A member of a famous Albuquerque racing family, he won two CART titles and the Indianapolis 500 twice, then struggled publicly with alcoholism.
Al Unser Jr., born in Albuquerque in 1962, won two CART championships and the Indianapolis 500 twice. He was also a champion in IROC and Can-Am, and he holds the record for most Long Beach Grand Prix victories.
Alfred Unser Jr., known as Little Al, is an American former racing driver from Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is best known for his CART career, in which he won two championships and two Indianapolis 500s. His father and uncle were also Indianapolis 500 winners, and the Unser family has won the race a record nine times.
How did Unser start racing?
Unser was born on April 19, 1962, and was racing sprint cars by the age of eleven. After high school he was already on the circuit of the World of Outlaws sprint car series. He then switched to road circuits and took the Super Vee crown in 1981, followed by the Can-Am championship in 1982.
He was nicknamed Little Al to tell him apart from his father, Al Unser, who was also a driver.
Two Indy 500 wins, a 0.043-second margin of victory and a career that ended in a public struggle with alcohol.
When did Unser make his CART debut?
Unser made his CART debut in 1982. That year his sister Debbie was killed in a dune buggy accident, a tragedy that did not stop him from racing. A year later he took part in his first Indianapolis 500 and finished ninth, before a post-race penalty dropped him to tenth.
Despite the penalty, he was praised for his rookie performance, but he lost the Rookie of the Year award to Teo Fabi. He kept climbing the CART ranks. In 1985 he finished second in the points standings, losing the title to his father by just one point, and he became one of the series' rising stars.
How did Unser win the Indianapolis 500?
Unser's first Indianapolis 500 win came in 1992, but the road there was full of disappointment. In 1989 he was on the verge of winning until a battle with Emerson Fittipaldi for the lead ended in wheel contact that sent Unser spinning into the wall. He climbed out of the wrecked car and gave Fittipaldi a thumbs up as the leader drove past under the yellow flag, a moment remembered for its sportsmanship.
He finally won in 1992 by 0.043 seconds over Scott Goodyear, which was the second-closest finish in the race's history. That margin stood as a record for 34 years. He returned to victory at Indianapolis in 1994, this time with Penske Racing, where he drove alongside Emerson Fittipaldi and Paul Tracy.
| Season | Series or event | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Super Vee | Championship |
| 1982 | Can-Am | Championship |
| 1983 | Indianapolis 500 | Ninth, later tenth after a penalty |
| 1985 | CART | Second in points, one point behind his father |
| 1986 | IROC | Championship with two wins in four races |
| 1986 | 24 Hours of Daytona | Win |
| 1988 | IROC | Championship |
| 1990 | CART | First CART championship |
| 1992 | Indianapolis 500 | Win by 0.043 seconds |
| 1994 | Indianapolis 500 and CART | Second Indy win and second CART title |
| 1995 | CART | Second to Jacques Villeneuve |
| 2009 | Long Beach Pro/Celebrity Race | Win, his eighth Long Beach victory overall |
How did Unser's CART career develop?
Unser won the CART championship for the first time in 1990, after finishing fourth in 1986, third in 1987 and second in 1988. In 1994 he dominated the season at Penske, winning eight of sixteen races on his way to his second title. That year ABC named him its Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year.
His decline began with a difficult 1995. He and Fittipaldi failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, and Unser later said that failure was the trigger for his slide into alcoholism and the breakup of his marriage. He still finished second to Jacques Villeneuve in the 1995 championship points, and he finished fourth in 1996.
Results fell away after that. He ranked 13th in 1997, 11th in 1998 and 21st in 1999, a season in which a broken leg from a first-lap accident at Miami kept him out of two races. Penske's in-house chassis, Mercedes engines and Goodyear tyres were struggling in that era, and the team switched to Lola chassis in 1999. Unser left Penske and went to the new Indy Racing League for 2000.
How many races did Unser win overall?
Unser won 31 races during his seventeen seasons in CART. Including the Indy Racing League, his career total reached 34, the sixth-most in American open-wheel racing as of 2013. As a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and two-time overall points champion, he is one of the most successful drivers in American racing history.
How did Unser perform in the Indy Racing League and beyond?
Unser won three races in the IRL. In October 2003 he broke his pelvis in an all-terrain vehicle accident, and he had difficulty finding a ride for 2004. He joined Patrick Racing three races into 2004, and after a 22nd at Richmond he retired on June 30.
He stayed involved in the sport as an adviser to Patrick Racing and as a mentor to his son Al Richard Unser, who was climbing through the lower categories. He also made a return to racing in 2006, when he drove for Dreyer and Reinbold Racing in the Indianapolis 500 alongside Buddy Lazier. He qualified 27th and ran in the upper half of the field before a crash ended his day.
In 2007 he drove for A. J. Foyt in the Indianapolis 500 with the No. 50 car, commemorating Foyt's fifty years at the race. Unser was bumped from the lineup on the second day of qualifying and took the 25th starting position.
What was Unser's record at Long Beach?
Unser holds the record for the most Long Beach Grand Prix victories in history, with six wins. He won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race in 1985 and returned to it in 2009, taking a second win in that event, his eighth at Long Beach overall. In 2014 he finished fifth in the pro/celebrity race, which gave him a ninth Long Beach victory overall.
That record earned him the nickname King of the Beach. He confirmed during the 2009 weekend that his IndyCar career was over, and he has continued to race in other events since.
How has Unser raced away from IndyCar?
Unser took part in a sportscar race at Thunderhill Raceway Park in 2013, racing the 25 Hours of Thunderhill with his son Al III. He dominated that race, but his co-driver crashed the car. In 2014 he won the Indy Legends Charity Pro/Am race at the Brickyard Vintage Racing Invitational with Peter Klutt, driving Klutt's 1969 Chevrolet Corvette. The win made him the second driver to win on both the oval and the road course at the Speedway.
In 2015 he competed in several Goodguys AutoCross events in a 1970 Camaro and placed second in his class at the SCCA Solo National Championship. He also started the Race Clinic for Paralysis charity in 2010.
What happened in Unser's personal life?
Unser spoke publicly about his battle with alcoholism for the first time in May 2007, when he joined a national educational campaign to encourage people to address and treat the problem. In January 2007 he had been arrested near Henderson, Nevada, on charges including driving under the influence and hit and run.
In 2011 he was arrested in Albuquerque on reckless driving and aggravated drunk driving charges after he reportedly drag raced a Chevrolet Suburban at speeds over 100 mph. He was suspended from his IndyCar role afterwards. He was charged with drink-driving for a fourth time in May 2019, just days before that year's Indianapolis 500.
He has four children, Al Richard, Cody, Shannon and Joe. His daughter Cody lost the use of her legs in an accident in 1999, when she was twelve. She and her mother Shelley founded the Cody Unser First Step Foundation when Cody was thirteen. Shelley died in August 2018, and Unser married Norma Lawrence in September 2021.
In October 2021 he published his memoir A Checkered Past, co-written with Jade Gurss. He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2009.
