Start After rain on Saturday, race day dawned sunny and warm. Temperatures were higher than expected, which ultimately led to poor chassis set ups and handling problems for many drivers.
Emerson Fittipaldi took the lead from the start, and dominated the opening laps. The start was clean, and went 19 laps before the first caution. In turn one,
Danny Sullivan's car broke a suspension piece, which sent his car spinning and he crashed hard into the outside wall.
First half With Fittipaldi continuing to dominate, the top five was being battled amongst
Bobby Rahal,
Al Unser Jr., and
Arie Luyendyk.
Rick Mears dropped back with handling issues, and fell a lap down.
Tony Bettenhausen Jr. brought out the second caution, when he stalled in lap 45. He was towed back to the pits, and would continue for a time in the race. On lap 63,
Mario Andretti and
Raul Boesel suffered engine failures, and oil was reported on the track. At the same time,
Pancho Carter slowed down the backstretch with a broken CV joint. In turn four, he spun due to the bad handling, and tagged the wall in turn 4. Carter was uninjured.
Emerson Fittipaldi continued to lead, and set a new Indy record by leading the first 92 consecutive laps. He lost the lead on lap 93 when he pitted.
Arie Luyendyk took the lead for two laps, then relinquished the lead back to Fittipaldi when he himself pitted. At the halfway point, Fittipaldi had led 98 laps and was averaging 174.192 mph, just shy of the race record.
Second half Blistering tires began to be an issue with several drivers. The fast pace and the changing weather conditions were both factors. On lap 116,
Emerson Fittipaldi ducked into the pits for a scheduled pit stop. That allowed
Bobby Rahal to take the lead for the first time. The rest of the leaders cycled through stops, and Fittipaldi once again found the lead. On lap 136, leader
Fittipaldi suddenly entered the pits for an unscheduled pit stop. He was the victim of a blistered right rear tire.
Bobby Rahal took over the lead, and began to pull away.
Arie Luyendyk was now running second, with Fittipaldi dropping to third, just in front of fourth place
Al Unser Jr. On lap 140,
John Andretti brushed the wall in turn four, damaging the suspension. He continued down the frontstretch, and spun lazily in turn 1. It would be the final caution period of the day. Leader
Bobby Rahal pitted under the caution, taking on fuel and only two tires (right sides only). The team was expressing concern about changing all four, as many teams were blistering tires. Luyendyk, however, took on four tires and fuel. Rahal and Luyendyk came back out on the track in that order, a few cars ahead of third place Fittipaldi. On lap 153, Fittipaldi was forced to make another unscheduled pit stop for yet another blistered tire. This time he fell a lap down. He slipped to fourth, with
Al Unser Jr. passing him for third.
Bobby Rahal continued to lead, but handling problems were starting to slow his pace. Having taken on only two tires, coupled with a damaged wing adjuster, was causing a pushing condition.
Arie Luyendyk began to reel him in, and took over the lead with a pass in turn three on lap 168. Going into the race, Luyendyk had never led a lap at Indy, and had never won an
Indy car race.
Finish Both
Luyendyk and
Rahal needed one final pit stop to make it to the finish. Rahal pitted first, on lap 171. Luyendyk followed two laps later, and was able to get back out on the track ahead of Rahal. With Al Unser Jr. 30 seconds behind in third place, and Fittipaldi now a lap down in fourth, the race became a two-man duel between
Luyendyk and
Rahal - with Rahal seemingly unable to close the gap. Some observers were unsure if Luyendyk and Rahal could make it to the finish on fuel, but neither team planned to pit. In the final twenty laps, Luyendyk began to pick up the pace, and the average speed began to climb, well above the existing record. Al Unser Jr.'s chance at a third place were dashed when he was forced to make a pit stop for fuel on lap 187. Fittipaldi passed him for third, and set his sights on Luyendyk, trying to get his lap back. Luyendyk had begun to experience minor blistering on his tires, but not enough to cause concern. Rahal was still trailing in second place by over ten seconds. With three laps to go, Luyendyk led Rahal by 13.3 seconds. Third place
Emerson Fittipaldi caught Luyendyk, and was attempting to un-lap himself. After closely pursuing for a couple laps he made his move on Luyendyk. Fittipaldi did so on the main stretch with one lap to go, which distracted Luyendyk, and he did not see the white flag. The next time around, the checkered flag was displayed, and Luyendyk won his first-career
Indy car race. In victory lane an emotional Luyendyk was thrilled over his victory stating in a post-race interview: ''"I can't believe this. It feels like a dream. This is unbelievable. I don't care if we won by 60 miles per hour we still got first place and that's what counts."'' Third place Emerson Fittipaldi was disappointed about not repeating his victory after dominating the race.
“I’m very disappointed,” Fittipaldi said.
“It was a shame. Everything was under control. The car, she was flying. It’s the third time I’ve been leading and something happened. It seems that for my wins here, I have to be striving and then I can win.” Legacy won the rookie of the year award. The record average speed of marked the fastest Indy 500 to-date, and the fastest 500-mile
Indy car race to-date. The 500-mile speed record would later be broken at the
1990 Michigan 500. The 1990 average speed record would stand until
2013.
Eddie Cheever was the highest finishing rookie in 8th place. He was also named the
rookie of the year. Luyendyk's win marked the lone victory for
Lola at the Indianapolis 500 in the 1980s and 1990s. Lola returned to Indy car competition in 1983 with
Mario Andretti, and quickly became a competitive chassis on the circuit. Despite the manufacturer's high level of success in the sport during that period, which saw six
CART championships between 1984 and 1993, and saw them quickly displace
March as the prominent customer chassis, Lola failed to win at Indianapolis again. The only previous victories to their credit at Indy were with
Graham Hill in
1966 and with
Al Unser Sr. in a modified Lola
Chaparral in
1978. They would be upstaged numerous times by March,
Penske and
Reynard, until ceasing participation at the Indy 500 after 1996, as the race would come under the purvue of the
Indy Racing League, which switched to a new engine and chassis formula in 1997 completely incompatible with CART. ==Box score==