Spirituality Column #810

May 24, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Al Jr., Hope Arrives

By Bob Walters

“I have simple goals now.  I want to live a life led by Jesus.” – two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy car champion from his 2021 book, Al Unser Jr., A Checkered Past.

With the 106^th Indianapolis 500 happening this Sunday, it is the right week to write about one of the great American names in auto racing, Al Unser Jr.

Actually, let’s back up a step and note that “Unser” is one of the legendary families of American motor sports.  Folks here in Indianapolis (I now live in the northeast suburb of Fishers) and really anywhere auto racing is followed know the basics: Al Jr.’s dad Al Unser Sr. won the Indianapolis 500 four times. “Uncle Bobby,” Al Sr.’s older brother, won at Indy three times.  With Al Jr.’s two that’s nine times the name Unser appears on the 500’s Borg-Warner trophy, more than any other.

The heyday of Al Jr.’s racing career was as a second-generation wunderkind – along with Michael Andretti – of the 1980s and 1990s.  The book, published last fall and co-written with New York Times best-selling author Jade Gurss, is excellent in tracking not only Jr.’s rise and mastery of the sport, but also the Unser family history.

I was a part of the middle of those two halcyon decades with Al Jr. – 1988-89-90-91 – working closely with him as a sponsor and team media relations representative.  When race wins, his first Indy car series championship (1990), and even “International Driver of the Year” (1990) honors came his way, I was Al Jr.’s “PR guy.”

Those two decades of Al Jr.’s growth, successes, and dominance in the sport are detailed in the book and were fun to read.  I know, knew, or “knew of” almost everyone mentioned in the book, and was around for many of Al’s successes.  Great memories.

There was so much I remembered, so much I’d forgotten … and so much I didn’t know.

And that’s where the book was not such a joy to read.  To anyone interested in learning the story, I’d caution that the book discusses, often in the coarsest of profane language, the real down-and-dirty of the demons Al was battling.  I only knew the amiable friend and professional at the race track with keen focus and genius skill.

But the point of Al Unser Jr., A Checkered Past is not that.  After Roger Penske’s gracious foreword, the book begins with Al Jr. sitting alone in his small condo on his 50^th birthday, April 19, 2012, holding the muzzle of a loaded and cocked Colt M1911 .45 caliber pistol against his head, intent on pulling the trigger.  He didn’t.

That episode is part of the past two decades – the 2000s and 2010s – when seemingly every part of Al’s life fell apart: career, marriage, family, finances, losing the trust of many who supported him, battling addiction, and domestic violence / DUI arrests.  Much of the book made me sad, but the story leads to a good place today.

The book’s final two chapters are titled “Faith” and “Redemption.”  Good stuff.  Al, now 60, is remarried, lives on Indy’s west side, and is building a life centered in Christ.

Al’s testimony for Jesus, a video conversation with his pastor that was a sermon at his church one Sunday, can be viewed online at this LINK.  In that video I was struck by Al’s sincerity and life verse, John 14:6. “I Am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Obviously, Al believes it and lives it.

Al’s famous father stood by him.  The love of God our Father never quits, either.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) celebrates Al’s continued growth in faith and life.

PS: And this bit of Indy 500 Trivia … A popular souvenir shirt at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this year reads, “You just don’t know what Indy means.” That quote was Al Unser Jr., in tears and surrounded by his family, speaking in IMS Victory Lane, May 24, 1992, after winning his first Indianapolis 500 … exactly 30 years ago today. By the way: Uncle Bobby won his third and final 500 on May 24, 1981, and Al Sr. won his fourth and final 500 on May 24, 1987.  The first three times in history the 500 was run on May 24 (prior to 1972 it was run on Memorial Day, May 30), the race was won by three different Unsers.  May 24 is the earliest date the race is scheduled, Sunday the day before Monday Memorial Day. RIP - Big Al (Dec.) and Bobby (May) died in 2021

PSS: Walters didn’t grow up around any kind of motorsports but wound up covering auto racing for the Indianapolis Star in the mid-1980s, followed by working another dozen years as a media relations executive in Indy Car and NASCAR.

PSSS: This coming Sunday, Lord willing (James 4:15), Walters will be attending his 43^rd* Indianapolis 500 with his wife, both sons and their wives, his brother, and sister.  It has become a family affair. (*Including Covid 2020, watched on TV, still have the seat tickets. IMS President Doug Boles decreed an attendance dispensation for all who could not attend due to the pandemic. So, it counts.)

PSSSS: Aside from that, the last Indy 500 Walters did not attend was 1982. – END –