Al Unser Jr. to Drive in Indianapolis 500
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 21, 2006
Filed at 5:15 p.m. ET

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Al Unser Jr.'s passion for racing is back.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner said Tuesday he will end a two-year retirement and drive at Indy for Dreyer & Reinbold Racing. He'll also participate in Indy Racing League tests at the Speedway next month.

''The past is the past,'' Unser said. ''There was a time there I wasn't loving what I was doing. Since I got out of the car, I've gotten into a real estate partnership, played some golf, picked up tennis, and it's just not doing it for me.

''The Indy 500 is my true love, so we're going to go back there,'' said the 43-year-old Unser, a member of one of the most famous families in auto racing.

Unser last raced in 2004, when he said he no longer had the passion to compete.

''You just know when it's time,'' he said then.

But over the past 21 months, he realized he needed to make at least one more try at the world's most famous race.

''As time went on, I was watching the races more and more,'' he said during an IRL teleconference. ''It's in my blood. What can I say?''

Unser will team with 1996 Indy winner Buddy Lazier for Dreyer & Reinbold's two-car program at Indianapolis in May.

Among the 34 wins in his 22-year Indy-car career were the Indy 500 in 1992 and 1994. His father, Al Sr., won at Indianapolis four times and uncle Bobby won three times. Another uncle, Jerry, and cousins Johnny and Robby also drove at Indy.

Car owner Dennis Reinbold said he approached Unser several weeks ago after one of his crew members told him he heard Unser wanted to make a comeback.

''From our standpoint, we were working on putting things together for a second car anyway,'' Reinbold said. ''I could see the sparkle in his eyes, so I knew he wanted to get back in a race car.''

Unser, who also won the CART and IROC series championships and the 24 Hours of Daytona twice each, broke his pelvis in October 2003 in an all-terrain vehicle accident in New Mexico. After months of rehabilitation, he finally signed with Patrick Racing in March 2004 but missed the first three races of the season. In three IRL starts after that, his best finish was 11th.

He was 17th in his final race at Indianapolis in May 2004, his 17th start at Indy since his debut in 1983. The next month, he was the slowest qualifier and finished 22nd in his final race at Richmond.

Unser retired a year after one of his contemporaries, Michael Andretti, also stopped driving to devote all his time as co-owner of Andretti Green Racing. With defending Indy champion Dan Wheldon's departure to the rival Ganassi Racing this season, however, Andretti said he also would return to Indy as a driver this year.

Unser said his decision to come back was not prompted by Andretti's return.

''The itch for me and missing the race started quite a while ago,'' He said. ''It finally got to the point we had to scratch it. ... The sights, the sounds, the smell, the fans, everything. It's in my blood.''

R

Unser Jr and Michael Andretti are coming back for Indy 500?! Back to the future...

There are not a lot of cars in regular IRL races so they have more than room for more cars. It could be a bit dangerous to have non-regulars climb into a race car for this race.

Marco Andretti is a rookie in IRL. If Michael participate also that will make a father and son rivalry.

I want to preface this by admitting I'm not a follower of Indy Car Racing, so I don't understand the logic or reasoning of what happened yesterday. In practice, driver Paul Dana was killed in a terrible accident and then, just hours later, the race took place. This makes no sense to me. Why didn't they delay the race for at least twenty-four hours out of respect or to allow the other drivers a chance to collect themselves?

~Adam

Perhaps this can be addressed in its own separate thread.

The accident occured in the morning at 10am. The race start time was 3pm if I remember. Why not delay the race? Good question. Maybe it looks inconsiderate.

I don't think it's done in car racing to postpone a race because of death. From memory, if a tragic accident happens during the race, they move the driver to hospital. The race is stopped while the ambulance / cleaning crew is on the track and they'll resume the race after the injured is evacuated.

I've always suspected race officials don't want to annouce a death during the race so they will give a status update saying the driver is in critical condition and wait for the end of the race to deliver the bad news.

Perhaps racing doesn't postpone because it is an inherent risk; or it's not like a baseball game and you can have a double-header the next day.

The Rahal team (owner of Dana's car) withdrew his two other cars from the race though.