Can a three time Indianapolis 500 winner driving for Penske Racing truly be considered an Underdog? Well that was the moniker applied to Al Unser during the month of May in 1987, where a combination of luck and veteran intuition saw the 46 year old pull of one of Indianapolis’ greatest upsets.

Going into the 1987 season, Al Unser’s racing career had appeared to be winding down. The New Mexico native had been one of Indycar racing’s biggest stars during the 60’s and 70’s, securing three Indianapolis 500 titles, two CART championships and still proving to be a competitive figure in the Championship well into his mid 40s. In 1986 however Unser endured a difficult campaign, despite driving for the dominant Team Penske outfit Unser failed to finish in four of the five races he contested during the season, his only result being a beleaguered 15th place finish at the season ending round in Miami. At the end of the season a deal with Media Mogul Ted Field led to Penske hiring Danny Ongais as their third driver alongside team regulars Danny Sullivan and Rick Mears, and leaving the 47 year old Unser without a drive going into the month of May.

Come the start of the month however Unser still arrived at Indianapolis hoping to secure a last minute ride into the event, it was commonplace in those days for some of Indycar’s strongest teams to hand over their spare cars to paying customers once they knew they were locked into the field, and Unser remained hopeful a similar situation would arise to allow him to make his 22nd start in the race and keep up a record of competing in every 500 since 1970. Unser would earn his chance in ironic fashion, when during practice for the race Danny Ongais crashed heavily into turn four after being caught out by a gust of wind, slamming into the wall at high speed and ruling the Hawaiian driver out of action for the race as a result of concussion. Looking for a veteran driver to take the place of Ongais Penske turned their attentions to Unser, who officially signed on as the team’s third driver just as the second week of time trials was about to commence.

Ongais’ crash also led Penske to make drastic changes in regards to his team’s chassis’ for the event. Up until that point the team had been using their own PC-16 chassis during the month of May, but a series of issues with the car during practice, added with Ongais’ crash, led to the team recruiting a trio of year old March’s to contest the race. Whilst Mears and Sullivan contested the race with brand new versions of the machine Unser was forced to use a hastily converted display car, which only a few weeks earlier had been used for promotional purposes inside a Pennsylvania Hotel complex.

Despite the issues with the machine Unser safely qualified for the race, and after avoiding a first lap incident involving Josele Garza slowly began to move himself through the field, by lap 90 the veteran had worked his way into fourth place, and with just 25 laps remaining was in contention for the final spot on the podium. The race win however appeared to safely in the hands of Mario Andretti, the Newman Haas driver had been the dominant figure throughout the month of May, leading 170 of the first 175 laps and looking certain to take the second win that had eluded him at the Speedway for so long.

With just 23 laps remaining however Andretti’s luck once again turned. Looking to consolodate his lead Andretti began slowing down in an attempt to preserve his engine, in the process creating a harmonic imbalance which caused a broken valve spring in his Chevrolet power unit . The family curse had once again struck, leaving Unser in second place just behind the new race leader Roberto Guerrero. Both drivers had one pitstop remaining before the end of the race, with Unser deciding to pit first to place the pressure on Guerrero when the Granatelli driver came for his own pitstop two laps. The plan worked, as Guerreo stalled his car coming out of his pit box and costing his team valuable seconds as they scrambled to restart the machine. Unser capitalised, taking the lead of the racing and holding off the hard charging Guerrero to take the checkered flag and join AJ Foyt as a four-time winner of the 500.

By winning the race just five days short of his 48th birthday Unser became the oldest man ever to win the 500, breaking a record held by his brother Bobby back in 1981, and earning the younger Unser a reputation as a reliable pair of hands in 500 mile events, finishing 3rd in the 1988 500 before repeating his 1987 feat when he replaced Nelson Piquet on short notice to take another third place in 1992, having secured his reputation as one of motorsport’s all time greats.

In today’s video Al Unser speaks to Indycar.com over his 1987 win:

In tomorrow’s update we look at one of the Indy 500’s most emotional wins, one which proved a fitting sendoff for one of the sport’s biggest advocates.