Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Mears: ‘91 duel with Andretti my best Indy 500 win

Wednesday, May 12, 2004 | 11:19 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of Rick Mears' first Indianapolis 500 victory, but the 1979 race is not one he finds himself thinking about when he has time to reflect on his career.

Mears, now 52 and retired from driving for 11 years, rates his fourth and final Indy 500 victory in 1991 as his most satisfying -- but not for the obvious reasons. Although Mears became only the third driver to win the prestigious race four times with that victory, he said it was how he won the race that makes it stand out above the others.

Mears waged a classic battle with Michael Andretti before pulling off a daring pass on the outside of Andretti in Turn 1 in the closing laps of the race.

"That is the only one that boiled down to the shootout -- and that's what's fun, that's what it's all about -- and we got to have that shootout," Mears said Tuesday during a teleconference. "The battle that (Andretti) and I had and to be able to win it, it made the fourth one a lot more satisfying.

"We went in with our same game plan that we did every year, and that's spend the first half getting to the second half, try to position ourselves ... and be prepared for the shootout if it occurred. Out of the four wins, that only occurred one time and it boiled down to Michael and I."

Mears is keeping busy this month serving both as the driver coach for the Indy Racing League's Infiniti Pro Series and as an advisor and consultant to Marlboro Team Penske -- the team with which he won all four of his Indy 500 titles.

Needless to say, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a special place for Mears, although it didn't start out that way. Mears, a former off-road racer from Bakersfield, Calif., said he didn't appreciate the history of the Brickyard when he won his first Indy 500 in only his second attempt.

"I never really dreamed of coming here -- let alone driving and then let alone winning -- so this was way out of my league," Mears said. "I was racing just for a hobby and for fun on the weekend and it took its own course.

"I probably really didn't appreciate the first year that I won it, in '79, because I didn't realize how tough it was. It was only our second year here and I hadn't been around the speedway growing up ... so I didn't really understand it. As time went on and we ran a few more years and struggled and didn't win it again (until 1984), you get a little older and you get a little wiser and you start looking around and you think, 'wow, not too many people have won this thing once, let alone more than once.' "

Adrian Fernandez (Fernandez Racing) was second fastest at 221.705 mph and Tony Kanaan (Andretti Green Racing) was third on the speed chart at 220.855. Henderson resident Al Unser Jr. was 22nd fastest (216.169) among the 27 drivers who practiced Tuesday.

Felipe Giaffone crashed during Tuesday's practice but was not injured and rookie Marty Roth spun for the second consecutive day but avoided making contact with the wall.

"The SAFER barrier definitely reduced the damage to the car and, as you can see, I'm fine," Gordon said. "I think the SAFER barrier is tremendous and every racetrack in the world should look at what they are doing here at Indianapolis."

Gordon practiced with his backup car on Tuesday but cut his day short because he had to fly to North Carolina and take part in a NASCAR test session at Lowe's Motor Speedway. He was to return to Indianapolis today and practice all day in his backup car. Gordon said he would try to be the first car to make a qualifying attempt on Saturday and then he will hop a plane for the Nextel Cup race at Richmond International Raceway Saturday.