Editor's Note: From Tuesday, May 19 to Saturday, May 23, FOX Sports will count down the top five Indianapolis 500 drivers of all time.
INDIANAPOLIS -- Counting down to the final three drivers in top-five countdown is easy because there are only three drivers in the 104-year history of the Indy 500 that have won the race four times in their career. What isn't easy is the actual ranking of the top three.
But at least on this list, four-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser earns the No. 3 position. The younger brother of hard-charging Bobby Unser knew how to make his car last to the finish, and that helped him make it to victory lane at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway four times.
Unser had already earned fame and acclaim by the time he got to the Indianapolis 500 as a rookie in 1966. By 1969, he was on the powerful Parnelli Vel's Racing Team -- co-owned by 1963 Indianapolis 500 winner Parnelli Jones and California businessman Vel Miletich, who was a car dealer from Torrance, California.
The night before pole qualifications, however, Unser was riding a motorcycle in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway infield, hit a ravine and crashed the motorcycle. Unser broke his ankle, was unable to compete and missed what he thought was an outstanding chance to win the 1969 Indianapolis 500.
Unser admitted he was most upset at himself that he blew a tremendous chance to join Bobby Unser as Indy 500 winners. When he returned in 1970 as the driver of the Johnny Lightning Special, he made the most of his second chance. He led a whopping 190 laps in the 200-lap contest and won the race at an average speed of 155.749 mph. That season, he won 10 races on ovals, road courses and dirt tracks to claim the United States Auto Club (USAC) National Championship.
Unser became the first back-to-back Indy 500 winner since the late Bill Vukovich in 1953-54 when he drove the Johnny Lightning Special to a second-straight Indy 500 win in 1971. Unser nearly became the first driver to win Indianapolis three years in a row when he finished second to Mark Donohue in the 1972 500-mile Race.
He became a three-time Indy 500 winner in 1978, driving for team owner Bobby Hillin, in an outstanding battle with Danny Ongais before the engine blew up in Onagais's ride on Lap 150. Unser had a 35-second lead at that time and won the race by nine seconds.
But it was his fourth Indianapolis 500 victory in 1987 that made this driver's career truly remarkable.
The only ride Unser had at the start of the month of May in Gasoline Alley was on a bicycle. He was without a ride at Team Penske had replaced him with Ongais to join the team's top two drivers -- Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan. But Ongais crashed hard in practice during the first week and was out of action with a serious concussion. Team owner Roger Penske gave Unser a ride in a 1986 March-Cosworth that was a show car that was on display at the Sheraton Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania -- where Penske Racing was located at the time.
Unser qualified the car for the 20th position but this was a race where Mario Andretti was the overwhelming favorite before his brand new Chevrolet engine blew up with a two-lap lead. That gave the lead to Roberto Guerrero, but he stalled his car on the final pit stop and the team had trouble getting it restarted.
Unser was able to assume the lead while Guerrero's car was in the pits with 17 laps to go. The then 48-year-old Unser went on to beat Guerrero by 4.5-seconds to become the second four-time winner in the race's history. He also broke his brother's record as oldest Indy 500 winner.
"I watched Al in the Johnny Lightning Cars and he was consistent and didn't know how fast he was going," said team owner Roger Penske. "He was a little like David Pearson in NASCAR -- all of a sudden he would be a lap ahead of the field midway through the race. When it was time to go Al was good. He did a terrific job for us and he won it for us in 1987.
"Al was just a steady driver, he took care of the equipment. He knew how to win a race and keep the car under him."
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