Make No Mistake, It’s a Villeneuve Day : Indy 500: Canadian overcomes early two-lap penalty to claim title. Stan Fox is critical after first-turn crash.

Who needs Al Unser Jr., Emerson Fittipaldi and the Penske cars?

With the defending champions looking on from a grandstand suite after failing to qualify, one of the closest and most competitive races in the Indianapolis 500’s 79 years unfolded Sunday before 400,000 racing enthusiasts--only to end in a cloud of controversy.

Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, the youngest driver in the field, came from two laps down early in the race to take the checkered flag in Barry Green’s Reynard-Ford after fellow Canadian Scott Goodyear was penalized a lap for passing the pace car.

The infraction occurred nine laps from the end.

“I looked up at the pace car and the lights were green, so I took off,” Goodyear said. “When the green light is on, it means go. When I saw the black flag board, with No. 24 on it, I was shocked in disbelief.”

Videotapes showed that Goodyear passed the Corvette pace car well before it entered pit lane.

Ironically, it was the same infraction that cost Villeneuve two laps but it happened early enough that he was able to get the laps back, get on the lead lap and eventually get to the front.

“We did everything we could do to not win this race,” the winner said. “But when we did, it was very exciting.”

The day’s worst accident occurred after only one turn had been negotiated.

Stan Fox, a midget and sprint car driver who competes annually in the 500, apparently had something break on his Reynard-Ford as his car made a sharp right turn, hit Eddie Cheever’s car and then crashed head-on into the wall.

Fox was taken to the neurological unit of Methodist Hospital where he underwent surgery for head injuries. His condition was listed as critical.

Villeneuve, 24, is the son of the late Gilles Villeneuve, Canada’s greatest Formula One champion. He is in only his second season as an Indy car driver and was Indy 500 rookie of the year last year after finishing second to Unser. He won his first race last year at Elkhart Lake, Wis., and also won the Indy car season opener this year in Miami.

He is the fifth-youngest winner of the 500. Troy Ruttman was 22 when he won in 1952. Joe Dawson (1912), Frank Lockhart (1926) and Louis Meyer (1928) all were 23 when they won.

Nine caution flags for 68 laps helped keep the winning speed down to 153.616 m.p.h., far below the record 185.981 by Arie Luyendyk in 1990.

Actually, Villeneuve’s speed might have been faster but he had to run 505 miles to make up the two laps he was penalized.

“When I learned that I was two laps down, I swore a little bit,” Villeneuve said. “I made a mistake twice, once I stalled in the pits and another time I left too early. I knew on the last restart that Goodyear was going to get black-flagged. A regulation is a regulation.”

The difference in infractions was in the timing.

When Goodyear sped past pace car driver Don Bailey in an attempt to hold Villeneuve behind him, there were only nine laps remaining. At first, he was given a stop-and-go penalty, but when he refused to come into the pits, it became a one-lap penalty.

Goodyear still refused to come in, continuing to stay ahead of Villeneuve until the checkered flag was shown. He finished 14th.

“I wasn’t coming in,” Goodyear said. “If I had, we would have been history anyway.”

Rookie Christian Fittipaldi, Emerson’s nephew from Brazil, finished second, 2.4 seconds behind. Former winner Bobby Rahal was third, almost side-by-side with Fittipaldi.

Rahal also suffered from a late penalty. He was docked for speeding in the pits on his final stop at lap 165.

“We should have won this race,” Rahal said. “I was ahead of Jacques after that last stop and I felt I was in position to race for the lead. I can’t believe I got that penalty. My dashboard said 92 m.p.h. and my crew said they had the same speed on their computers. Then, the officials claim I went 109. That’s B.S.”

The pit lane speed limit is 100 m.p.h.

Seven cars finished within 41 seconds of Villeneuve, and the number might have been higher had not Jimmy Vasser and Scott Pruett both crashed late in the race while battling for the lead. Vasser was in front on lap 170 when he hit the outside wall in the third turn trying to hold off Pruett.

“Pruett got inside me later than I thought he would.” Vasser said. “I gave him some room but I got into the marbles. I had absolutely no grip and went right into the wall.”

Vasser was not injured.

On the restart after the caution period, Goodyear jumped Pruett and shot into the lead, running the fastest lap of the race, 224.009 m.p.h., on Lap 179.

Pruett stayed right on Goodyear’s rear wing until lap 185 when he lost control and tagged the second turn wall while trying to overtake Goodyear for the lead.

“I was going for it and I got a little high [on the track],” Pruett said. “I got into some dirty air and just went into the wall. Maybe I got a little too greedy but we did not come here to finish second.”

It was after the debris from Pruett’s accident was cleared that Goodyear accelerated too fast as the green light came on and he raced past the pace car.

Had Goodyear won, it would have capped a remarkable month. He was signed in April by Tasman team owner Steve Horne to drive the 500 only. The car was powered by a new Honda engine--the first Japanese motor to race at Indianapolis--and was running on Firestone tires, which had not been available for 21 years.

“If Scott was in the right--which I firmly believe he was--then we proved today what we had to prove,” said Horne. “All the credit to Honda, who gave us the power to win this race; Firestone, who gave us the tires, and my personal thanks to Scott, who did a brilliant job all day.”

The lead changed hands a remarkable 24 times from the moment Goodyear swept past pole-sitter Scott Brayton and his Menard teammate, Luyendyk, going into the first turn, to the black flag ruling that put Villeneuve in front on lap 196.

Brayton, the No. 1 qualifier at 231.604 m.p.h., was never a factor. By lap 40, he had dropped a lap and was 12th. He finished 17th.

Six cars were involved in the Fox-Cheever collision in the first lap. Lyn St. James and rookies Gil de Ferran and Carlos Guerrero were knocked out of the race. Eric Bachelart missed 42 laps during repairs and never really got going.

“I was on the outside in turn one, and Stan made a sharp right and hit me,” Cheever said. “Then he had a big, real big, hit on the wall. Something must have happened because Stan is one of the better drivers out here.”

Said St. James, the only woman in the race and the oldest starter at 48: “I’m not real sure what happened. It seemed so far ahead, it seemed there was plenty of room to get through. I saw holes and thought I could get through, but I didn’t. It’s unfortunate.”

It was the largest number of cars wiped out in a first-lap accident since a record 11 got tangled up in 1966.

Once what was left of the field got to racing, Goodyear and Luyendyk led until Michael Andretti passed Luyendyk in traffic. Andretti led for 41 laps until the dreaded Andretti curse struck again. Only Andretti said this time it was his fault.

“I don’t believe in that curse talk,” Andretti said. “Ultimately, it was my mistake. I couldn’t believe what happened.

“I was in turn four and about to pass [Mauricio] Gugelmin on the outside when he started to slow to go into the pits. I passed him right where I’ve been passing all month, but this time I got into what felt like ice and tapped the wall. It was definitely not Gugelmin’s fault.”

Since his father, Mario, won the 500 in 1969, members of the Andretti family have started 45 times without winning, although on many occasions such as this year, they were one of the favorites.

In mid-race, Gugelmin took charge and led for 59 laps, more than any of the 10 drivers who were at the front at least one lap. After giving up the lead for the last time to Goodyear, the Brazilian Formula One veteran dropped back and finished sixth.

“I was running very strong and thought this would be our day,” Gugelmin said, “but I’m disappointed because we played it cautious on the yellows and it seemed to hurt us.”

Rookie Eliseo Salazar, the first Chilean to drive in the 500, finished fourth and Robby Gordon, who overcame the handicap of sitting in the pits when the race started, got up to fifth.

The radio quit in Gordon’s car before the race began, and then his throttle stuck. The desert racer had to make three extra pit stops, but fought back and led the race for a lap when Vasser, Pruett and Goodyear were in the pits.

“Jacques fought hard all day; he deserved it,” Gordon said. “We could have gotten the rest of them. I made a mistake 13 laps before the end. I thought a tire was going down and I made the decision to play it safe and come in. You start feeling things late in the race. It turned out there was nothing wrong. It was unfortunate.”

Villeneuve’s victory gave him the PPG Cup lead after six races. He has 67 points to 52 for Rahal and 51 for Pruett.

* OFFICIAL FINISH: C6

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Indianapolis 500 Results

Official results Sunday of the Indianapolis 500, with starting position in parentheses, driver, hometown or country, car number, chassis-engine, laps completed (reason out, when known):

1. (5) Jacques Villeneuve, Canada, No. 27, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 200 laps

2. (27) r-Christian Fittipaldi, Brazil, No. 15, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 200 laps

3. (21) Bobby Rahal, Hilliard, Ohio, No. 9, 1995 Lola-Mercedes, 200 laps

4.(24) r-Eliseo Salazar, Chile, No. 7, 1995 Lola-Ford, 200 laps

5.(7) Robby Gordon, Orange, No. 5, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 200 laps

6. (6) Mauricio Gugelmin, Brazil, No. 18, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 200 laps

7. (2) Arie Luyendyk, Netherlands, No. 40, 1995 Lola-Menard, 200 laps

8. (15) Teo Fabi, Italy, No. 33, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 199 laps

9. (18) Danny Sullivan, Aspen, Colo., No. 17, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 199 laps

10.(10) Hiro Matsushita, Japan, No. 25, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 199 laps

11. (17) r-Alessandro Zampedri, Italy, No. 34, 1994 Lola-Ford, 198 laps

12. (13) Roberto Guerrero, San Juan Capistrano, No. 21, 1994 Reynard-Mercedes, 198 laps

13. (33) Bryan Herta, Valencia, No. 4, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 198 laps

14. (3) Scott Goodyear, Canada, No. 24, 1995 Reynard-Honda, 195 laps

15. (20) Hideshi Matsuda, Japan, No. 54, 1994 Lola-Ford, 194 laps

16. (31) Stefan Johansson, Sweden, No. 16, 1994 Reynard-Ford, 192 laps

17. (1) Scott Brayton, Coldwater, Mich., No. 60, 1995 Lola-Menard, 190 laps

18. (12) r-Andre Ribeiro, Brazil, No. 31, 1995 Reynard-Honda, 187 laps

19. (8) Scott Pruett, Granite Bay, Ca., No. 20, 1995 Lola-Ford, 184 laps

20. (22) Raul Boesel, Brazil, No. 11. 1995 Lola-Mercedes, 184 laps

21. (25) Adrian Fernandez, Mexico, No. 10, 1995 Lola-Mercedes, 176 laps

22. (9) Jimmy Vasser, Discovery Bay, Ca., No. 12, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 170 laps

23. (32) Davy Jones, Tahoe, Nev., No. 77, 1995 Lola-Ford, 161 laps

24. (16) Paul Tracy, Canada, No. 3, 1995 Lola-Ford, 136 laps (throttle)

25. (4) Michael Andretti, Nazareth, Pa., No. 6, 1995 Lola-Ford, 77 laps (mechanical)

26. (30) Scott Sharp, East Norwalk, Conn., No. 41, 1995 Lola-Ford, 74 laps (crash)

27. (23) Buddy Lazier, Vail, Colo., No. 80, 1995 Lola-Menard, 45 laps (fuel system)

28. (26) Eric Bachelart, Belgium, No. 19, 1994 Lola-Ford, 6 laps (mechanical)

29. (19) r-Gil de Ferran, Brazil, No. 8, 1995 Reynard-Mercedes, 1 lap (crash)

30. (11) Stan Fox, Janesville, Wis., No. 91, 1995 Reynard-Ford, 0 lap (crash)

31. (14) Eddie Cheever, Aspen, Colo., No. 14, 1995 Lola-Ford, 0 lap (crash)

32. (28) Lyn St. James, Daytona Beach, Fla., No. 90, 1995 Lola-Ford, 0 lap (crash)

33. (29) r-Carlos Guerrero, Mexico, No. 22, 1995 Lola-Ford, 0 lap (crash)

r--rookie * Time of race: 3 hours 15 minutes 17.561 seconds

* Winner’s miles per hour: 153.616

* Margin of victory: 2.481 seconds

* Caution flags: 9 for 68 laps

* Lead changes: 23 times by 10 drivers

* Fast lap: 224.009 m.p.h., Goodyear, Lap 179

* Lap leaders: Goodyear 1-9, Luyendyk 10-16, Andretti 17-32, Goodyear 33-35, Villeneuve 36-42, Andretti 43-66, Goodyear 67, Gugelmin 68-76, Andretti 77, Goodyear 78-81, Gugelmin 82-116, Goodyear 117-120, Rahal 121, Boesel 122-123, Gugelmin 124-138, Goodyear 139, Vasser 140-155, Villeneuve 156-162, Pruett 163-165, Gordon 166, Vasser 167-170, Pruett 171-175, Goodyear 176-195, Villeneuve 196-200.

Indy 500 Special Report

* An in-depth report on the Indianapolis 500 is available on TimesLink. Recent articles from The Times, profiles of the top teams, qualifying times, team standings at race time and final results. Select “Special Reports” in the Sports & Recreation section.

Details on Times electronic services, A6