Unser, Fittipaldi Run Out of Time : Indianapolis 500: Penske takes blame after defending champion, former winner fail to qualify.

When you look at the lineup for next Sunday’s 79th Indianapolis 500, don’t rub your eyes or think you’ve seen a typographical error: Al Unser Jr., last year’s winner, and Emerson Fittipaldi, the 1993 winner, did not qualify.

And the absence of Fittipaldi and Unser, who becomes the first Indy winner to fail to qualify for the race the following year, will leave Roger Penske without an entry.

Penske, whose cars have won 10 Indy 500s since Mark Donohue won the first in 1972, took full blame.

“Obviously, we didn’t come prepared and I take responsibility for not having the right package,” he said. “I have the world’s two greatest race drivers and unfortunately I didn’t give them what it would take to make the race.”

Unser, in his third and final attempt to put a borrowed Lola-Mercedes Benz in the field, knew it was all over when his first lap was 221.992 m.p.h. Even though he had two laps in the 225s, his average four-lap speed of 224.101 was more than a mile an hour slower than Eliseo Salazar, whose 225.023 was the slowest to qualify.

Next Sunday’s race will be the first since 1962 that will not feature an Unser in the starting field. Since then, Al Sr. won four times, Bobby three and Al Jr. twice.

Ironically, had Unser posted a fast enough speed, he would have bumped his teammate, Fittipaldi, who was on the bubble as the slowest qualifier at the time. The two-time champion, who had a solid 225.5 speed waved off Saturday by Penske, got in the field temporarily with a 224.907.

Shortly after Unser’s failed attempt, Fittipaldi was knocked out by Stefan Johansson’s 225.547. It was 5:57 p.m., too late to make another attempt.

Unser and Fittipaldi were driving cars loaned by Bobby Rahal and Carl Hogan. Now, the only Fittipaldi in the race is Christian.

“It is very disappointing,” Fittipaldi said later. “It was a solid run yesterday, a 225, but it was a management decision. Roger felt at the time there were too many good cars left who might pass us. I had a feeling when I was on the bubble I wouldn’t make it. For sure, it was very disappointing to be solid in the race on Saturday and not make it Sunday.”

Said Penske: “I am especially disappointed for Emmo. He ran 225 and I turned it down. All I can say is that we’ll be back, in two weeks at Milwaukee and right here next year.”

Unser, who tried five cars last week in a desperate attempt to find speed he knew he was lacking, said he was still puzzled at what was missing in the Penske program.

“We came here with winning cars, I won Long Beach and Emmo won at Nazareth with the ’95 Penskes, but we could never find the balance we needed to run through the corners here,” Unser said. “Then people were kind enough to loan us their backup cars and our guys worked their tails off to make them right for us, but we ran out of time.

In addition to his primary car and the Lola he attempted to qualify, Unser tried his own backup car, Fittipaldi’s backup car and a Reynard loaned by Pagan Racing.

Last year, when Penske drivers were powered by the 209 cubic inch Mercedes Benz push-rod engine, Unser and Fittipaldi dominated qualifying and the race. Unser won both and the two drivers led 193 of 200 laps, but for this year the rules were changed and Penske had to use the Mercedes engine available to other teams.

Despite their 1994 overkill, Penske’s misfortunes here Sunday were not a cause for glee by the opposition.

Johansson, who put the final blow to the Penskes, said bumping Fittipaldi was the last thing on his mind.

“It’s not a nice feeling,” the Swedish Formula One veteran said. “It will be very strange as both Emmo and Al deserve to be in this race more than most of the drivers.”

Rahal, who was the PPG Cup Indy car champion when he failed to qualify two years ago, said, “It’s unbelievable. I really feel for Al and Emerson. I know how it feels to go through that last-day rush. Our team--our engineers and mechanics--gave them all of our support and we were pulling hard for them. It shows there are no guarantees at this place.”

Said Michael Andretti: “It’s unbelievable, that’s all I can say. I never thought it would happen. I’m in shock. I’ll tell you, this is a brutal place. It can bite you when you least expect it.”

The field of 33 is the fastest and youngest in history. The average speed is 226.912, much quicker than the previous record of 223.479 in 1992. The average age is 33 years 6 months.

There are six rookies in the field: Salazar, Andre Ribeiro, Alessandro Zampedri, Gil de Ferran, Christian Fittipaldi and Carlos Guerrero.

Indianapolis 500 Notes

Reading the changing weather is an important part of Indianapolis racing, but Dan Rivard, director of Ford’s Special Vehicles Operations, came up with a novel method during last weekend’s time trials. “All one had to do was watch the blimp get blown backwards down the main stretch to understand what the wind was doing.” . . . Times were different in 1953 when Art Cross finished second in a car owned by Bessie Lee Paoli. She had to watch the 500 from the grandstands because women were not permitted in the pits or garage area. . . . Only one person has owned the winning car in the Indianapolis 500 and winning horse in the Kentucky Derby. Howard Keck was owner of Superior Oil Co. when Bill Vukovich drove his car to his second 500 victory in 1954. In 1986, Keck’s Ferdinand won the Kentucky Derby with Bill Shoemaker up.

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Indianapolis 500 Lineup

Lineup for next Sunday’s Indianapolis 500. The m.p.h is the four-lap qualification average speed. ROW 1 Driver: 1. Scott Brayton Residence: Coldwater, Mich. Car No.: No. 60 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Menard M.P.H.: 231.604

*Driver: 2. Arie Luyendyk Residence: Netherlands Car No.: No. 40 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Menard M.P.H.: 231.031

*Driver: 3. Scott Goodyear Residence: Canada Car No.: No. 24 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Honda M.P.H.: 230.759

*ROW 2 Driver: 4. Michael Andretti Residence: Nazareth, Pa. Car No.: No. 6 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 229.294

*Driver: 5. Jacques Villeneuve Residence: Canada Car No.: No. 27 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 228.397

*Driver: 6. Mauricio Gugelmin Residence: Brazil Car No.: No. 18 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 227.923

*ROW 3 Driver: 7. Robby Gordon Residence: Orange Car No.: No. 5 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 227.531

*Driver: 8. Scott Pruett Residence: Granite Bay, Calif. Car No.: No. 20 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 227.403

*Driver: 9. Jimmy Vasser Residence: Discovery Bay, Calif. Car No.: No. 12 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 227.350

*ROW 4 Driver: 10. Hiro Matsushita Residence: Japan Car No.: No. 25 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 226.867

*Driver: 11. Stan Fox Residence: Janesville, Wis. Car No.: No. 91 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 226.588

*Driver: 12. r-Andre Ribeiro Residence: Brazil Car No.: No. 31 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Honda M.P.H.: 226.495

*ROW 5 Driver: 13. Roberto Guerrero Residence: San Juan Capistrano Car No.: No. 21 Chassis-Engine: 1994 Reynard-Mercedes M.P.H.: 226.402

*Driver: 14. Eddie Cheever Residence: Aspen, Colo. Car No.: No. 14 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 226.314

*Driver: 15. Teo Fabi Residence: Italy Car No.: No. 33 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 225.911

*ROW 6 Driver: 16. Paul Tracy Residence: Canada Car No.: No. 3 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.795

*Driver: 17. r-Alessandro Zampedri Residence: Italy Car No.: No. 34 Chassis-Engine: 1994 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.753.

*Driver: 18. Bryan Herta Residence: Valencia Car No.: No. 4 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 225.551

*ROW 7 Driver: 19. Danny Sullivan Residence: Aspen, Colo. Car No.: No. 17 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 225.496

*Driver: 20. r-Gil de Ferran Residence: Brazil Car No.: No. 8 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Mercedes M.P.H.: 225.437

*Driver: 21. Hideshi Matsuda Residence: Japan Car No.: No. 54 Chassis-Engine: 1994 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 227.818

*ROW 8 Driver: 22. Bobby Rahal Residence: Hilliard, Ohio Car No.: No. 9 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Mercedes M.P.H.: 227.081

*Driver: 23. Raul Boesel Residence: Brazil Car No.: No. 11 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Mercedes M.P.H.: 226.028

*Driver: 24. Buddy Lazier Residence: Vail, Colo. Car No.: No. 80 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Menard M.P.H.: 226.017

*ROW 9 Driver: 25. r-Eliseo Salazar Residence: Chile Car No.: No. 7 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.023

*Driver: 26. Adrian Fernandez Residence: Mexico Car No.: No. 10 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Mercedes M.P.H.: 227.803

*Driver: 27. Eric Bachelart Residence: Belgium Car No.: No. 19 Chassis-Engine: 1994 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 226.875

*ROW 10 Driver: 28. r-Christian Fittipaldi Residence: Brazil Car No.: No. 15 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 226.375

*Driver: 29. Lyn St. James Residence: Daytona Beach, Fla. Car No.: No. 90 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.346

*Driver: 30. r-Carlos Guerrero Residence: Mexico Car No.: No. 22 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.831

*ROW 11 Driver: 31. Scott Sharp Residence: East Norwalk, Conn. Car No.: No. 14T Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.711.

*Driver: 32. Stefan Johansson Residence: Sweden Car No.: No. 61 Chassis-Engine: 1994 Reynard-Ford M.P.H.: 225.547.

*Driver: 33. Davy Jones Residence: Tahoe, Nev. Car No.: No. 77 Chassis-Engine: 1995 Lola-Ford M.P.H.: 225.135.

Field average--226.912 m.p.h. (record, previous mark 223.479 m.p.h. in 1992)

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