Pre-race After the tumultuous off-season, and surprising events during time trials, the 500 would line up with several familiar drivers on the sidelines for one reason or another.
A. J. Foyt,
Rick Mears,
Gordon Johncock, and
Tom Sneva had retired;
Bobby Rahal and
Scott Pruett both failed to qualify; and
Michael Andretti's commitments in
Formula One prevented him from entering the race. After the miserable cold weather from the
previous year, race day dawned sunny and warm. There was pre-race concern about approaching precipitation, and the forecast was questionable. Some teams prepared for a possible rain-shortened race. However, the rain never arrived, and the race was completed without interruption.
Start At the green flag, polesitter
Arie Luyendyk and
Raul Boesel drag-raced down the frontstretch, with
Mario Andretti dropping back into third. Boesel got the edge, and grabbed the lead into turn 1. The entire field circulated through the first lap cleanly, and started to pick up the pace. Boesel began lapping the backmarkers on lap 8, meanwhile
Andretti moved past
Luyendyk to take second place. On lap 16, Jim Crawford spun exiting turn 2. He flat-spotted his tires, but did not make contact. He drove back to the pits, and re-entered the race. Under the caution most of the leaders pitted.
Kevin Cogan stayed out, and inherited the lead. In doing so, Cogan accomplished a rare feat in which the slowest qualifier in the field led lap(s) during the race. In the pits,
Raul Boesel was among those who pitted, and in the process, the crew was able to remove a hot dog wrapper that was blocking the radiator inlet. As Boesel was exiting his pit stall, he was momentarily blocked when
Scott Goodyear pulled out of his stall. Further down the lane,
Mario Andretti slowly pulled out of his pit box, and was ahead of Boesel. Both cars entered the warm up lane together. Boesel was going much faster and slipped by Andretti in the warm up lane. Boesel was unaware and was not informed by the officials that Mario had crossed the blend line first. After the field went back to green on lap 21, the black flag was displayed for Boesel. A controversial stop-and-go penalty was assessed to Boesel. Confusion hovered over the reason for penalty. Owner
Dick Simon was initially informed it was for speeding in the pits, but then it was changed to passing under the yellow. Boesel darted into the pits to serve the penalty, and fell all the way back to the rear of the field. He lost a lap in the process.
First half With
Al Unser, Sr. leading on lap 31,
Danny Sullivan, suffering from a
pushing condition, went high in turn three and smacked the outside wall. A piece of the suspension pierced through the side of the tub, and narrowly missed puncturing his leg. Sullivan would not return as a driver in
1994, but did one last time in
1995.
Nelson Piquet, who returned to Indy after being seriously injured in pre-race practice the previous year, dropped out with a blown engine.
Mario Andretti led the field back to green on lap 36,
Arie Luyendyk ran second, and
Emerson Fittipaldi third. Mario led comfortably for the next 15 laps. On lap 47, the leaders approached traffic, and Luyendyk passed Andretti to take the lead into turn one.
Nigel Mansell began showing strength, passing Fittipaldi for third, then closing in his teammate Mario Andretti in second. Down the main stretch on lap 50, Mansell dove inside Mario for position, but Mario held him off, sweeping down in front in turn 1. Three laps later, Mansell finally got by Mario in turn 1, after a hot pursuit. Andretti pitted one lap later. On lap 56, Mansell passed Luyendyk coming out of turn 2 to take the lead for the first time. However, Mansell ducked into the pits on that same lap, and was not credited with leading a lap yet. During the sequence of green flag pit stops, the lead changed hands several times. After all of the leaders pitted,
Nigel Mansell took over the lead. The yellow came out for debris on lap 89, and after pit stops,
Mario Andretti was back in the lead.
Nigel Mansell overshot his pit stall, and his crew had to wheel him back to administer service. Mansell dropped to 6th place after a 40-second pit stop. The green came out on lap 94, but only lasted two laps.
Scott Brayton and
Paul Tracy tangled entering turn three, and Tracy was forced into the outside wall. Brayton came down on Tracy, pinching him to the grass, and clipped his front wheel.
Second half On lap 128, the only multi-car crash of the day occurred.
Jeff Andretti and
Roberto Guerrero came together in turn three, with both cars crashing out. Leader
Mario Andretti ducked into the pits, however, he entered the pit lane when it was closed. He was given the black flag and assessed a stop-and-go penalty. After the shuffle,
Al Unser Jr. took over the lead, with
Andretti second. Meanwhile,
Raul Boesel was now back on the lead lap in 8th place.
Robby Gordon brought out the yellow on lap 169 when he stalled on the track with a broken gearbox. Under the yellow,
Raul Boesel entered the pits while they were closed, and was assessed a stop-and-go penalty; however, he did not lose any considerable track position. After the shuffle from the final sequence of pit stops,
Nigel Mansell was now back in the lead, with
Emerson Fittipaldi second, and
Arie Luyendyk third.
Finish On lap 182, the yellow came out when
Lyn St. James stalled in turn 4.
Nigel Mansell was leading
Emerson Fittipaldi and
Arie Luyendyk. On lap 184, the field was ready to go back to green. Mansell, driving in his first-ever
Indy car oval race, was inexperienced in restarts, and was too hesitant bringing the field back to green. He exited turn four too slow, and immediately Fittipaldi and Luyendyk were on his rear bumper. Mansell realized he was a sitting duck, and swept to the inside of the track to attempt to block.
Fittipaldi quickly diced around, and got by on the outside to take the lead. Going into turn one, Luyendyk precariously swept by Mansell on the outside and took over second place. With Fittipaldi pulling away, the laps dwindled down, and Mansell's chances for victory started to slip away. On lap 192, Mansell slid high exiting turn two, and "whitewalled" the outside wall. A caution came out for the contact, but Mansell stayed out on the track. His suspension suffered minor damage, but he continued. The green flag came out for the final time with 5 laps to go.
Emerson Fittipaldi got the jump on the restart, and pulled away to a comfortable lead. Fittipaldi won his second Indy 500 by 2.8 seconds over
Arie Luyendyk.
Nigel Mansell held on to finish third, while
Raul Boesel worked his way all the way back to the front-runners to come home fourth.
Nigel Mansell became the first rookie to finish the full 500 miles since
Donnie Allison in 1970. He won the
rookie of the year award, and led a total of 34 laps during the race. His late-race miscue cost him two positions, and was largely chalked up as a 'rookie mistake.' During post-race interviews, Mansell claimed he was trying to follow the rules, waiting for the green flag to come out before he accelerated, and he was surprised that Fittipaldi and Luyendyk had caught up such ground on him so quickly. He claimed that "everybody, if you like,
cheats on the restarts, and I'm trying to do it by the rules...and I lost the lead..." However, he did not protest the results, and was pleased with his performance. Later that same year, Mansell won the
Michigan 500 and went on to win the
1993 CART IndyCar championship. Mansell was honored with the
Driver of the Year award, the
Autosport International Racing Driver Award and an
ESPY.
Post race Race winner
Emerson Fittipaldi, who previously won in
1989 pulled into victory lane to celebrate his win with team owner
Roger Penske. It would be the final time a driver celebrated in the "hydraulic lift" version of Indy's victory lane, as a new one was built for 1994. As Fittipaldi emerged from the cockpit, he immediately began the traditional winner's interview, being given by
Jack Arute live on
ABC-TV. Fittipaldi broke a decades-old
tradition, and chose not to drink the ceremonial
milk in victory lane, a tradition that dates back to 1936. Fittipaldi instead controversially drank
orange juice, which he himself provided, in order to promote the
Brazilian citrus industry (Fittipaldi himself owned a citrus farm which produced orange juice). Arute immediately shifted his questioning to the milk snub, and the exchange on live television went as follows: {{blockquote|
Fittipaldi: "No, I'm not going to have the milk."
Arute: "Now there's a first! Emerson, you're not going to drink the milk?"
Fittipaldi: "Well, I'm going to drink the orange juice, that's my producer, and I'm going to help this time
orange juice. I produce
orange juice."
Arute: "Back in
São Paulo,
Brazil he produces the orange juice, so he's going to go that way." Fittipaldi refused to even hold the milk bottle, pushing it away at least three times from the presenter. After the interview was concluded, and after television cameras had been turned off, Fittipaldi finally did take a sip from the bottle of milk at the direction of his owner
Roger Penske, however, not before a controversy boiled. Fan reaction to the snub was highly negative, and they charged Fittipaldi with breaking the popular and long-standing Indy tradition for personal gain. He quickly gained hecklers, and was booed the following week during driver introductions at
Milwaukee. A few days after the race, Fittipaldi issued an apology statement, and donated the $5,000 prize from the
American Dairy Association of Indiana to charity. ==Box score==