bob jennings' WORLD O' RACING 06/10/2000
Little Al's return
Al Unser Jr. qualifies for the 84th "Indianapolis 500" at 220.293 mph
Bob Jennings
Having Al Unser Jr. back in the "Indianapolis 500" for the first time since his second "500" victory in 1994 was the best thing about May 2000 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for me. Little Al's return played a significant part in the enthusiasm that characterized the personality of the 15 days of activity at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month. Certainly Junior was one of the stars of May 2000 at the Speedway, a focal point of attention along with Sarah Fisher, Greg Ray and the two Target Ganassi drivers, race winner Juan Montoya and teammate Jimmy Vasser.
Coming into May Little Al was riding high coming off his first Indy Racing League win on April 22 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Throughout the two weeks of race preparation Unser Jr. almost always seemed to be bubbling with happiness and anticipation over making his return to the "Indianapolis 500." He went as far as to say that even though he lived in Albuquerque, he felt like Indianapolis was home. It had to be especially gratifying to receive enthusiastic cheers from the fans when he appeared with his car in the pits on the opening day of "500" practice Saturday May 13. Al Jr. remarked the only driver he could recall getting an ovation like that at the Speedway was A.J. Foyt.
Unser's official return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway started off well. Al was fastest on the opening day of "500" practice Saturday May 13 with a lap at 217.223 mph in the 3T car he later qualified for the race. Little Al ran 17 laps in the 3T car and 22 laps in his car number 3 with a best lap at 211.934 mph. The next day Sunday May 14 Al Jr. was second fastest at 220.686, running 37 laps in 3T. On Monday May 15 he was once again second fastest running 74 laps in his number 3 G-Force with a best lap at 221.861 mph. I was surprised that Junior was running so fast early in practice. That's not been his style even in the days when he was at the top in Indy car racing. His early speed started me thinking that Little Al might really be in the zone and on a magic ride back to Victory Lane at the Speedway.
I went to the pits on a sunny Monday May 15 afternoon to get some photos. Al Jr. was in his car waiting to go on to the track while a track inspection was taking place. As I crouched down to get some frontal shots I yelled to Junior, "great looking race car" and he responded with a thumbs up sign. The Tickets.com G-Force is a neat looking racer. White and black with red trim isn't as pretty to me as the navy blue and white Valvoline cars Little Al used to race but the graphics and presentation on his current racer are striking and accent the swoopy lines of the 2000 model G-Force perfectly. The Tickets.com car was the most visible car at the Speedway, easy to spot from a distance. The car has an almost Formula One like appearance and I like it. Scott Goodyear's Pennzoil Dallara number 4 was given an award for presentation, maybe for the black silhouette of a panther on the engine cover contrasting with the bright Pennzoil yellow colors. I think the Galles car looks better.
On Tuesday May 16 Unser Jr. concentrated on number 3T running 21 laps in a day that was interrupted by rain. The best lap was 220.017 mph, which was twelfth fastest for the day. It seems like Little Al and the Rick Galles crew lost a bit of the edge at this point in the week of "500" practice. Junior began talking a lot about the fact that he was concentrating on qualifying for the race. Perhaps he was being extra cautious after failing to qualify for the 1995 "500" but it seems like the effort began to fall off beginning on the fourth day of practice.
Rain stopped "500" practice on Wednesday May 17 after about 30 minutes. Little Al was one of 17 drivers on the track and he completed 12 laps in car 3T with a best lap of 218.183 mph, ninth fastest on the day. It was so windy the next day Thursday May 18 that the yellow light came on a couple times to bring cars off the track for wind gusts. I kept looking at the Galles ECR garages and the doors were shut. There was a group of four Galles crewmen sitting on a golf cart outside. I asked one of them if Al Jr. was going to be out and he didn't know, saying there wasn't a lot to be learned in the high winds. Upon hearing the crewman's remarks the first question that came into my mind was what if it was windy during qualifications or race day. Junior did make it on to the track for 11 laps in the number 3 car with a best lap at 205.098 mph, which was the slowest time recorded for the 39 cars on the track.
On Friday May 19 Little Al and the Galles crew were busy. From the number of laps run in both the number 3 and number 3T cars, it appeared Junior was trying to make up his mind which car to qualify. 48 different cars took to the track completing 2212 laps of practice. Unser ran 69 laps in number 3 with a fast lap of 219.363 mph, which placed the car at number 32 on the speed charts. He ran 33 laps in 3T with the fastest being 221.836 mph, eleventh fastest on the day.
I was sitting in the bleachers placed atop the new Formula One garages Friday
May 19. These new seats provide an outstanding view. I watched Little
Al and the Galles crew for much of the day. It appeared that Junior was working
hard to find more speed and sometimes he appeared frustrated. Greg Ray's
lap at 223.948 mph was the fastest that day and the fastest turned during
the seven days of "500" practice. Perhaps Al Jr. was finding the closeness
of lap times in Indy Racing League competition surprising. The last time
he competed at the Speedway for the "500" in 1995, Scott Brayton was the
fastest qualifier at 231.600 mph and Lyn St. James was the slowest at 225.340
mph and that was one of the most competitive Mays at Indianapolis during
the CART era. This is definitely a different time now!
Unser was the first qualifier on Pole day Saturday May 20. I was disappointed when the first lap in the 218 mph range was flashed on the screen deep in the infield in turn one. Junior picked it up with each of his next three laps and was running over 221 mph at the end of his run, to average 220.293 mph. Little Al said after qualifying that he was being cautious on his first lap to ensure that he heated his tires properly. It was cold on Pole day!
Little Al's qualifying run reminded me a lot of Tony Stewart's "500" qualifying run in 1999. In both cases, more so with Stewart, I was somewhat concerned with the speed average and how well it would hold up. Junior never showed any apprehension about his run however and he seemed as happy with his eighteenth starting position as Greg Ray did with Pole Position.
When he quit the race after completing 89 laps to finish 29th Little Al still seemed happy, talking about how great it was to see the crowds on the pace laps and talk to Tom Sneva on the ABC telecast while he was on the parade lap. Little Al seemed choked with emotion when he talked to Sneva and he had little more than one and 1/2 laps to prepare for the green flag start.
I became an Al Unser Jr. fan initially because he's the son of my all time favorite racing driver. I sort of shifted my emphasis from father to son during the 1989 "Indianapolis 500."
Big Al started the 1989 "500" from the middle of row one (223.470) in the
Marlboro Penske PC19 - Chevrolet. I was confident Unser Sr. had an excellent
shot at winning his fifth "500" but he dropped out of the race after 68 laps
with clutch problems. Little Al started eighth in the Galles Valvoline Lola
- Chevrolet (218.640) and mostly hung around throughout the first half of
the race while Emerson Fittipaldi dominated. Junior fell a lap down to Fittipaldi
but outstanding pit work by the Galles crew and a pit stop gamble by Rick
Galles put Junior back on the lead lap in the closing stages. When Little
Al saw that he had a shot at winning he began charging like a man crazed.
As much as any time in his career Al Unser Jr. was in the zone in the
closing laps of the 1989 "Indianapolis 500."
Fittipaldi led at the start of the race in his Patrick - Ganassi Racing Penske PC19 - Chevrolet and had been in front for all but a couple of laps after pit stops and during a 35 lap segment when Michael Andretti was leading. The race had Fittipaldi's name stamped all over it. Unser Jr. didn't see it that way though. He wanted the "500" win as badly as Fittipaldi. I was sitting in the Tower Terrace seats that year, the final time I was in the grandstands for the "500." I'll never forget the image of Little Al's navy blue and white Valvoline Lola number 2 chasing down Fittipaldi's white and day glow red Marlboro car 20. It was thrilling, one of those magic "Indianapolis 500" moments. The crowd was going crazy when Junior passed Emmo on the main straightaway with seven laps to go.
Anyone who's been around the "Indianapolis 500" for more than a few years can recall the Fittipaldi - Unser battle in the closing laps of the 1989 race. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway sells a poster of an excellent Michael Turner painting depicting Little Al's crash after he and Emmo bumped wheels in turn three on lap 199 of the 1989 "500." Before the 1999 "500" when leader Robby Gordon had to pit with the white flag in sight, Fittipaldi's pass on Unser Jr. was the latest point in an Indianapolis race for a lead change.
That moment in the 1989 race personified the passion Al Unser Jr. has displayed
for the "Indianapolis 500" during his career. Throughout May 2000 Little
Al kept reminding everyone how happy he was to be back at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway and that gives me a lot of pleasure. The trend in recent years
has been for some of my favorites to walk away from the "500" like Nigel
Mansell in 1994 and Tony Stewart last year. Regardless of the downturn
in his fortunes in recent seasons Al Jr. wants to race at the Indianapolis
Motor Speedway in May more than anything else and that makes me very happy.
When the green flag fell for the 84th "Indianapolis 500" Little Al took it easy, sort of feeling his way around again and letting things settle a bit. He was running in positions 14 through 18 during the early laps. After his first pit stop (13 seconds) on lap 28 Junior started passing cars. I saw Al Jr. slingshot past three or four cars at the end of the backstretch between his first and second stops. Unser made his second stop on lap 58, another 13-second stop. By that time Al had moved into the top ten.
Since the race ran under green, it was proceeding in an orderly fashion and
there was a lot of passing going on behind leader Juan Montoya. I saw Little
Al take Jimmy Vasser for eighth position going into turn three on lap 65.
The next lap Greg Ray pushed into the outside wall coming out of the second
turn. Unser came by me with steam pouring from under his car. I thought he'd
lost an engine but actually he punctured a radiator after driving over some
of the debris from Ray's wreckage. That was a big
disappointment!
Going into the race I wasn't exactly sure what I thought Little Al's chances would be. There were 14 drivers in the race who I thought had a realistic chance of winning; Greg Ray, Juan Montoya, Eliseo Salazar, Robby Gordon, Scott Sharp, Jeff Ward, Jimmy Vasser, Robbie Buhl, Eddie Cheever, Mark Dismore, Scott Goodyear, Buddy Lazier, Al Jr. and Billy Boat. However I felt like the fastest cars were the two Menard cars (Ray and Gordon), the two Target Ganassi cars (Montoya and Vasser) and the two Foyt cars (Salazar and Ward). I also expected Cheever and Lazier to be fast too. Regarding Al Jr., my feeling was that he would play more of a factor during the second half of the race than during the first 100 laps. If he found the Tickets.com car to his liking he might charge to the front but I thought it more likely he would wait for the race to come to him and if that happened he'd most likely be ready.
Al Jr. came to the pits and the car was taken to the garage to replace the radiator. Car number 3 was back in the race by the halfway point, although Al was running several laps behind the leaders. He ran several laps however before parking for the day, deciding there wasn't much to be gained. I heard some criticism about Little Al's decision to park for the day but for me it made sense. He wasn't racing anyone and the positions he might've gained would've been minimal.
I'm anxious to see how Little Al does in the five remaining races on the
2000 Indy Racing League schedule. I don't see him dominating but I think
Junior has a shot at winning another IRL race this season, especially in
one the longer races like tonight's 300-mile plus race at Texas Motor Speedway.
I don't think Al Jr. going to be spectacular necessarily in the seasons ahead
but I believe he'll come back from his slump and restore some of the success
he's enjoyed in the past. I wouldn't bet against Little Al adding another
"Indianapolis 500" win either.