Business as Usual for Penske’s Team : Motor racing: After a qualifying debacle at Indianapolis, Fittipaldi and Unser start second and third in Milwaukee.

The topsy-turvy world of Indy car racing returned to form Saturday on the aging Milwaukee Mile oval.

The red and white Marlboro Penske cars of Emerson Fittipaldi and Al Unser Jr., missing last week at the Indianapolis 500, are back up front again, resuming their dominating presence in Indy car racing.

Only Teo Fabi prevented Fittipaldi and Unser from sitting together on the front row for today’s Miller Genuine Draft 200, seventh race of the Indy car season. Fabi, the day’s final qualifier, stole the pole with a lap of 162.456 m.p.h. in a Reynard-Ford.

It didn’t dampen the spirits of Roger Penske and his drivers, though, as they returned from the depths of two weeks ago when they failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

“I think we made the show this weekend,” Unser said, smiling for the first time in two weeks after temporarily taking the pole with a 161.191-m.p.h. lap. “Of course, we should have done well. Our team had more time to rest since Indy.”

Fittipaldi, after running 161.201 for the spot alongside Fabi, said: “For sure, getting back in the race car and going fast, it was a great feeling.

“I was with the crew watching Teo’s run and my mind went back to Indianapolis when we were watching Stefan [Johansson] bump us from the race. It is a much better feeling to be bumped from the pole by the last qualifier than to be bumped from the race.”

Penske, whose cars won 10 Indianapolis 500s and started 29 times from the front row at Indy before being shut out this year, was as ecstatic as his drivers.

“Same cars, same drivers, but what a different feeling,” he said after rushing to congratulate Unser and Fittipaldi. “We didn’t want to do anything crazy here. We just wanted to show everyone what we’re all about. We’re back running strong. We’ve still got more races to win, and now our target is the [series] championship.”

Asked how the cars that carry his name could do so well one place and fail so miserably at Indianapolis, Penske said: “Aerodynamics. The same cars can be totally different animals at different tracks.

“We won at Long Beach and Nazareth [Pa.] and would have won Phoenix if Fittipaldi didn’t run out of fuel, and we couldn’t believe we couldn’t get the same cars to work at Indy. We waited too long before we gave up, and you know the results.”

Indianapolis is a 2 1/2-mile track. Phoenix, Nazareth and Milwaukee, the oldest track on the circuit, are all one mile.

Unser said he doubted if he would ever fully recover from the shock of missing the 500--the first time since 1962 that there was no member of the Unser family in the race.

“I can’t forget the month of May,” he said. “It will be with me for the rest of my life. I’m 33 now and I’ve been a race driver for 15 years and had never missed a race in my whole career, and then Indy is my first miss. It is devastating.”

Unser said he could not bear to watch last Sunday’s 500 in person.

“About the time Jim Nabors was singing ‘Back Home Again in Indiana,’ ” he said, “I got in a golf cart and headed back to my room at the Speedway Motel. I watched the race on TV. I critiqued everybody out there.

“I felt like [failing to qualify] was spilt milk and there was nothing to do but clean it up, go to the refrigerator and get a new glassful.”

Fittipaldi said he watched the race with Penske from his sponsor’s suite.

“It was a strange feeling, like being a fish out of water,” he said.