In another one of those "who would have believed" scenarios that you see in sports, despite being near the apex of his career as a driver, this was to be Bobby Rahal's final victory as a driver. Despite the fact that he'd become a 3-time IndyCar champion just a couple of weeks later, joining Rick Mears and Al Unser, Sr., among others, as a 3-time IndyCar champion, Rahal would never find victory lane again as a driver, though much like Mario Andretti at the back end of his career, he often found himself in contention to win.
It's so eerie to hear Paul Page at around 1:13:00 talk about that accident and how Mikey obviously walked away, considering that several years later Gonzalo Rodriguez had an accident at the exact same track in the exact same spot B/C of the exact same mechanical failure and he didn't walk away......RIP Gonchi.
Holy cow Vitolo could have taken another guy's head off! The guy is a one-man wrecking crew! How in the world did they allow an amateur driver like this run in this series (and in the '94 500 where he scared Nigel Mansell out of Indy Cars?) Unreal.
Unser Jr was obviously not happy with the fact that his boss wanted to test the new fuckin chassis in a race where he was the points leader what an idiotic thing to do cost him the damn championship. Final 2 races neither finish on the podium while Rahal, well y'all already know...
What really blows my mind about this race was how different things were at this point compared to this point a year ago. in '91 Mikey had a chance to clinch with Rahal still with a chance. Of course, we all know what happened there. (Arie won in a fuel mileage gamble much like at Phoenix, and the points battle went to the final race at Laguna Seca.) A year later, we had four drivers still eligible for the title. Of course, Little Al was only leading because Rahal scored no points in the previous two races. Of course, Rahal would score one of the most clutch wins ever, and it came down to a duel for the title at Laguna Seca. (Little Al was technically speaking, still mathematically alive for the PPG Cup for that race, but a lot had to happen in order for him to win the title.)
Quite a little dash to the finish in the final 15 or so laps. I'm not sure the pit strategy totally decided the end result, because it sure looked like the faster car was sitting in winner's circle.
Michael and Tracy were both faster then Rahal although at end on low fuel Rahal did post fastest lap just when Michael was ahead of Rahal he always drove away and Tracy passed Rahal and drove away at 1 point also
15:12 Paul Page: “only 3 times in his career in his past 27 starts has Michael Andretti won on an oval.” What? At first I thought he meant only 3 of his 27 wins at this point had been on ovals, but at this point he had 26 wins, 8 on ovals. He had 3 prior oval wins (Michigan ‘89, Milwaukee ‘91 and Milwaukee ‘92) with Newman Haas but it’s more than 27 starts back to Michigan ‘89, and it’s 19 oval starts (counting this one) back to Michigan ‘89. The only way to get 3 oval wins in his past 27 starts is to count oval starts back to Phoenix ‘88 (after he won his previous oval start, the inaugural Nazareth race in ‘87). What a bizarre statistic. The only thing stranger is for me to sit here reverse engineering it nearly 30 years later.
In another one of those "who would have believed" scenarios that you see in sports, despite being near the apex of his career as a driver, this was to be Bobby Rahal's final victory as a driver. Despite the fact that he'd become a 3-time IndyCar champion just a couple of weeks later, joining Rick Mears and Al Unser, Sr., among others, as a 3-time IndyCar champion, Rahal would never find victory lane again as a driver, though much like Mario Andretti at the back end of his career, he often found himself in contention to win.
It's so eerie to hear Paul Page at around 1:13:00 talk about that accident and how Mikey obviously walked away, considering that several years later Gonzalo Rodriguez had an accident at the exact same track in the exact same spot B/C of the exact same mechanical failure and he didn't walk away......RIP Gonchi.
Good old days!
Holy cow Vitolo could have taken another guy's head off! The guy is a one-man wrecking crew! How in the world did they allow an amateur driver like this run in this series (and in the '94 500 where he scared Nigel Mansell out of Indy Cars?) Unreal.
Vitolo was a fukken menace.
Unser Jr was obviously not happy with the fact that his boss wanted to test the new fuckin chassis in a race where he was the points leader what an idiotic thing to do cost him the damn championship. Final 2 races neither finish on the podium while Rahal, well y'all already know...
Nah I wonder if he talks about that in his book I really wanna read it. He doesn't seem too happy you're right.
What really blows my mind about this race was how different things were at this point compared to this point a year ago. in '91 Mikey had a chance to clinch with Rahal still with a chance. Of course, we all know what happened there. (Arie won in a fuel mileage gamble much like at Phoenix, and the points battle went to the final race at Laguna Seca.) A year later, we had four drivers still eligible for the title. Of course, Little Al was only leading because Rahal scored no points in the previous two races. Of course, Rahal would score one of the most clutch wins ever, and it came down to a duel for the title at Laguna Seca. (Little Al was technically speaking, still mathematically alive for the PPG Cup for that race, but a lot had to happen in order for him to win the title.)
Bobby Rahal's final IndyCar win!
Quite a little dash to the finish in the final 15 or so laps. I'm not sure the pit strategy totally decided the end result, because it sure looked like the faster car was sitting in winner's circle.
Michael and Tracy were both faster then Rahal although at end on low fuel Rahal did post fastest lap just when Michael was ahead of Rahal he always drove away and Tracy passed Rahal and drove away at 1 point also
15:12 Paul Page: “only 3 times in his career in his past 27 starts has Michael Andretti won on an oval.” What? At first I thought he meant only 3 of his 27 wins at this point had been on ovals, but at this point he had 26 wins, 8 on ovals. He had 3 prior oval wins (Michigan ‘89, Milwaukee ‘91 and Milwaukee ‘92) with Newman Haas but it’s more than 27 starts back to Michigan ‘89, and it’s 19 oval starts (counting this one) back to Michigan ‘89. The only way to get 3 oval wins in his past 27 starts is to count oval starts back to Phoenix ‘88 (after he won his previous oval start, the inaugural Nazareth race in ‘87). What a bizarre statistic. The only thing stranger is for me to sit here reverse engineering it nearly 30 years later.