San Antonio Express-News

Indy Car legend left mark

- By Jenna Fryer

Al Unser, one of only four drivers to win the Indianapol­is 500 a record four times, died Thursday following a long illness. He was 82.

Unser died at his home in Chama, N.M., with his wife, Susan, by his side, Indianapol­is Motor Speedway said early Friday. He had been battling cancer for 17 years.

“My heart is so saddened. My father passed away last night,” son Al Unser Jr., himself a twotime Indy 500 winner, posted on social media. “He was a Great man and even a Greater Father. Rest In Peace Dad!”

Unser is the third member of one of America's most famed racing families to die in 2021. His oldest brother, three-time Indy 500 winner Bobby Unser, died in May, and Bobby Unser Jr. passed six weeks after his father.

Known as “Big Al” once his own son made a name for himself in racing, Unser is part of an elite club of four-time winners of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.” Unser won the Indy 500 in 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987, and is the only driver in history to have both a sibling and a child also win one of the biggest races in the world.

His final victory at 47 made him the oldest winner in Indy 500 history. He dominated in his first Indy win in 1970 by starting from the pole and leading all but 10 of the 200 laps. Unser beat runner-up Mark Donohue by 32 seconds that year.

Unser led over half the laps in three of his Indy 500 victories, and his 644 total laps led at Indianapol­is is most in race history. He made 27 starts in the

Indy 500, third most in history, and qualified once on the pole and five times on the front row.

Unser won three Indy car national championsh­ips during his career, and his total of 39 victories is sixth on the all-time list.

He and son Al Jr. were the first father-son pairing at Indianapol­is, and in 1985 they battled one another for the CART championsh­ip.

A pass in the closing laps of the race gave Unser a fourth-place finish in the season finale at Miami's Tamiami Park road course, and it was enough for him to beat Al Jr. for the championsh­ip by a single point. He fought back tears while describing the “empty feeling” of defeating his son.

Unser also ran five NASCAR races in his career, finishing fourth in the 1968 Daytona 500. He earned three top-10 finishes in NASCAR. He also won three times in the Internatio­nal Race of Champions, an all-star series that pitted the top drivers from various discipline­s against each other.

Unser won the Indy car “Triple Crown” by winning all three of of the 500-mile races on the 1978

schedule, which included stops at Pocono Raceway and in Ontario, Calif. He's the only driver in history to win all three of those races in the same season.

The Unser family combined for a record nine wins in the Indy 500; Al Jr. won the Indy 500 twice — in 1992 and 1994. Coincident­ally, Al Unser, Al Unser Jr. and Bobby Unser all won their final Indy 500s driving for Roger Penske. Helio Castroneve­s won his first three Indy 500s driving for Penske.

“Al was the quiet leader of the Unser family, a tremendous competitor and one of the greatest drivers to ever race at the Indianapol­is Motor Speedway,“Penske said.

“We were honored to help Al earn a place in history with his fourth Indy victory … and he will always be a big part of our team. Our thoughts are with the Unser family as they mourn the loss of a man that was beloved across the racing world and beyond.”

The youngest of four racing brothers, Unser was born in in Albuquerqu­e in 1939 to a family of hardcore racers. His father Jerry Unser and two uncles, Louis and Joe, were also drivers.

 ?? Tom Strattman / Associated Press ?? Al Unser Sr., right, who died Thursday at 82, is one of only four drivers to win four Indy 500 titles.
Tom Strattman / Associated Press Al Unser Sr., right, who died Thursday at 82, is one of only four drivers to win four Indy 500 titles.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States