Al Unser was one of four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 Grand Prix four times. He died Thursday of a long illness. He is 82 years old.
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Indianapolis Motor Speedway said Friday that Angse died at his home in Chama, New Mexico, with his wife Susan by his side. He has been fighting cancer for 17 years.
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George Tiedemann de Getty Images
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“My heart is very sad. My father passed away last night, ”said his son Al Unser Jr., who won the Indy 500 twice. Post on social media. “He is a great man, even a great father. Dad, rest in peace! “
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Unser is the third member of one of America’s most famous racing families to die in 2021. His older brother, three-time Indy 500 champion Bobby Unser, died in May, and Bobby Unser Jr. died six weeks later. of the death of his father.
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Unser became known as “Big Al” after his own son became famous in the racing world. He is a member of the elite club that has four “Greatest Racing Wonder” titles. Unser won the Indy 500 in 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987, and he was the only driver in history to have had brothers and sons to win one of the most important races in the world.
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His last victory at the age of 47 made him the oldest winner in Indy 500 history. In 1970, he started from pole position and led all but 10 of the 200 laps, thus winning his first Indy Championship. in 1970. Unser defeated runner-up Mark Donohue by 32 seconds.
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Unser led more than half of the laps in the three games of his victory at the Indy 500, and his 644 laps at Indianapolis were the most in game history. He started 27 times in the Indy 500, third in history, and won a pole position and five qualifying times.
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Unser has won 3 Indy Car National Championships in his career, and his 39 victories rank sixth in history.
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He and his son Al Jr. were the first father-son combination in Indianapolis, and in 1985 they competed for the CART championship. A pass in the final laps of the game allowed Unser to finish fourth in the season finale at Tamiami Park Road Stadium in Miami, enough to beat Al Jr. by one point to win the championship. She held back tears and described the “emptiness” of hitting her son.
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Unser also participated in five NASCAR races during his career, finishing fourth in the Daytona 500 in 1968. He earned three top-10 spots in NASCAR. He also won three victories in the International Championship, an all-star series where the best drivers from different disciplines compete against each other.
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Unser won all three races in the 1978 500-mile race, including the Pocono Circuit and the stop in Ontario, California, thus winning the IndyCar “Triple Crown”. He is the only driver in history to win all three races in the same season.
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The Unser family came together to create a record of 9 Indy 500 wins; Al Jr. won the Indy 500 twice in 1992 and 1994. Coincidentally, Al Unser, Al Unser Jr. and Bobby Unser won their final Indy 500 for Roger Penske. Helio Castroneves won the first three races of the Indy 500 that he drove for Penske.
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