Motor Racing

Though Emerson Fittipaldi led for 41 of 50 laps Sunday to win the Texaco-Havoline 200 Indy car race, it was in the final eight--after a lengthy caution period--when he had to do his best driving.

The caution period allowed the field to bunch behind Fittipaldi.

“Mentally, it was very difficult to have a restart when you’re leading with only a few laps to go. Both Al (Unser Jr.) and Bobby (Rahal) put a lot of pressure on me,” Fittipaldi said.

“I knew Al would come hard on the restart, because that’s an important time. . . . He couldn’t get by me, but he kept me honest the last couple of laps.”

Fittipaldi fought off two passing attempts from Unser on the first lap after the restart and won the race at Elkhart Lake, Wis., with an average speed of 110.656 m.p.h. on the four-mile road course.

Unser was 0.775 seconds back and Rahal was 1.078 seconds behind.

The victory was the second in a row for Fittipaldi and 16th in Indy-car racing.