INDIANAPOLIS 500 : Fittipaldi Teaches Unser Jr. About the School of Hard Knocks : Collision on Lap 199 Gives Brazilian Win

As they say, what goes around, comes around.

It came around Sunday for Al Unser Jr. in the Indianapolis 500 when he was spun out in a wheel-touching collision with Emerson Fittipaldi while racing for the lead on the next to last lap that gave the tense $6-million race to the Brazilian veteran.

It was the younger Unser who spun out Fittipaldi a year ago at the Meadowlands and it was Unser who spun out Mario Andretti last month at the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Unlike the earlier incidents, however, where Fittipaldi and Andretti screamed “foul,” Unser and Fittipaldi called Sunday’s dramatic incident at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a “racing accident.”

“It was a case of two drivers who wouldn’t lift going side-by-side for a spot where only one car would fit,” Unser said. “This is the Indianapolis 500, the most important race in the world, and neither one of us was going to back off with only a lap left.”

A crowd estimated at 400,000, largest in the race’s history, watched on a cool, sunny Indiana day.

Unser had slipped by Fittipaldi four laps from the finish when the Brazilian was caught in heavy traffic. Two laps later they came up behind Ludwig Heimrath Jr., half way down the backstretch.

Fittipaldi tried to box in Unser by taking the low side, but Unser moved quickly over and the two raced to the third turn together at faster than 200 m.p.h. As Unser kept pressuring him, Fittipaldi’s wheels crept closer and closer to the infield grass.

Suddenly, as Unser pointed out later, there was room for only one car.

The left rear wheel of Unser’s Lola-Chevy rubbed against the right front of Fittipaldi’s Penske-Chevy and the brush sent Little Al into a spin and into the outside retaining wall.

Fittipaldi fought to maintain control of his car, straightened out, and continued on the remaining lap and a few hundred yards to take the checkered flag while the yellow caution flag was displayed.

“I knew from the way Emmo entered the turn that something was going to happen because you can’t make a 90-degree turn at 200 miles an hour,” Unser said.

By the time Fittipaldi came around on the last lap, Unser had crawled out of his crippled car and was standing on the apron, applauding his opponent.

“I gave Emmo the thumbs up,” Little Al said. “I am disappointed for myself about how I did not win the race, but Emmo did as much as he could to avoid the accident without putting himself in an accident. We were running very close and coming up on traffic very quickly.

“There’s no way it was my fault. I’m sure Emmo feels the same way. He is a great driver and we put on an exciting show.”

Fittipaldi said his concern was for Unser’s safety and that it made him happy when he saw Unser was uninjured.

The two were so far in front that even though Unser was credited with only 198 laps, he still ended up second, four laps ahead of Raul Boesel, another Brazilian. Then came two dinosaurs of Indy, Mario Andretti, 49, and A.J. Foyt, 54, both seven laps behind.

One of the most shocking developments of the 73rd Indy 500 was the collapse of the all-conquering Penske team, which had won four of the last five 500s, including the last two.

Pole-sitter and defending champion Rick Mears, who had set a qualifying record of 223.885 m.p.h. and dominated most of the month of May, did not lead a lap and dropped out in mid-race with a blown engine.

Al Unser, Penske’s 1987 winner who started alongside Mears on the front row, also never led before his clutch gave out. The third Penske driver, national champion Danny Sullivan, lasted only 41 laps before a right rear axle failed.

“At least it’s not like this every year,” Mears said. “I don’t know what was wrong with the engine. It was a quick thing that happened, without warning. I was just cruising along with no problems when suddenly it was all over.”

This was the first time since 1975 that no Penske team finished the race. In every year since, Penske cars have finished sixth or better.

The day was not entirely a loss for car builder Roger Penske, however. Fittipaldi was also driving one of the newest Penske PC-18 models, powered by a Chevy Ilmor V8 engine, that had been purchased by Pat Patrick early this year.

“We’re just very happy that Roger sold us this outstanding equipment,” Patrick said. “We’re very sorry they had problems, but we’re just very happy about the outcome.”

The winning car was the same one that Fittipaldi wrecked during practice for the Autoworks 200 last month at Phoenix, and he also finished on used tires.

“The car ran perfectly at the start, well balanced and trim,” Fittipaldi said. “Later, when the track got slippery and I had a new set of tires, the car started pushing, so I told the crew to put the old tires back on. They were the ones I finished on.”

The victory celebrated Patrick’s 20th year as an Indy car owner. He also won in 1973 and 1982 with Gordon Johncock.

“This one was sensational, but the ’82 race was even more exciting because with every lap, Rick (Mears) was coming on that much faster,” Patrick said. “And we still won the race.”

Fittipaldi, 42, became the first foreign-born driver to win since Mario Andretti in 1969, and the first non-American citizen since Graham Hill of England in 1966. He also became the fourth driver to win both the Indy 500 and the world championship, joining Andretti, Hill and Jimmy Clark.

Even though Fittipaldi’s victory turned on Little Al’s spin-out, the former two-time world Formula One champion dominated the day, leading 158 of the 200 laps and reaching speeds of more than 222 m.p.h. during the heat of the race.

When Mears hesitated at the start with boost problem, Fittipaldi raced from his position on the outside of the front row to lead for 85 of the first 87 laps before getting a challenge from Michael Andretti.

Michael, continuing the Andretti’s family tradition of bad luck at Indy, had the engine blow on his Lola-Chevy while leading on lap 163. He and Fittipaldi had traded the lead eight times before smoke started pouring out of the rear end of Andretti’s Lola as he roared down the front straightaway.

“It was a bummer,” the younger Andretti said. “We would have had it. I was very confident. I think at the end of the race my car was better than Emerson’s. In the beginning he was better than us.

“I also think we had an edge on fuel and that could have been a big advantage, but we’ll never know.

“I’m afraid I got a lot from my dad. More than his driving, I think I inherited Dad’s luck.”

Mario has not won here since 1969, even though he has been the favorite on a number of occasions and went out while leading on others.

The elder Andretti was running second when ill fortune struck this year in the form of an electronics failure that kept him in the pits for more than four laps while the Carl Haas crew repaired it.

“If we hadn’t had the problems, it could have been me and Mike at the end,” Mario said after coming back from 17th, six laps down, to finish fourth. “I feel we had two of the best cars in the field.

“The clue we had a problem started when the fuel counter quit. Any time I had to lift off the throttle in traffic, the engine died. I either had full throttle or no throttle. That killed me in traffic. That we came back to finish fourth was a great tribute to our team.”

Even though there were seven caution flags for 43 laps, Fittipaldi’s average speed of 167.581 m.p.h. was close to the race record 170.722 set by Bobby Rahal in 1986.

One of the reasons for the high speeds was a newly resurfaced track that most of the drivers praised. Another was that most of the drivers cut across the corners of Turns 1 and 3, way below the white line that marked the inside of the 2 1/2-mile circuit, giving them a shortcut through the short chutes.

Chief steward Tom Binford had warned drivers that they would be penalized a lap for such indiscretions, but there were no penalties.

“Tom Binford was very clear in the driver’s meeting that anyone who stayed by himself under the line would have problems,” Fittipaldi said. “But the traffic was so heavy there was no other way I could drive.

“I had to get down low to get clean air when I was in traffic, and it seemed there was always traffic. The slow car situation was something entirely out of our control.”

Rookie driver Scott Pruett, who finished 10th, just behind fellow rookie Bernard Jourdain of Mexico, explained how the slower drivers felt.

“It was really wild out there,” Pruett said. “Guys like Fittipaldi come hustling up, blow by you, leave you in their draft and the whole car starts shaking.”

The only accident, before the Fittipaldi-Unser skirmish, occurred on the second lap when Kevin Cogan hit the wall in his March-Cosworth coming out of the fourth turn and spun into the inside pit retaining wall with such impact that it ripped the car in half.

Cogan, runner-up to Rahal three years ago, was taken to Methodist Hospital, where he was treated for abrasions and bruises and released.

UNOFFICIAL ORDER OF FINISH

Pos.Driver (Hometown), Car-Eng. Laps Comment 1.Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil), Penske-Chevy 200 -- 2.Al Unser Jr. (Albuquerque, N.M.), Penske-Chevy 198 Accident 3.Raul Boesel (Brazil), Lola-Judd 194 Running 4.Mario Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), Lola-Chevy 193 Running 5.A.J. Foyt (Houston), Lola-Cosworth 193 Running 6.Scott Brayton (Coldwater, Mich.), Lola-Buick 193 Running 7.Davy Jones (McGraw, N.Y.), Lola-Cosworth 192 Running 8.Rich Vogler (Indianapolis), March-Cosworth 192 Running 9.*Bernard Jourdain (Mexico), Lola-Cosworth 191 Running 10.*Scott Pruett (Dublin, Ohio), Lola-Judd 190 Running 11.*John Jones (Canada), Lola-Cosworth 188 Running 12.Bill Vukovich III (Fresno), Lola-Judd 186 Running 13.Ludwig Heimrath Jr. (Canada), Lola-Judd 185 Running 14.Rocky Moran (Pasadena), March-Cosworth 181 Running 15.Derek Daly (Northern Ireland), Lola-Judd 167 Running 16.Tero Palmroth (Finland), March-Porsche 165 Spindle 17.Michael Andretti (Nazareth, Pa.), Lola-Chevy 163 Engine 18.Dominic Dobson (Fairfax, Calif.), Lola-Cosworth 161 Running 19.Jim Crawford (Scotland), Lola-Buick 135 Drive Train 20.*Didier Theys (Belgium), Lola-Cosworth 131 Engine 21.Arie Luyendyk (Netherlands), Lola-Cosworth 123 Engine 22.Pancho Carter (Brownsburg, Ind.), Lola-Cosworth 112 Electrical 23.Rick Mears (Bakersfield), Penske-Chevy 113 Engine 24.Al Unser (Albuquerque, N.M.), Penske-Chevy 68 Clutch 25.John Andretti (Indianapolis), Lola-Buick 61 Engine 26.Bobby Rahal (Dublin, Ohio), Lola-Cosworth 58 Valve 27.Tom Sneva (Paradise Valley, Ariz.), Lola-Buick 55 Pit Fire 28.Danny Sullivan (Louisville), Penske-Chevy 41 Clutch 29.Randy Lewis (Hillsborough, Calif.), Lola-Cosworth 24 Fr. Wheel Bearing 30.Teo Fabi (Italy), March-Porsche 23 Ignition 31.Gordon Johncock (Hastings, Mich.), Lola-Buick 19 Engine 32.Kevin Cogan (Palos Verdes Estates), March-Cosworth 0 Accident 33.Gary Bettenhausen (Monrovia, Ind.), Lola-Buick 0 Bent Valve

*Rookie driver.

Time--2:59:01.4

Winner’s speed--167.581 m.p.h.

Lap leaders--Emerson Fittipaldi, 8 times over 158 laps; Michael Andretti, 4 over 35; Al Unser Jr., 2 over 5; Mario Andretti, 1 over 1; Raul Boesel, 1 over 1.

Lap leader breakdown: 1-34--Fittipaldi; 35--Mario Andretti; 36--Boesel; 37-87--Fittipaldi; 88-92--Michael Andretti; 93-112--Fittipaldi; 113-123--Michael Andretti; 124-129--Fittipaldi; 130-139--Michael Andretti; 140-153--Fittipaldi; 154-162--Michael Andretti; 163--Fittipaldi; 164-165--Al Unser Jr.; 166-195--Fittipaldi; 196-198--Al Unser Jr.; 199-200--Fittipaldi.

Caution Flags: 5-14--Cogan accident; 61-65--Rahal stalled; 128-131--Luyendyk blown engine; 139-149--Crawford tow; 162-166--Michael Andretti blown engine; 181-186--Palmroth lost tire; 199-200--Al Unser Jr. accident