Sports Then and Now

Al Unser Jr., held off Scott Goodyear by 0.043 to win his first Indy 500.

In this edition of our Vintage Video, we are looking at the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

The 1992 Indy 500 is memorable for many reasons.

It started with pole setter Roberto Guerrero spinning out and crashing on the pace lap.

Then, Michael Andretti, the son of legendary driver Mario Andretti, dominated the race leading 160 laps and building a seemingly insurmountable 30-second lead.

However, with 11 laps remaining Michael fell victim to what many have called the “Andretti curse” as his fuel pump failed and forced him out of the race.

That left the door open for another second generation driver as Al Unser, Jr. took the lead and held off Scott Goodyear by 0.043 seconds to become the third member of the Unser family (joining his father and uncle Bobby) to claim victory at the Brickyard.

Another notable component of the 1992 Indy 500 is that it included more former champions than any previous race and was the final Indy appearance for A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears, Tom Sneva and Gordon Johncock.

Check out the final laps of the race.

Al Unser, Jr. edged Scott Goodyear to win the 1992 Indianapolis 500.

This year’s running of the Indianapolis 500 marks the 100th anniversary of the first race back in 1911 and has been run every year with the exceptions of 1917-1918 and 1942-45 because of the two World Wars.

While the race has lost much of its stature as one of the biggest sporting events in America, the race still has special mention for many drivers and racing fans throughout the world.

With that in mind, here are the ten most memorable Indianapolis 500s of all time:

10. 1977
A.J. Foyt becomes the first driver to win the Indianapolis 500 four times as he takes the lead with sixteen laps to go when leader the crankshaft on Gordon Johncock’s car breaks.

The race is also historic for having Janet Guthrie, the first female driver ever to race in the Indy 500, as she starts the race 26th but falls out of the race after 27 laps because of a gearbox failure.

9. 1960
Jim Rathmann and Rodger Ward engage in a duel for the ages as the two drivers swapped the lead 14 times in the last 78 laps, the last lead swap coming on the 197th lap when Rathmann passes Ward after the cord on the right front tire of Ward’s car wears down, causing him to fall back.

Rathmann goes onto win the race over Ward by 12 seconds for his only win in the Indy 500.

8. 1989
Emerson Fittipaldi dominated the 1989 race by leading 156 of the first 195 laps, but was passed by Al Unser Jr. with five laps to go and had to come from behind to win the race in the final laps.

On the next-to-last lap, Fittipaldi caught “Little Al” and was side-by-side with him going into turn three when the right front tire of Fittipaldi’s car touched with the left rear tire of Unser’s car, causing Unser to spin out and crash, while Fittipaldi continued on to take the white flag and the yellow flag as the leader of the race.

As Fittipaldi came back around on the final lap, Unser Jr. saluted the former 2-time Formula 1 champion as Fittipaldi went on to win the first of two Indianapolis 500s in his career. Read the rest of this entry →