also treated for injuries. Pipkin was released, but Hinkle was held for observation for an unrelated heart problem.

Alain Prost of France drove his McLaren to victory in the Austrian Grand Prix at Zeltweg, Austria, to earn a tie for the lead in the world Formula One championship.

Prost, 30, completed the 52 laps of the Oesterreichring circuit in 1 hour, 18 minutes, 34.987 seconds. The win gave him nine points and increased his season’s total to 50.

Michele Alboreto of Italy, who started the race as championship leader with 46 points, finished in third place behind Brazilian Ayrton Senna’s Lotus to gain four points and tie Prost.

Prost drove a commanding race in his spare car, but he had to rely on Niki Lauda’s misfortune to win the race. Lauda, having led for 14 laps after Prost made a pit stop, was forced to retire 12 laps from the finish with a broken turbo.

The Austrian was probably driving in his last “home” Grand Prix. The 36-year-old, who is defending the world title he won for the third time last year, announced Saturday that he would be retiring at the end of the season.