Quite Sure About Unser.(Column)(Al Unser Jr.)(Column)

Byline: Dutch Mandel

It was painful to watch a once-mighty warrior go through the motions, but that's what Al Unser Jr. did at Richmond International Raceway. Unser stroked his 700-horsepower office around the three-quarter-mile oval about six miles per hour slower (an eternity in racing) than did Sam Hornish, the rising American waving Marlboro Team Penske colors. For a time there, Junior was the last-place car still running in a field led by Hornish. The irony-that the seat occupied by Hornish once belonged to Unser during his prime-surely did not go unnoticed, either by fans or by the Albuquerque native himself.

On lap 119, the Indy Racing League scoring sheets list Al Unser Jr. retired because of handling problems. How appropriate: Handling problems have plagued Little Al much of his adult life. Four days after the checkered fell on the field, Little Al announced it also fell on his professional racing career.

There is no getting away from Unser as a tragic Shakespearean figure. Born to the first family of American open-wheel racing with nine Indy 500 titles between Daddy Big Al, Uncle Bobby and Little Al, at times during his 21-year professional racing career he wore that legacy proudly. Still, unlike contemporary Michael Andretti, with his own demons to slay, Unser often allowed the monsters out from under his bed, into his life, and to join him on the front page.

Say what you will, but nothing can take away from Little Al's manifold successes. In his prime he could move a car with equal parts finesse and fearlessness. He twice won the Indianapolis 500, the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. He proved as comfortable on a road-race circuit as on ovals, notching CART championships in 1990 and 1994, and he won the 24 Hours of Daytona twice and the International Race of Champions title twice.

To the outside world, the young Little Al often came off as Opie ...