1994 Indianapolis 500

78th running of the Indianapolis 500

The 78th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 29, 1994. The race was sanctioned by United States Auto Club (USAC), and was included as race number 4 of 16 of the 1994 PPG IndyCar World Series. For the second year in a row, weather was nary a factor during the month. Only one practice day was lost to rain, and pole day was only partially halted due to scattered showers. Warm, sunny skies greeted race day. Al Unser Jr. won from the pole position, his second Indy 500 victory. Much to the surprise of competitors, media, and fans, Marlboro Team Penske arrived at the Speedway with a brand new, secretly built 209 in3 (3.42 L) displacement Ilmor Mercedes Benz pushrod engine, which was capable of nearly Despite reliability issues with the engine

Rain washed out opening day, the first time since 1975.

Dick Simon Racing cars of Lyn St. James, Raul Boesel, Hiro Matsushita, Dennis Vitolo, Hideshi Matsuda and Tero Palmroth were the first cars out on the track, creating a "Flying V" formation. Paul Tracy took the first laps in the Penske PC 23/Mercedes 500I at 12:34 p. m. Al Unser Jr., however, was testing at Michigan International Speedway, reportedly "working on reliability." Tracy's fastest lap was 220.103 mph. Bobby Rahal took the first laps at Indy in the Honda, with a fast lap of 219.791 mph. Scott Brayton, in the Menard Buick posted the fastest lap of the day at 227.658 mph. Emerson Fittipaldi was quickest of the day at 230.138 mph,

At 5:37 p. m., Mark Smith (220.683 mph) filled the field to 33 cars. Davy Jones (the teammate to Scott Goodyear at King Racing) made the field in car #40T at 223.817 mph. Mike Groff and Bobby Rahal, the two slowest cars in the field, saw their Honda powered machines bumped from the field, and re qualified in the borrowed Penske Ilmor cars. Both drivers improved their speeds significantly, with Rahal now the seventh fastest car overall in the field. Both Rahal and Groff were safely in the field, and would avoid missing the race as the team had done in 1993. The day ended with Scott Goodyear (220.737 mph), driving car #40 for King Racing, on the bubble. General Chuck Yeager lead the flyover in a P 51 Mustang.

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 in turn four, but continued causing the first caution flag of the race. Later on lap 20, Roberto Guerrero crashed in turn two. Unser went on to lead the first 23 laps. On lap 23, as the leaders pitted, Mario Andretti dropped out early of his final "500" with ignition problems. Al Unser Jr. stalled exiting the pits (a concern going into the race for the Mercedes) and Emerson Fittipaldi took the lead after the first sequence of pit stops. The yellow came back out again when Mike Groff and Dominic Dobson touched wheels and crashed in Turn 1. At the restart, Michael Andretti suffered a puncture, and pitted 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 make stop and go penalty passes through the pits. By lap 85, Fittipaldi had stretched his lead to 24.6 seconds over second place Unser. 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.

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.

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, however, was expected to make it to the finish. With 20 laps to go, Fittipaldi lapped Unser, and was a lap ahead of the entire field. Fittipaldi's team scheduled a "timed" splash & go fuel only stop for lap 194. Jockeying for position, Unser unlapped himself on lap 183. Two laps later, Unser was just ahead of Fittipaldi as they approached turn 4. 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 4. After leading 145 laps, Fittipaldi's crashed car slid to a stop down the main stretch. The crash handed Unser the lead of the race, with Jacques Villeneuve on the lead lap in second. Arie Luyendyk blew an engine during the caution for Fittipaldi's crash. Unser was leading, but lost use of his radio, and the team was concerned about 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 was penalized one lap for passing under caution, elevating Bobby Rahal to third place. Rahal had charged from the 28th starting position to 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.

Lap Leaders Laps Leader 1–23 Al Unser Jr. 24–61 Emerson Fittipaldi 62–63 Jacques Villeneuve 64–124 Emerson Fittipaldi 125–129 Jacques Villeneuve 130–133 Emerson Fittipaldi 134–138 Al Unser Jr. 139–164 Emerson Fittipaldi 165–168 Al Unser Jr. 169–184 Emerson Fittipaldi 185–200 Al Unser Jr.

Total laps led Driver Laps Emerson Fittipaldi 145 Al Unser Jr. 48 Jacques Villeneuve 7

Cautions: 7 for 43 laps Laps Reason 7–9 Dennis Vitolo spin in turn 4 21–27 Roberto Guerrero crash in turn 2 30–40 Dominic Dobson, Mike Groff crash in turn 1 92–100 Hideshi Matsuda crash in turn 1John Paul Jr. crash in turn 3Dennis Vitolo, Nigel Mansell crash in turn 3 warm up lane 137–139 Debris 185–190 Emerson Fittipaldi crash in turn 4 197–200 Stan Fox crash in turn 1

Almost immediately after the race, both USAC and CART separately evaluated the situation that stemmed from the Mercedes Benz 500I. USAC was initially willing to allow the pushrod engines in 1995, but were concerned about the potential for escalating costs. CART, as it had previously, refused to allow the engine increased boost at the events they sanctioned, effectively rendering it uncompetitive at those races. Two weeks after the race, USAC announced that for 1995, the 209 cid purpose built pushrod engines would be allowed 52 inHG of "boost" (down from 55 inHG). The traditional "stock block" production based engines (e. g., Buick & Menard) would still be allowed 55 inHG. Meanwhile, the overhead cam 2.65L V 8 engines would stay at 45 inches. Other engine manufacturers, including Cosworth and Menard were considering 209 pushrod engines (Ilmor Engineering had already taken 30 customer orders for 500i engines for the 1995 race), and it became possible that to be competitive on the CART circuit, teams might require two separate engines for the season—a 2.65L OHC for the CART sanctioned events, and a pushrod engine for Indianapolis singly—a daunting task which was expected to escalate costs. During the summer of 1994, Tony George announced his plans to start the Indy Racing League in 1996, with an emphasis on cost saving measures. On August 11, 1994, USAC changed its decision, and scaled back the boost for the purpose built pushrod engines further to 48 inches; and outlawing it outright for 1996. The move was considered by Roger Penske as "politically motivated", and ultimately set back the Penske Team going into 1995. Observers negatively compared the radical rules change to way USAC handled the Granatelli Turbine in the late 1960s. After the rules change, the 209 cid Mercedes Benz 500I never raced again, but boasted a perfect 100% pole position and race winning record at Indianapolis, its only start in professional competition. Despite reverting to the Ilmor D powerplant for the remainder of the 1994 CART season, Marlboro Team Penske continued to dominate. The three Penske drivers won 12 (of 16) races, including five 1 2 3 finishes. Penske swept the top three in the final championship points standings, with Al Unser Jr. winning the championship, Fittipaldi second, and Tracy third. The 1994 Indy 500 would prove to be the final victory for a Penske manufactured chassis at the Speedway. The following year, the 1995 spec Penske chassis, the PC 24, proved to be noncompetitive in time trials (despite a promising test in mid April 1995). The team failed to qualify with it or the Lola and Reynard chassis that were borrowed from other teams as alternates. By the time the team returned to the race in 2001, in house chassis manufacturing had ended in favor of using customer chassis. Only 69 days after the race, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ushered in a new era, hosting the Inaugural running of the Brickyard 400.

Rk. ## Driver Points Diff. 1 31 Al Unser Jr. 58 0 2 2 Emerson Fittipaldi 38 −20 3 8 Michael Andretti 37 −21 4 1 Nigel Mansell 35 −23 5 18 Jimmy Vasser 34 −24 6 9 Robby Gordon 30 −28 7 16 Stefan Johansson 25 −33 8 6 Mario Andretti 24 −34 9 5 Raul Boesel 17 −41 10 12 Jacques Villeneuve 16 −42 10 11 Teo Fabi 16 −42 10 88 Maurício Gugelmin 16 −42

The 1993–94 USAC Gold Crown Championship season consisted of one sanctioned race. The schedule was based on a split calendar, beginning in June 1993 and running through May 1994. Starting in 1981, USAC scaled back their participation in top level Indy car racing, and ultimately ceased sanctioning races outside of the Indianapolis 500 following their 1983–84 season. Subsequently the Gold Crown Championship would consist of only one event annually; the winner of the Indianapolis 500 would be the de facto Gold Crown champion, as it was their lone points paying event. The preeminent national championship season was instead sanctioned by CART, and the Indy 500 paid championship points separately (on a different scale) toward the CART championship as well. Al Unser Jr., by virtue of winning the 1994 Indianapolis 500, also won the 1993–94 USAC Championship.