FANTASY NASCAR Racin

a retired U.S. automobile racer. He is the brother of Al Unser, Jerry Unser and Louie Unser, the father of Robby Unser, and the uncle of Al Unser, Jr. He is one of ten drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 three or more times, and one of only two to have won the 500 in three different decades (1968, 75, 81). His first Indy 500 win in 1968 saw Joe Leonard and Graham Hill start first and second in their STP sponsored turbine powered Lotus'. Unser would start third on the outside of row number one. As with the previous year the Granatelli turbine cars were the class of the field. Andy teamed up with Colin Chapman and with a three-car team of new, improved wedge-shaped and all-wheel drive "Whooshmobile" turbines it looked like this would finally be his year with the cars of Joe Leonard and Graham Hill qualifying 1-2. Bobby Unser proved he had a stout machine also when he passed Leonard for the lead early as Hill fell

back out of contention. Unser shocked the crowd as the red-and-white #3 began to pull away. Unser seemingly had the car to beat but problems with his Eagle/Offy's lower gears starting to fail would put him well back after ever pit stop and force him to have to charge back. As Unser had his issues both Leonard and Lloyd Ruby battled for the lead. With nine laps to go Leonard was leading when he fell out with a broken fuel shaft, paving the way for Unser to get his first Indy win. Dan Gurney finishing second it was a 1-2 finish for Dan Gurney's Eagle chassis. Much of the movie "Winning" was shot during this race with the movie makers going out of their way to paint the car of main character "Frank Capua" identical to Bobby Unser's winning one. The movie is best remembered for who

played Capua, Academy Award-winner Paul Newman who caught the motor sports bug making the film and would go on to be a very successful race car driver in his own right. 1975 saw Bobby Unser again start third in the 500. The pole sitter of AJ Foyt, and second place Gordon Johncock to his inside. Johnny Rutherford also had a strong car, along with Wally Dallenbach Sr. Bobby Allison started this race, and became the first full time NASCAR driver to lead a lap at Indy. Unser didn't lead a lap until Foyt's crew errored and run him out of gas on lap 123. Unser led only one lap before Dallenbach took the lead away. Weather was closing

in, and Unser moved to take the lead away from Rutherford on lap 165. Shortly afterward the skies opened up the rain came hard and fast, flooding the track and making it a virtual ice rink trying to drive on it with slick tires. Even after the yellow came out there were several crashes. Rutherford finished second, and Foyt recovered to finish third even after running out of gas. If the race had ran the full distance Foyt was a good bet to have won. Bobby Allison broke a gearbox and finished 25th. Bobby Unser was part of one of the most controversial finishes in Indy 500 history at the 1981 Indianapolis 500. This time Unser won the pole, and was joined on the front row by Mike Mosely and AJ Foyt. Future NASCAR star Tim Richmond would start

33rd, and work his way up to a 14th place finish. On lap 149, during a caution period, Bobby and Mario Andretti made their pit stop and headed back to the race. Bobby passed eight cars during the caution, while Mario passed two cars. Unser won the race. The next day Andretti's Patrick team filed a protest and Unser was penalized one position for passing cars under yellow in violation of the "blend rule". Andretti became the new winner of the race when the official results were posted. A huge controversy erupted. Andretti argued that it was an established guideline that the place to look for the car to "blend" behind was at the south end of the pit straight, where the concrete separator wall ends. Bobby Unser countered that he understood that, as long as the car stayed under the white line and in the apron, the place to blend in was the

exit of turn two. Unser argued that the warm-up apron was an extension of the pit area. Unser added that drivers were allowed to do that as long as they did not pass the pace car nor pass the car immediately behind the pace car. USAC was faced with a dilemma, as the rule book was in fact unclear in regards to the blend rule. In its decision, which resulted from a 2-to-1 vote, the panel said that race officials had "a responsibility to observe and report illegal passing in yellow flag situations and they failed to do so." So, after 138 days after the race had ended, the penalty was overturned for a $40,000 fine and Unser once again

became the official winner of the race. The controversy and financial impact (Unser once estimated that the commercial endorsements he lost because of the delayed result cost him $1 million) and caused him to retire from racing at the end of the year. Much like his brother Al, Bobby ran a hand full of Cup races. Two starts at Daytona, one at Charlotte, and one at Riverside. In the Daytona 500 Unser would start 8th, but crash out on lap 56. His best Cup finish came in 1973 at Riverside. He started 7th, and would bring home his Holman-Moody Pepsi sponsored Ford in fourth place. For his career Bobby ran 263 Indy car events claiming 37 wins. He also ran in one Formula1 race, and was the IROC Champion in 1975. Some info from Wikipedia

Fantasy NASCAR Racing

ROBERT WILLIAM "BOBBY" UNSER - 02/20/1934 - 05/02/2021