Unser Steers Away From Demons

His name is Al. His girlfriend made jokes about him to his face. Called him “Al Coholic.”

He started drinking when he was 16, climbing out of a sprint car and having a beer shoved in his hand. “That’s basically when it started,” Al says. “I went from being a sophomore in high school to being an adult literally overnight.”

He continued to accept the beers. And more. After Carburetion Day at the 1992 Indianapolis 500, he and the woman who was then his wife went drinking with his crew chief, “and we ended up in a knockdown, drag-out fight.”

Three days later, he won the biggest race in the world.

It didn’t stop.

Last summer, two days after losing his gearbox at Kansas Speedway and finishing 17th, he went into a strip club in Indianapolis.

“I was drinking quite a lot,” Al says. “There were shots of tequila, all kinds of things at the club.”

On the way home, he argued with his girlfriend. He hit her, then got in the driver’s seat of his SUV and left her at the side of the freeway. It was 3:30 a.m. when the cops picked her up, and when they showed up at his motor home -- parked at Indianapolis Motor Speedway -- they weren’t interested in the alcohol. They were interested in the domestic battery and violence.

His name is Al Unser Jr.

He woke up the next morning with a hangover and knew exactly where he was.

Rock bottom.

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His drinking problem was one of the worst-kept secrets in the garage. He was in the big leagues in 1983 and in 1984 won his first race at 22. His face was so wholesome, he was nicknamed “Opie.” “Over the years,” he says, “I’d worked with just about every crew member out there. Yeah, pretty much, I was the last to know that I had a problem.”

Looking back, he wonders when he lost control of himself.

“Probably after I won the Indy 500 the first time,” Unser says of that 1992 victory. “Maybe after I won the national championship in 1990.

“I’m sure it happened when I accomplished all my goals from childhood, which was basically winning the Indy 500.”

There were a lot of parties, “a lot of bad decisions.” Unser lived in the fast lane -- on the track and off it. Rumors of drug use have circulated. Unser makes no admission but repeats: “I’m going to say that I’ve made a lot of bad decisions under the influence of alcohol.”

The last time he was under that influence, Unser struck his girlfriend of five years, Jena Soto. The misdemeanor charges were later dropped.

The incident ignited a storm of negative publicity in an industry that mostly steers clear of such things.

“The only word that comes to mind is devastating,” Unser says. “I was truly embarrassed. Yes, for myself, but I wasn’t the only one involved there. I was embarrassed for Jena, embarrassed for my family name.

“When they took me to jail, the officer patting me down said, ‘This is the first time I’ve ever patted down an Indy 500 champion.’

“When that guy said those words, it all started coming through to me. My car owner, my sponsors, it just keeps going. There was more than just me who was being embarrassed. It goes all the way to the 10-year-old boy who has me as an idol.”

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Unser remembers the date clearly. “I stopped drinking on July 9th.”

The Classy Chassis served him his last adult beverage. But more than a year removed, he talks about his problem with ease. He doesn’t hide it. He offers his cell phone number “if there’s anything you’re a little vague on.”

He spent 18 days in rehabilitation, “an insane asylum” on the East Coast, he says. “It wasn’t a celebrity deal, it was the bare minimum.”

Al Unser Jr. is still a big name. He won two CART championships and, with 31 victories, ranks sixth in all-time victories. He won two IROC championships when it really was an international race of champions. And he has added three victories in the Indy Racing League, including one this year. Southern California, too, has been good to Unser; he won six times at Long Beach and hopes to add a victory at Fontana on Sunday.

At autograph shows, such as the one in Auburn, Ind., last month, he finds friends. Unser has discovered that he isn’t alone.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people have actually had a problem with alcohol, and how many people say they’re proud of what I’m doing, and they’ve had 10 or 15 years without a drink,” he says. “The support has been overwhelming.”

Unser has gone 14 months without a drink. “I’m learning more about myself than I ever knew,” he says. “It’s a daily process.”

The past year has been one of his best, he says, and not because of what’s taking place in owner Tom Kelley’s Corteco-sponsored Toyota. Unser is sixth in the driver standings and, at 41, is still relevant on the track.

“Al’s done an exceptionally good job, [since facing his problem],” Kelley said. “He won that Texas race [in June at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth] and he could have won a couple of more. I’m extremely proud of the way he’s faced things and the professional way he’s continued racing. Nothing is settled for next season -- there’s always the problem of sponsorships -- but I’d love to continue my association with Al as long as he stays in racing.”

Unser finally seems content -- and in control -- off the track.

“My life is so much better now than it was 10 years ago,” he says. “Ten years ago I was in a marriage that was barely hanging on, my alcohol problem was affecting me and I didn’t even know it. Today, my life is pretty simple and I’m enjoying it.

“Truly, away from the race track, I’m just a whole different person. I feel better, I’m a lot more clearheaded, I feel alive and I feel awake.... Every day gets better.”

He is down to about a pack of cigarettes a day, in part because he smoked when he drank. He has lost 15 pounds -- “pushing 180, I’m not going to lie to you” -- though he is listed at 170.

When races are over, he leaves the track “instead of drinking with the guys.” When he experiences a trigger mechanism that ignites a desire -- the last one was about 3 1/2 months ago -- he turns to Soto for support.

His name, Unser -- among the most famous in racing history -- is synonymous with Albuquerque. Yet his six-bedroom, nearly 10,000-square-foot house -- on 27 acres -- is empty and up for sale.

Unser, Soto and her two sons have moved to Henderson, Nev., where he spends a lot of time water skiing on Lake Mead and playing golf.

In Albuquerque, there were too many memories. “Demons,” he calls them.

“The worst temptation was living in the house that had my four children in it that I wasn’t getting to see,” Unser says. “Once I got sober, [moving] was a no-brainer.”

He sees a therapist to deal with those feelings and realities that trigger his drinking. “I’m still very early in my sobriety,” Unser says, “and if I let my guard down, the whole thing goes down.”

And Unser knows what it’s like to let his guard down.

“I could quit drinking, work out, lose 30 pounds and be all trimmed up and physically fit, and a few weeks later have a drink and then another drink,” he says. “And before I knew it, I was six months down the road doing mean stuff to my family, the ones that I loved the most.”

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Al Unser Jr. was nearly destroyed by his success.

“I’ve accomplished a lot of things in my life,” he says. “I’ve had a lot of failures in my life that have been very public. On one hand, it shows I’m an incredible guy with incredible talent, and on the other it shows I’m a complete failure -- and have failed -- in areas. To me, that proves I’m a normal guy who puts his pants on one leg at a time.”

But how normal is a life when you’ve always been famous, if not for your own accomplishments, then for those of your father? And unlike most sequels, Al Unser Jr. lived up to the expectations that came with being Al Unser’s son.

“Success came to me very quickly, and I was very young,” Unser says. “I don’t believe I was prepared to handle it. I don’t know how you could be prepared to handle it. You learn as you go, and the way I did it was not the way to do it. But it was too, because I accomplished a lot in my life.”

Awards. Fame. Riches. Racing brought him much to be grateful for.

“But,” he says, “the money and the success was pretty hard on me.”

His name is Al. He is an alcoholic. And it is no joke.

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Times staff writer Mike Kupper contributed to this report.