Little Al can’t wait to see Indy

Doug Padilla

Sunday, Oct. 31, 1999 | 1:02 a.m.

FONTANA, Calif. - Al Unser Jr. is heading home next year, and make no mistake about it, home for the Albuquerque, N.M. resident is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The Unsers are the first family of Indy, with nine titles shared between three men. Unser Jr. owns two of those titles, while his father Al has four. Then there's uncle Bobby, who won the race three times.

But those accomplishments seem distant now, and in fact, they happened in another racing era. The last Unser title at Indy was Unser Jr.'s victory in 1994, before the open-wheel power struggle that led to the formation of the Indy Racing League.

The Indy 500 now is the marquee race for the IRL, and the IRL is the way Unser will get himself back to Indy.

While the numbers over the past three years suggest that a career-worst slump was the reason Unser Jr. lost his ride with Team Penske, Unser suggested that the switch to the IRL might have been done regardless.

"I'm going to be 38 in April and so I want to get back to Indianapolis really bad," Unser said. "It's time. It's time. Their differences are going to be being just that and quite frankly, I feel if you ask a majority of the CART drivers where they want to be in five years from now, they want to be in (Formula One). Myself, I want to be at Indianapolis, so I think CART is taking off in a different direction than I want to go."

Actually, Unser already has gone in a direction he never intended.

The two-time PPG Cup champion (1990, '94) last won a race at Vancouver in 1995 and his last finish of fourth or higher in the points standings came the following year. Since then, Unser finished 13th in the points standings in 1997 and 11th last year.

This season, Unser's struggles have increased. He is 22nd in the points standings with a season-best finish of fifth at Cleveland.

Despite his recent struggles, other drivers recognize Unser's importance to racing.

"He was very helpful to me when I came here by giving me suggestions," said Max Papis, an Italian driver in his fourth CART season. "I appreciated it and told him that I hoped I could race with him for the lead in a race. It doesn't look like that will happen now. I know he is a champion and he wrote a lot of the history in motor racing, so I give him respect for that."

Said driver Richie Hearn, "He's done a lot here, but this is just the way things work out. He always wanted to get back to the Speedway. He'll be all right, he's a good driver."

That driving talent has shown up at sporadic moments in the past few seasons, but there is much more affecting Unser than bad racing luck. He not only is going through divorce, his 12-year-old daughter Cody was stricken with Transverse Myelitis which caused paralysis from the chest down.

"It's an interesting time in my life," he said. "There is the tragedy with my little girl, which brings new challenges to my everyday life. But Cody, her spirits are good and thanks to the fans across America, they've really helped her spirits. Her condition is about the same. We just have new challenges to ahead for us."

While Sunday's Marlboro 500 is setting up to be Unser's CART farewell, the single-season and career record-holder for earnings still believes that he might one day be back.

"I don't really consider it my last CART race," Unser said. "It would be really great if CART and IRL can put their differences aside and reunite the open-wheel series. It would enhance all of open-wheel racing. The sooner they get that done the better off they would be."