1989 Indianapolis 500

The 73rd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 28, 1989. Emerson Fittipaldi became the first foreign winner of the race since 1966. Though Fittipaldi dominated most of the race, he dropped to second in the waning laps. On the 199th lap, Al Unser, Jr. was leading Fittipaldi down the backstretch. The two cars weaved through lap traffic, and Fittipaldi dove underneath in turn three. The two cars touched wheels, and Unser spun out, crashing into the outside wall. Fittipaldi coasted around the final lap to score his first Indy 500 victory.

Backgound
Speedway management had resurfaced the entire track with asphalt the previous fall, which resulted in higher overall speeds for the Month of May.

Practice - week 1
Opening day was Saturday May 6. Only eleven cars took to the track on a cold 45°F day, which saw snow flurries in the morning and the afternoon. Arie Luyendyk (213.657 mph) led the speed chart for the day.

Practice picked up on Sunday May 7, with 44 cars taking to the track. Emerson Fittipaldi (221.347 mph) set the fastest lap of practice thus far. Michael Andretti was also over 220 mph.

On Monday May 8, Rick Mears set an-time unofficial track record at 225.733 mph, the first ever practice lap over 225 mph at the Speedway. His teammate Al Unser, Sr. was close behind at 224.831 mph.

Rain washed out practice for Tuesday May 9.

On Wednesday May 10, rookie Steve Butler crashed in turn 4, suffering a broken collarbone. The speeds were slightly down from Monday, with Al Unser, Sr. topping the chart at 223.380 mph.

At 4:11 p.m. on Thursday May 11, Danny Sullivan's car lost the engine cover, causing him to break into a 180° spin in turn three. The car hit the wall hard with the right side. Sullivan suffered a mild concussion and a fractured right arm. Sullivan would be forced to sit out the first week of time trials. High winds kept the speeds down, with Jim Crawford in a Buick V-6 (221.021 mph) the best lap of the day.

Rick Mears blistered the track on Friday May 12, the final day of practice before time trials. His lap of 226.231 mph was the fastest practice lap ever run at the Speedway. Jim Crawford and Al Unser, Sr. also topped 225 mph. Mears finished the week as the favorite for the pole position.

Time trials - weekend 1
Pole day was scheduled for Saturday May 13. Rain, however, washed out the entire day. All time trial activities were postponed until Sunday.

On Sunday May 14, pole day time trials were held. The cars would be allowed one trip through the qualifying draw order, and the pole round would be concluded. Al Unser, Sr. drew first in line, and was the first driver to make an attempt. Unser set a track record on all four laps, and put himself on the provisional pole position with a track record run of 223.471 mph.

A busy hour of qualifying saw several cars complete runs. Scott Brayton, Scott Pruett, Bernard Jourdain, Teo Fabi, and Michael Andretti were among those who completed runs. Bobby Rahal and A. J. Foyt followed, and the field was already filled to 11 cars by 1:30 p.m.

At 2 p.m., Mario Andretti (220.486 mph) tentatively put himself third. The next car out, however, was pole favorite Rick Mears. Mears set a one-lap track record of 224.254 mph, and a four-lap record of 223.885 mph to secure the pole position. Minutes later, Michael Andretti's car was disqualified for being 4.5 pounds underweight.

With Mears and Unser, Sr. firmly holding the top two spots, the rest of the session focused on which driver would round out the front row in third starting position. Jim Crawford, in the Buick V-6, set a stock block track record of 221.450 mph to sit in third at 2:40 p.m. Twenty minutes later, though, Emerson Fittipaldi took to the track, the final car eligible for the pole round. His run of 222.329 mph put him on the outside of the front row, and bumped Craford back to row 2.

After the pole position round was settled, the "second day" of time trials commenced at 3:15 p.m. Michael Andretti re-qualified at 218.774 mph (the 8th fastest car in the field), but was forced to start 22nd as a second-day qualifier. Tom Sneva had an impressive first lap of 223.176 mph, but blew his engine before the run was completed. At the end of the day, the field was filled to 26 cars.

Practice - week 2
Practice during the second week was light, with many qualified drivers practicing in back-up cars. Most of the focus was on the non-qualified drivers, and the recovery status of Danny Sullivan. The Penske Team started preparing a car for Sullivan, with Geoff Brabham selected to shake the car down.

Danny Sullivan returned to the cockpit on Thursday May 18. He completed about 10-12 hot laps, with a top speed of 213.118 mph. Jim Crawford crashed his already-qualified car in turn 3. A suspension piece broke as he entered the turn, and the car spun into the outside wall. The team would repair the machine.

Rain washed out practice on Friday May 19, the third day overall lost during the month.

Time trials - weekend 2
On the third day of time trials, Saturday May 20, Danny Sullivan qualified comfortably at 216.027 mph. Sullivan was the fastest car of the day, followed by Kevin Cogan and Rocky Moran. Two crashes occurred during the day, involving Buddy Lazier and Steve Saleen. Neither would manage to qualify. At the end of the third day, the field was filled to 31 cars.

On Bump Day, Sunday May 21, much of the attention was focused on Johnny Rutherford, the biggest name who had yet to qualify. As the day opened, Billy Vukovich III (216.698 mph) put his car in the field with an impressive run, ranked 16th-fastest overall. The second car to qualify was Johnny Rutherford, who completed his run at 213.097 mph and filled the field to 33 cars. Davy Jones (211.475 mph) was now on the bubble.

John Paul, Jr. bumped Jones out of the field at 12:45 p.m., However, he himself was now on the bubble at 211.969 mph. At 3 p.m., Jones returned to the track and bumped his way back into the field. The move put Phil Krueger (212.458 mph) on the bubble.At 4:45 p.m., Pancho Carter bumped out Krueger. Johnny Rutherford (213.097 mph) now found himself on the bubble.

Rutherford survived three attempts, and held on to the bubble spot over the next hour. During that time, he put together a last-minutes deal to step into an A. J. Foyt back-up car. He shook down the car, and appeared to be finding speed.

With 15 minutes left in the day, Rich Vogler (213.239 mph) bumped Johnny Rutherford from the field. Rutherford scrambled to get in line, and made it to the front in just enough time. At 5:58 p.m., Rutherford pulled out onto the track for an attempt. His warm-up lap was fast enough to qualify, but just after he took the green flag, his engine blew in turn 1. Rutherford failed to make the field for only the second time in his career.

Start
At the start, Emerson Fittipaldi jumped to the lead and began to pull away. On the third lap, Kevin Cogan had a spectacular crash at the pit-entrance section of the front straightaway. His car made slight contact with the outside wall as he exited turn four, spun to the inside and made heavy contact with the inside pit wall. The car rebounded into the attenuating barrier at the pit entrance, broke in two pieces, and slid on its side through the pits. The engine completely separated from the remains of the car and came to a stop in the pit area. Amazingly, Cogan climbed out unhurt.

Mid race
The race was dominated by Emerson Fittipaldi for the first 400 miles. During that stretch, several contenders retired due to mechanical failures, including all three Penske machines. Top-five contenders Bobby Rahal, Jim Crawford, and Arie Luyendyk also dropped out of the race. Mario Andretti experienced electrical problems, which caused him to lose significant ground to the leader. Michael Andretti, who had started in the seventh row, had been chasing Fittipaldi the entire race and by the 150 lap mark, he was within sights of the leader. Meanwhile, Al Unser, Jr. remained on the leap lap in third place, despite being lapped earlier in the race. By this point, the three leaders had significant distance on the fourth place car of Raul Boesel. With less than 100 miles to go, Michael Andretti passed Fittipaldi for the lead, but his engine expired a few laps later, ending the young Andretti's bid for an Indy 500 win. Fittipaldi regained the lead, with Al Unser, Jr. second. The remainder of the field ran at least six laps behind.

A caution came out with about 20 laps to go. Fittipaldi, leading, pitted for much-needed fuel, but nearly stalled his engine as he pulled away. He lost several seconds on the stop, and was also blocked by a safety truck as he exited the pit area. Al Unser, Jr. was running a distant second place, but the caution came to his advantage. The team decided to gamble on track position, so Unser stayed out and did not to pit for fuel. Team owner Rick Galles made the call not to pit - their fuel calculations were close, they thought they might be able to make it to the finish. Their reasoning was that if Unser ran out of fuel on the final lap, they would still finish no worse than second since third place Raul Boesel was six laps behind.

Finish
When the race restarted on lap 185, Fittipaldi quickly built a 3-second lead while Unser struggled to get around the lapped car of Raul Boesel (3rd place). After clearing Boesel, Unser began closing dramatically. By lap 193 he was directly behind Fittipaldi, and a lap later he nearly touched wheels with Emerson as the two drivers worked traffic and battled for the lead. On lap 196 he passed Fittipaldi for lead in turn three and began to pull away.

With two laps to go, Unser approached slower traffic. Fittipaldi closed in, and on the backstrech, pulled inside Unser. Running side-by-side in turn three, the Brazilian’s Penske drifted slightly high and the cars touched wheels. Unser spun around into the turn 3 wall. As the yellow flag came out for the last lap, Unser emerged unhurt and stepped to the edge of the track to give Fittipaldi a sporting thumbs-up as the pace car escorted "Emmo" to his first Indy win. In a post-race interview Unser, Jr. was asked whether the accident could have been avoided. He answered that he believed not as he and Fittipaldi "both wanted to win it badly."

Failed to Qualify

 * Johnny Rutherford (#98/#14T) - Bumped
 * Phil Krueger (#77) - Bumped
 * John Paul, Jr. (#39/#79/#97) - Bumped
 * Michael Greenfield (#17/#63) - failed to qualify; wave off
 * Tony Bettenhausen, Jr. (#17/#24) - failed to qualify; wave off
 * Steve Butler (#61) - crashed in practice
 * Buddy Lazier (#35) - crashed in practice
 * Steve Saleen (#59) - crashed in practice
 * Johnny Parsons (#59/#69) - crashed in practice
 * Scott Harrington (#44) - practiced, did not attempt to qualify
 * Tom Bigelow (#66) - practiced, did not attempt to qualify
 * Stan Fox (#84) - practiced, did not attempt to qualify
 * Steve Chassey (#79, #97) - practiced, did not attempt to qualify
 * Dale Coyne (#39) - practiced, did not attempt to qualify
 * Dick Ferguson (#47) - did not take practice
 * Bobby Olivero - unknown

Quotes
"They're side-by-side, Emmo on the inside, Al covered traffic goes high, they touched wheels, Al Jr. hit into the wall hard, Emerson Fittipaldi keeps on going, they touched wheels, Al Jr. into the wall and Emerson Fittipaldi will lead them back to the yellow flag" - Larry Henry described the crash involving Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi on Lap 198 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.

"Fittipaldi comes inside Little Al! A drag race on the back side again... Slower traffic moves to the right... Can Fittipaldi get past?  Little Al brings it down low... They touch!  Little Al into the wall, Fittipaldi continues on!  Little Al slams the wall, as Emerson Fittipaldi screams toward the white flag - the yellow flag comes out!" - Paul Page on ABC television.

Trivia

 * The field for this race is replicated in the video game format in the 1989 release Indianapolis 500: The Simulation.
 * The 1989 race was the best Indy 500 result for Rich Vogler (8th place) and Raul Boesel (3rd place). It was also the only top five finish at Indy for A. J. Foyt in the decade of the 1980s.