Pre race Hours before the start, Al Unser Sr. took a ceremonial final lap of the track in an IndyCar, the same car he won the
1987 Indianapolis 500 with. General Chuck Yeager lead the flyover in a P-51 Mustang.
Start Clear blue skies dawned on race day, with temperatures in the mid-70s. The command to start engines was made on-time at 10:52 a.m. EST, and the field pulled away for the pace laps. Pole-sitter Al Unser Jr. led fellow front-row starters Emerson Fittipaldi and Raul Boesel. As the field came around for the start, Penske teammates Unser and Fittipaldi, driving the Mercedes-powered entries, took off out of turn four. They weaved down the frontstretch single-file, blocking, and leaving behind Boesel and the rest of the field behind. USAC officials decided not to wave off the start, and Unser led into turn one. It quickly became evident to competitors and media that the Penske-Mercedes machines were the class of the field, as many had predicted. On lap 6, Dennis Vitolo spun coming out of turn four, but made no contact. Vitolo was able to continue, but the incident brought out the first caution of the day.
First half On lap 20,
Roberto Guerrero crashed in turn two, bringing out the second caution of the race. On lap 23, the leader made their first scheduled pit stops. Mario Andretti
dropped out early from his final "500" with ignition problems. Leader Al Unser Jr. stalled exiting the pits (a concern going into the race for the Mercedes) and Emerson Fittipaldi took over the lead for the first time. The yellow came back out again when Mike Groff and
Dominic Dobson touched wheels and crashed in Turn 1. In the melee, Adrian Fernandez hit a piece of debris and damaged his rear suspension. Lyn St. James clipped the rear wheel of Scott Goodyear, and both cars limped back to the pits. Fernandez and Goodyear would drop out in what would be King Racings final 500 as the team would fold at the end of the season, and after a lengthy pit stop for repairs, St. James was able to get back out on the track. On the ensuing restart, Michael Andretti suffered a puncture, and was forced to pit for new tires. He stalled the car leaving the pits, and subsequently went a lap down.
Eddie Cheever and Nigel Mansell were both given black flags for passing Raul Boesel prior to the restart, forcing both to serve as stop-and-go penalty in the pits. By lap 85, Fittipaldi had stretched his lead to 24.6 seconds over second-place Unser. Rookie Jacques Villeneuve was a lap down, running as high as third. On Lap 92 Hideshi Matsuda crashed in Turn 2. Under the yellow, John Paul Jr. then spun and crashed in turn 3. As the field was circulating through turn three warm-up lane behind the pace car, Dennis Vitolo was barreling down the backstretch trying to catch up with the field. He misjudged the speed of the field, and approached the line of cars too fast. He ran into the back of John Andretti's car, touched wheels with him, and spun forward in a clockwise rotation. The back of the car then rammed the back of Nigel Mansell's car, and climbed up it sideways. Al Unser Jr., among others, narrowly escaped the incident. Vitolo was found on top of Mansell, and the cars were sideways in the infield grass. Hot coolant and oil began to leak from Vitolo's car, and dripped into Mansell's cockpit. Mansell scurried out of the car and was tackled to the ground by corner workers in an effort to put out any fire. Mansell later stormed out of the infield medical care center, angrily refusing treatment. Vitolo admitted blame for the incident. At the halfway point, Unser (23) and Fittipaldi (75) combined to lead 98 of the first 100 laps. The third Penske entry driven by Paul Tracy, however, began smoking during the lap 92 yellow and dropped out with turbocharger failure.
Second half Early contenders Raul Boesel (overheating) and Scott Brayton (spark plug) both dropped out in the second half. Fittipaldi continued to dominate, pulling away at will. On Lap 121 he set the fastest lap of the race at 40.783 seconds, equaling . During a round of pit stops by Fittipaldi and Unser, rookie Jacques Villeneuve led five laps (125–129) before pitting himself. On lap 133, Fittipaldi was forced to return to the pits to remove a plastic bag from his radiator inlet. A long stretch of green flag racing followed. Fittipaldi quickly caught Unser and extended his lead. By lap 157, they were the only two cars on the lead lap.
Finish With less than 25 laps to go, Fittipaldi led Unser by almost 40 seconds. Third place Villeneuve was over a lap down. Fittipaldi was in need of one more splash-and-go pit stop for fuel before the race was over. Unser's crew, however, believed that they could make it to the finish without another pit stop, especially if there were to be a late yellow. With 20 laps to go, Fittipaldi put Unser a lap down, and was now a lap ahead of the entire field. Fittipaldi's crew scheduled a "timed" splash-and-go, fuel-only pit stop for lap 194. Jockeying for position, Unser managed to un-lap himself on lap 183. Two laps later, Unser was just ahead of Fittipaldi as they approached turn four. Fittipaldi admitted a driver error as he drove over the inside rumble strips causing the rear tires to lose grip. Fittipaldi's car slid
loose, and the right rear wheel tagged the outside wall exiting turn four. After leading 145 laps, Fittipaldi's crashed car slid to a stop down the mainstretch. The crash handed Unser the lead of the race with less than 16 laps to go. Rookie Jacques Villeneuve was now in second place, running at the tail end of the lead lap.
Arie Luyendyk blew an engine during the caution for Fittipaldi's crash. Unser was leading, but lost use of his two-way radio, and the team was increasingly concerned about his fuel mileage. The green came out with ten laps to go. Unser held a comfortable lead over Villeneuve, who was mired deep in traffic. On Lap 196,
Stan Fox, who was running in the top ten, crashed in turn one. The caution came out for clean-up, and erased any doubts about Unser's fuel mileage. Unser ended up winning the race under yellow. Unser won his second Indy 500, and the Penske-Mercedes 500I pushrod engine won in its first and only race. The win came on his father's 55th birthday, twenty-three years to the day after Unser Sr. won his second Indy 500. Villeneuve held on to finish second and won the
rookie of the year award.
Michael Andretti finished third on the track, but officials ruled that he passed cars illegally under caution on lap 190. Officials were about to put out the black flag and issue Andretti a stop-and-go penalty, but the subsequent caution that came out for
Stan Fox's crash prevented them for being able to do so. Since the race ended up finishing under yellow, USAC instead issued Andretti a 1-lap penalty for the infraction. He dropped from 3rd to 6th in the final standings. The ruling elevated
Bobby Rahal to third place. Rahal had charged from the 28th starting position to finish third in the borrowed 1993 Penske-Ilmor machine. John Andretti finished 10th, then flew to
Charlotte Motor Speedway to compete in the Coca-Cola 600. He was the first driver to do "Double Duty", competing in both races on the same day. ==Box score==