At the Green Flag, Everybody Heads for a Funnel : Indianapolis 500: A field with a new look will drive on a track with a new look, and the first turn could be critical in today’s race.

The colorful admission ticket, with 1992 winner Al Unser Jr.’s picture on the face, says the 77th Indianapolis 500 will be run today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But the race must be an impostor.

It doesn’t have A. J. Foyt, retired after 35 consecutive 500s and four victories to become a full-time car owner.

Or Rick Mears, retired after 15 consecutive 500s and four victories to become a driver consultant for Roger Penske.

Or Michael Andretti, the dominant driver of the last two 500s, even though he did not win, who will be in the stands rooting for his father Mario, brother Jeff and cousin John while vacationing from Formula One.

Or Bobby Rahal, the PPG Cup national driving champion and 1986 500 winner, who failed to qualify and will watch the race from his sponsor’s suite.

What the race will have is a record 17 foreign-born drivers, four former world Formula One champions, six former 500 winners and five rookies, only one of whom is an American.

It will also have a drastically changed race track.

A concern fostered by last year’s accident-strewn race caused Speedway officials to make several alterations to the 2 1/2-mile track. Some have been universally praised by drivers. Others have caused a new concern for safety when 33 cars attempt to funnel through a single lane for the first turn of the race.

“The new warm-up lane is superb,” Unser Jr. said. “It is so nice not to have somebody making an apex off of you while you’re warming up. When a car goes by you at 220 m.p.h. and it’s six inches away from you, it scares you to death.”

That change, however, has substantially narrowed the entrance to the first turn. The once wide apron, which allowed drivers to sweep low below the white line and take a shortcut through the corners, is gone--replaced by a 30-inch wide rumble strip and 12 feet of grass.

The rumble strip is a problem, but not as much as the grass, which provides no traction.

What it has essentially done is transform a two-turn rounded oval into a four-turn rectangular oval. The once-rounded corners are now close to 90 degree turns.

“It’s the narrowest first turn I’ve seen since I started coming here in 1965,” said Mario Andretti, the 1969 winner who will start in the front row today. “If you go in too quick, you can run out of track. Before, you could drop down and still make it through, but now you can’t do that. You have to slow down, and that could change things drastically for the guys behind you.

“We won’t really know what’s going to happen until the race starts. We’ll just have to feel our way through. It will be something all of us have never experienced. It is the responsibility of each and every one of the 33 drivers to approach with caution.”

The changes apparently have had their effect. There have been 22,970 laps (57,425 miles) run this month without an accident serious enough to keep a driver hospitalized for longer than overnight. Last year, several drivers were injured seriously, and Jovy Marcelo, a rookie from the Philippines, was killed in a crash during practice.

With a narrowed lane in the corners, passing will be more difficult than in the past few years.

“The way the track is laid out, it is important to get in the lead and stay there as long as you can,” said pole-sitter Arie Luyendyk, the 1990 winner whose 223.967 m.p.h. lap was fastest during qualifying. “The way I look at it, you can get a 10-second lead, and when you run into lapped cars, you could lose it all waiting to find a place to pass.”

Another factor making passing difficult is the closeness of the field. From Luyendyk to Kevin Cogan, the slowest qualifier, the difference is only 6.737 m.p.h.

“If cars run as equally during the race as they did in qualifying, we could see a real follow-the-leader race,” said Scott Goodyear, who hopes to atone for last year’s loss to Unser--the closest in Indy car history--with a victory today.

“Anything short of winning, I will consider a failure,” he said.

Goodyear will start on the inside of the second row in one of Derrick Walker’s three Lola-Ford Cosworths.

Fords have dominated the month of May, qualifying for all three front-row positions with Luyendyk, Mario Andretti and Raul Boesel, the steady Brazilian who drives for Dick Simon. It is the first time a Ford has been on the pole since 1970.

A driver who may be the most closely watched all day is Nigel Mansell, the reigning world Formula One champion from England who chose to race Indy cars for Paul Newman and Carl Haas over defending his championship. Mansell, hampered because of back surgery after a crushing crash in April at Phoenix, qualified in the middle of the third row for his first oval-track race.

“Being a professional, I must put everything in its perspective, but I must say what I’ve found here is most extraordinary,” Mansell said. “I have never been at a place where the track changes so completely from hour to hour.

“I am also amazed at how much turbulence is caused by a car in front of you. There were a couple of times I came on a couple of cars in front of me coming into turns three and four, and I got into some dirty air. I was 300 yards back and got sucked up real fast in the draft. It is just another thing I must adjust to.

“I must say when I came here I was in awe of this place, and the longer I stay, the more I remain in awe. One thing I am appreciating is the yellow (caution light). It means someone on the track thought there was debris and would be dangerous. That helps my comfort zone.”

What gives Mansell added concern is his memory of the accident at Phoenix. It happened during practice the day before the race, and until then, he had been in the fastest car on the track.

“Phoenix was a shocking experience,” Mansell said. “I couldn’t believe it happened. I thought I had the car under control, and suddenly it was gone. There are different parameters at Indy, but I realize I must be more careful than ever not to let that happen here.”

Mansell is part of an unusual rookie field. The only American is Robby Gordon, the brash off-road racer from Orange who is being tutored by Foyt. Two of the foreigners are former world champions, Mansell and Nelson Piquet of Brazil. A Frenchman, Stephan Gregoire, is both the fastest and youngest rookie, and Stefan Johansson of Sweden is starting the closest to the front, on the second row.

With Mears, Rahal and Michael Andretti out, the race looks to be the most wide-open in years.

Mario Andretti, buoyed by a victory at Phoenix--his first since 1988--has displayed an unusual air of confidence about today’s race.

“I feel particularly good this year,” the 53-year-old former Formula One and Indy car champion said. “Everything around me is good. Of course, it is different for me not to have my son Michael as my teammate, but I know he is doing what he wants to be doing.

“Of all the times I’ve been here, last year was probably the worst. Jeff was sent to the hospital with his legs crushed, and then I was hurt and was in there with him. Then, with 11 laps to go, Michael’s car quit and he lost a race he had been running away with. I guess there is a reason why things happen, but I sure can’t figure out why it all happened to the Andretti family at the same time.

“This is a new year. I see this as a very unpredictable race. There are so many unknown factors. The driver who gets his car balanced, keeps it balanced and handles what I call the tormented air best will be the winner.

“I like to think my experience here will help me be that driver. I want to squeeze every ounce out of myself before I call it a career. Sunday would be a good day to do the squeezing.”

The Lineup

The lineup for today’s Indianapolis 500, listing the car number, driver, hometown or country, chassis-engine and four-lap qualification average speed in m.p.h.

* FIRST ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 10. Arie Luyendyk Netherlands Lola-Ford Cosworth 223.967 6. Mario Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Lola-Ford Cosworth 223.414 9. Raul Boesel Brazil Lola-Ford Cosworth 222.379

SECOND ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 2. Scott Goodyear Canada Lola-Ford Cosworth 222.344 3. Al Unser Jr. Albuquerque Lola-Chevy 221.773 16. *Stefan Johansson Sweden Penske-Chevy 220.824

THIRD ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 12. Paul Tracy Canada Penske-Chevy 220.298 5. *Nigel Mansell England Lola-Ford Cosworth 220.255 4. Emerson Fittipaldi Brazil Penske-Chevy 220.150

FOURTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 40. Roberto Guerrero San Juan Capistrano Lola-Chevy 219.645 22. Scott Brayton Coldwater, Mich. Lola-Ford Cosworth 219.637 7. Danny Sullivan Aspen, Colo. Lola-Chevy 219.428

FIFTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 77. *Nelson Piquet Brazil Lola-Menard 217.949 11. Kevin Cogan Palos Verdes Estates Lola-Chevy 217.230 36. *Stephan Gregoire France Lola-Buick 220.851

SIXTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 21. Jeff Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Lola-Buick 220.572 8. Teo Fabi Italy Lola-Chevy 220.514 51. Gary Bettenhausen Monrovia, Ind. Lola-Menard 220.380

SEVENTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 18. Jimmy Vasser Discovery Bay, Calif. Lola-Ford 218.967 91. Stan Fox Janesville, Wis. Lola-Buick 218.765 90. Lyn St. James Daytona Beach, Fla. Lola-Ford Cosworth 218.042

EIGHTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 76. Tony Bettenhausen Indianapolis Penske-Chevy 218.034 80. Al Unser Sr. Albuquerque Lola-Chevy 217.453 84. John Andretti Indianapolis Lola-Ford Cosworth 221.746

NINTH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 41. *Robby Gordon Orange Lola-Ford Cosworth 220.085 15. Hiro Matsushita Japan Lola-Ford Cosworth 219.949 66. Dominic Dobson Truckee, Calif. Lola-Chevrolet 218.776

10TH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 50. Davy Jones Lake Tahoe, Nev. Lola-Chevy 218.416 27. Geoff Brabham Australia Lola-Menard 217.800 75. Willy T. Ribbs San Jose Lola-Ford Cosworth 217.711

11TH ROW

No.Driver Home Car-Engine Speed 60. Jim Crawford Scotland Lola-Chevy 217.612 92. Didier Theys Belgium Lola-Buick 217.752 25. Eddie Cheever Aspen, Colo. Lola-Menard 217.599

* Rookie. Field average--219.692 m.p.h. Record average--223.479 m.p.h., 1992.