INDIANAPOLIS 500 : Family Tradition Taken Into Second Generation : Auto racing: Al Unser Jr. wins closest race when Michael Andretti’s car fails while leading 11 laps from the finish.

The Andretti clan, notorious for its ill fortune in the Indianapolis 500, outdid itself Sunday in the 76th running--if you could call it that--and Swiss Family Unser was there to pick up its eighth victory.

Al Unser Jr. led for only 25 of the 200 laps, but among those 25 were the last seven run under the seldom-seen green light--racing conditions.

The finish saved the race. After what had been a month of dizzying speeds, Unser, driving a Galmer-Chevy, beat longshot Canadian Scott Goodyear, in a Lola-Chevy, in the slowest race since 1958--but by the closest margin in history, 0.043 seconds. In horse racing, that’s a photo finish.

Unser thus became the first of the second-generation Indy drivers to win here, in his 10th attempt. His father, Al, won four times and was in position for a fifth Sunday. Bobby Unser, brother of Al Unser, won three times.

Until the finish, though, it was a race to forget.

Race drivers usually like cool, overcast weather, but this time they got too much of it. With temperatures in the 50s, tires failed to grip the pavement until they were properly warmed up.

And race drivers, not always being patient souls, sometimes couldn’t wait until fresh rubber was warmed enough from friction, so cold tires were responsible for crash after crash, resulting in caution lap after caution lap, 85 in all. Until the last 10 laps, the race was a crashing bore.

Among the 10 accidents that took 13 cars out of the running were six that occurred on the first green laps after caution periods. Roberto Guerrero, the pole sitter, hit the wall before the race began, during the second parade lap.

“I was warming up my tires from the very start,” Unser said, explaining why he had had no problems that way. “I knew that they’d be cold. That’s what bit Guerrero going down the backstretch. . . . Because of how cold it is and how cold it was last night, these tires were rock-hard. That’s what did it. From that point on, I was extremely careful what I did with cold tires.”

So was Michael Andretti--careful and fast as well, but none of that helped him. In the kind of development that the Andrettis have raised to an art form here, he dropped out of the race with victory in sight.

With a 25-second lead in a race he had dominated from the drop of the green flag--he led 161 laps--his low-flying Lola-Ford, clearly the fastest car on the track, developed a sudden but race-ending fuel-pressure problem with only 11 laps left.

Even so, he fared considerably better than his father, Mario, and younger brother, Jeff. Both crashed and had to be hospitalized, Jeff with the more serious injuries: a concussion and a severe ankle injury. Mario suffered two broken toes.

“It can’t get much worse than this,” Michael said before heading to Methodist Hospital to be with his family.

“This place is cruel, so cruel. It was really hard to keep my concentration. First Dad and then Jeff. I knew Jeff’s was bad. I knew I still had a job to do, but it was hard to concentrate.

“I thought I was getting the job done. The car was perfect. I’ve never had a car so perfect. . . . Man, losing after seeing what happened to Dad and Jeff is really hard to take.”

Michael Andretti actually was babying his car a little when disaster struck. Only 24 laps earlier, he had turned a lap at 229 m.p.h., but he was cruising at 220 when the bottom fell out.

That left the lead to Al Unser Jr., who only minutes before had passed Goodyear for second place. That was a surprising development only in that Goodyear was there to be passed, since he had started 33rd--last.

No one has won after starting last, but Goodyear came as close as possible.

The yellow light went on for three laps after Andretti coasted to a stop on the track apron. Then Unser and Goodyear had a trophy dash to the finish. Unser would pull away through Turns 1 and 2, then Goodyear would nearly catch him in 3 and 4.

It finally came down to the last turn on the last lap and the quarter mile to the strip of bricks marking the start-finish line.

“We were running wide open from the time that we came green from (Michael Andretti’s) yellow, and we came around to begin the (last) lap,” Unser said.

“I ran through (Turn) 1 flat and 2 flat and going down the backstretch, and I started to think that this is the last lap, the infamous last lap that I’ve been trying to lead for so many years. But I couldn’t take my mind off of Scott. He was just too close.

“He was doing one heck of a job, and his car was working well so I just got right back in racing mode. I started to get a little bit emotional, but I looked in my mirrors and Scott was that much closer to me, so I went right back to racing. I ran 3 flat and then (the car) was starting to get a little bit loose, right on the edge; and I went into 4 and I breathed it (lifted his throttle foot) just a little bit and I came off 4 and was coming down for the checker and Scott was right under my exhaust.

“He gave me one heck of a scare that he was going to take it away right then. He was all in my mirrors, so I was trying to make that race car as wide as I could make it and I moved over a little bit.”

The quick little move to the left forced Goodyear to make a similar jog, but it didn’t intimidate him. He kept his foot down, managed to get alongside Unser and finished there, less than half a car-length behind.

“I’d be doing the same thing,” Goodyear said of Unser’s little maneuver. “I call that using the racetrack.

“I was flat out the last few laps, but the second-last lap I got some bad air from underneath Al and had to get off the throttle a little bit, which cost a little bit.

“Coming off 4, I thought there might be a possibility, because he seemed to be off the throttle just a little bit in 4 and (was) ‘scrubbing’ a little speed. I thought coming off 4 that this might just happen. I was in his slipstream. I was close enough to him and starting to get a good tow. He knew it because he started to weave, and I just had to wait for him to take a set and by that time I was ready to slip underneath him. . . .

“I knew it was going to be very, very close, and I just wish the start-finish line was another 100 yards down the straight.”

Unser was glad it wasn’t.

“I squeaked it a little in Turn 4 and almost paid dearly for it,” he said. “In an extra 100 yards, he would have probably won it. He got a run on me off Turn 4.”

Unser’s father, who will be 53 on Friday, finished third in his 26th 500, in a Lola-Buick. He was the only driver on the same lap with his son and Goodyear at the end.

Danny Sullivan was fourth in a Galmer-Chevrolet, a twin car to that of Unser Jr., and Bobby Rahal was fifth in a Lola-Chevy.

Penske teammates Rick Mears, the defending champion, and Emerson Fittipaldi were taken out by separate crashes on the same lap. Mears ran into Jim Crawford after Crawford’s car had spun and hit the wall on a restart crash, and Fittipaldi hit the wall back up the track.

Mears suffered only a small cut on his right knee, and Fittipaldi had a similar injury on his left knee. Crawford suffered a broken left foot.

Also seriously injured was rookie Jimmy Vasser, who suffered a broken right thigh bone when his car hit the wall.

In all, 13 cars were involved in 10 accidents. Cars were spinning so frequently on restart laps that track announcer Tom Carnegie, at one point, intoned, a lap after the green flag had waved, “The green light is still on!”

The checkered flag, though, belonged to Al Unser Jr.

* HOW THEY FINISHED: C6

Injured Drivers in the Indianapolis 500

A list of drivers injured or examined for possible injuries during the 76th Indianapolis 500 on Sunday: * Jeff Andretti: Concussion, injuries to both ankles and both feet, taken to Methodist Hospital, surgery planned. * Mario Andretti: Injuries to toes, taken to Methodist Hospital, surgery planned. * Gary Bettenhausen: Evaluated and released from track hospital. * Brian Bonner: Bruised right foot, released from Methodist Hospital. * Jim Crawford: Fractured left foot, released from Methodist Hospital. * Emerson Fittipaldi: Puncture wound to left knee, released from Methodist Hospital. * Stan Fox: Evaluated and released from track hospital. * Phillippe Gache: Bruised right foot, released from track hospital. * Roberto Guerrero: Evaluated and released from track hospital. * Buddy Lazier: Evaluated and released from track hospital. * Arie Luyendyk: Bruised right ankle, released from track hospital. * Rick Mears: Cut on right knee, released from Methodist Hospital. * Tom Sneva: Bruises to both feet, chest and right hip; released from Methodist Hospital. * Jimmy Vasser: Fractured right thigh, taken to Methodist Hospital, surgery planned.

Unofficial Indianapolis 500 Finish

Pos Driver Home Chassis-Engine 1 Al Unser Jr. Albuquerque, N.M. Galmer-Chevy A 2 Scott Goodyear Newmarket, Canada Lola-Chevy A 3 Al Unser Albuquerque, N.M. Lola-Buick 4 Danny Sullivan Aspen, Colo. Galmer-Chevy A 5 Bobby Rahal Dublin, Ohio Lola-Chevy A 6 Eddie Cheever Aspen, Colo. Lola-Cosworth 7 Raul Boesel Brazil Lola-Chevy A 8 John Andretti Indianapolis Lola-Chevy A 9 John Paul Jr. West Palm Beach, Fla. Lola-Buick 10 A.J. Foyt Houston Lola-Chevy A 11 *Lyn St. James Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Lola-Chevy A 12 Dominic Dobson Fairfax, Calif. Lola-Chevy A 13 Michael Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Lola-Ford 14 Buddy Lazier Vail, Colo. Lola-Buick 15 Arie Luyendyk Netherlands Lola-Ford 16 *Ted Prappas Los Angeles Lola-Chevy A 17 Gary Bettenhausen Monrovia, Ind. Lola-Buick 18 Jeff Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Lola-Chevy A 19 *Brian Bonner Boston Lola-Buick 20 *Paul Tracy Canada Penskey-Chevy A 21 *Jimmy Vasser Discovery Bay, Calif. Lola-Chevy A 22 Scott Brayton Coldwater, Mich. Lola-Buick 23 Mario Andretti Nazareth, Pa. Lola-Cosworth 24 Emerson Fittipaldi Brazil Lola-Chevy B 25 Jim Crawford Scotland Lola-Buick 26 Rick Mears Jupiter, Fla. Penske-Chevy B 27 Stan Fox Janesville, Wis. Lola-Buick 28 *Philippe Gache France Lola-Chevy 29 Gordon Johncock Hastings, Mich. Lola-Buick 30 Scott Pruett Dublin, Ohio Truesport-Chevy A 31 Tom Sneva Paradise Valley, Ariz. Lola-Buick 32 *Eric Bachelart Belgium Lola-Buick 33 Roberto Guerrero San Juan Capistrano Lola-Buick

Pos Driver Laps Comment 1 Al Unser Jr. 200 2 Scott Goodyear 200 Running 3 Al Unser 200 Running 4 Danny Sullivan 199 Running 5 Bobby Rahal 199 Running 6 Eddie Cheever 199 Running 7 Raul Boesel 198 Running 8 John Andretti 195 Running 9 John Paul Jr. 194 Running 10 A.J. Foyt 194 Running 11 *Lyn St. James 193 Running 12 Dominic Dobson 192 Running 13 Michael Andretti 189 Fuel Pressure 14 Buddy Lazier 139 Blown Engine 15 Arie Luyendyk 135 Crash 16 *Ted Prappas 135 Gearbox 17 Gary Bettenhausen 112 Crash 18 Jeff Andretti 109 Crash 19 *Brian Bonner 97 Crash 20 *Paul Tracy 96 Engine 21 *Jimmy Vasser 94 Crash 22 Scott Brayton 93 Blown Engine 23 Mario Andretti 78 Crash 24 Emerson Fittipaldi 75 Crash 25 Jim Crawford 74 Crash 26 Rick Mears 74 Crash 27 Stan Fox 63 Crash 28 *Philippe Gache 61 Crash 29 Gordon Johncock 60 Blown Engine 30 Scott Pruett 52 Blown Engine 31 Tom Sneva 10 Crash 32 *Eric Bachelart 4 Blown Engine 33 Roberto Guerrero 0 Crash

* Rookie driver. Winner’s speed--134.479 m.p.h. Lap leaders--1-13, Mi. Andretti; 14-20, Cheever; 21-46, Mi. Andretti; 47, Cheever; 48, Luyendyk; 49-87, Mi. Andretti; 88, Cheever; 89-107, Mi. Andretti; 108-109, Unser Jr.; 110-115, Mi. Andretti; 116, Unser, Jr.; 117-140, Mi. Andretti; 141-151, Unser Jr.; 152-173, Mi. Andretti; 174-177, Unser Sr.; 178-189, Mi. Andretti; 190-200, Unser, Jr.