Bump And Run

Going into Sunday's Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach, Tom Sneva was not on the short list of drivers expected to play a starring role, and indeed, with 12 laps left Sneva was running 11th, five laps behind the leaders. But then he made his move. It was subtle, but it sure packed a wallop. According to Al Unser Jr., Sneva's move, undetected by most other observers, caused Unser to smash into the tail of Mario Andretti, who later jumped down Unser's throat. Whatever happened, you can't say that Sneva didn't give everyone due warning. After qualifying 12th on Saturday evening, he said. "I think we'll surprise a few people on Sunday."

In the aftermath of the collision, Unser had to agree. He had been running second to Andretti by just a few feet when they came up on Sneva in a tight turn. Sneva slowed down more than Unser expected, and Andretti became the filling in a hero sandwich. Unser poked the back end of Andretti's Lola-Chevrolet and spun it out of the race. Unser fled the scene—leaving behind the left front wing of his own Lola-Chevy—and ran all the way to Victory Lane.

As Unser climbed out of his car, Andretti greeted him with steamy accusations. "Idiotic," "stupid," "blatant" and "sorry driving" were some of the words Andretti employed.

Unser was chagrined to have won in such a manner, and he accepted responsibility for the accident. "I blame myself for not expecting the unexpected," he said. "Murphy's Law hit me square in the face. I apologize to Mario. I don't blame him for being mad. I would be too, if someone ran over me like that."

Unser's mea culpa came a bit late for Andretti. He would doubtless disagree about who got mugged by Murphy—the difference in prize money between first place and 18th, where Andretti was credited with finishing, was $99,260.

Unser's victory may be tainted but it was not a surprise. He had won the pole position on the 1.67-mile circuit with a time of 66.255, which was a whopping 1.1 seconds faster than the No. 2 qualifier, Andretti's son Michael, who would wind up second in his Lola on Sunday.

Unser ran away from the field for the first half of the 95-lap race and opened up a 16-second lead over Mario before backing off to save fuel. When they both pitted for the second and final time, Andretti trailed by only 3.2 seconds, and his crew literally pulled a fast one to give him the lead. Shunning a tire change to save time, the crew got him in and out of the pits quick enough for Andretti to take a 2.7-second lead over Unser. But six laps later, Unser had whittled the gap down to almost nothing. "I wasn't a bit worried about not being able to pass him," Unser said. "We were going to go at him in a scientific way—and wham!—they stopped in front of me. That was that."

Unser and the Andrettis were the only drivers in the hunt on Sunday. The two Penske-Chevys driven by 1988 Indy 500 champ Rick Mears and '88 CART champion Danny Sullivan, which had finished first and third, respectively (Unser was second), at the Indy Car opener in Phoenix the previous week, struggled all weekend. Mears ended up fifth and Sullivan eighth.

Unser leads the CART point standings, and talk is that this will be his year. Last season he finished a close second to Sullivan in the points championship and won all four CART street races. Unser also won the four-event International Race of Champions series, a feat that supposedly makes him the best driver in the world. But he knows that if he ever hopes to be considered the equal of his father, Al Sr., who has four Indy wins, or his uncle Bobby, who has three, he must put his name in the Brickyard record book. Next month he'll get his chance.