Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti on the 1981 Finish

[gahloot]

1981 cheater,and he knows it! Fucking Penske had the sanctioning body in there pockets!

[jamie24cfc]

Spoken like a true Andretti, they could start a winery off all their sour grapes. oh wait they did! ! ! !

[jamie24cfc]

Mario passed under yellow as well but selective memory & pro Andretti biased commentating by ABC made it go unnoticed until Penske appealed the protest

[jscott1000]

Mario won this race plain and simple.

[MrRothstein44]

lmao Bobby was a riot listening to his color comm and hes hilarious here as well lol.

[jacopman]

I miss uncle Bobby doing color on broadcasts of Indy races with Tom Sneva........Bobby critizing Tom and the Gasman going right along playing the dumb happy racer..........oh those were the days.......I tuned into a race just to listen to those two..........hilarious.

[PhilipTheBigOne]

On IndyCarNation, I read that there was a commitment line, before which you could pass cars under caution and coming off the pits, because it was thought as part of pitlane. That ended though after Turn 1, that's where Mario blended in. Bobby Unser went all the way until out of Turn 2 before he blended in!!! If that's true, Bobby is penalised and Mario's the winner!!!

[pajasa62]

Mario still has the winner's ring for the '81 race and I am glad he never gave it back.

Races back then were made official at 8 am FOR A REASON...to see if any infractions occured. Penske seemed to just have "out-lawyered" Mario and Pat Patrick. Bobby in some parts of the video sounds like the criminal that rationalizes his behavior.

When Unser talks about Mario passing cars on the same lap...he did, BUT he slowed up and let those cars pass him at the end of the short chute...BIG difference.

[TNO73]

Personally I think they are both in the wrong, but you see from this video that Mario has class while Bobby resorts to throwing insults. As far as saying they would have won if they were given the penalty during the race. I have seen a LOT of weird things happen on the last lap of a race. I also agree with Mario' s assesment that the rules were changed because Bobby crossed the line first. If Bobby were to finish fourth that penalty would have standed.

[AVW555]

"Beating Mario was easy".

[paultheactor1]

Rubbish!

[altroval]

It infuriates me that Mario believes he deserved this race.

Unser utterly dominated the last 100 laps. In fact, Mario got passed for 2nd by teammater Gordon Johncock with about 12 laps to go (Johncock's engine blew with about 5 laps remaining).

Even if Bobby had been hit with a lap penalty he most certainly could have unlapped himself from Mario and the frequent yellow flags in the last half of the race would have given him opportunities to close up and pass Mario.

[pattheiceman]

@altroval The rules are the rules. You don't pass under yellow and the results are not official till USAC posted them in their window on Main Street, In Speedway. He passed under the rules he was penalized and when the official results were posted Mario was the winner. If you have to go outside of the sanctioning body to get the win then you lose. Mario and Bobby are both two time winners in my book.

[jscott1000]

@altroval Mario deserves is because the cheating Bobby Unser penalty should have been enforced, it's just that simple.

[jamie24cfc]

@jscott1000 Mario passed cars under the yellow as well so you can't punish 1 and let the other away with it.

[altroval]

@jscott1000 Fine - they *should* have asessed Bobby a 1 lap penalty. Bobby still would have won for the reasons I cited above.

[altroval]

@sir945

Well the penalty for passing cars under yellow is one lap. Schuppan completed 199 laps but was behind Unser & Andretti on the track. So even if the penalty had been assessed for both - they would still have finished 1-2 ahead of Schuppan.

[equalcharliebrown]

"eight or eleven or whatever"

hahaha.

[elantype45]

In point of fact, gunnnzz, Bobby Unser drove a BRM F1 car in the 1968 U. S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen.

[Annook12]

The rules seem simple to me, you cannot pass under the yellow, and Bobby did that. If you're allowed to pass under yellow, then why have a yellow?

[gunnnzz]

Let's set the record straight! Mario Andretti is one of the greatest drivers if not the greatest driver to ever live. Mario has won Indy, Daytona and F1. Along with several midget and sprint car (Dirt or Pavement) races. Along with a F1 championship. Not many (IF ANY!!) can say that. Bobby Unser (though a great driver in his own right ) has never even set foot in a F1! car. Along with Foyt . I'm not a big fan of the Andretti's but let's give credit where credit is due.

[dcs002]

At 0:25 you can see Bobby crossing that white line and then ducking back under it to pass 2 more cars. He broke the rules.

[mkl62]

2-20-2010. Happy Birthday, Bobby. You were one of the all-time greats when the strong passion was there. Now, it's all about money in both INDY and NASCAR, especially the latter.

[markko17]

Rick Mears once said, "Nobody can convince you black is white like Bobby Unser."

[romero2k]

if history has taught us anything it's that roger penske makes everyone on his team read that damn rule book cover to cover so they can exploit all the idiot rules the IMS didn't think over. similar instance happened in 94 when Penske brought that super engine to indy & kicked everyones butt. Bobby prolly have won anyway, the Andretti name is apparently only supposed to be on the Borg Warner trophy one time, period!

[SAMMYJS991]

Andretti - 1 time only???

I beg to differ.

[romero2k]

mario is the only andretti to win the 500 & he only did it once in 1969 driving for Granatelli so what are you talking about?

[SAMMYJS991]

yes, i know the andretti name has only won 1 time, yes you are correct.

BUT, I am sure it wont be the only time - Marco WILL win 1 soon.

[pgraybengal]

I'm not a fan of Mario or Bobby Unser but I believe Mario got screwed because your suppose to blend into the traffic and if you look he had an opening to blend in right there and Bobby Unser should have lost this race.

[sir945]

in my opinion both mario and bobby should have been disqualified and 3rd place finisher vern schupann should have been delclaried the winn because both bobby and mario both passed cars in the lineup

[cgdale]

I'm not defending Bobby, but the rule was unclear. The New York Times reported that one point of contention during the protest was the lack of a specific rule dealing with cars traversing the safety apron under yellow. The term used was 'pitlane', which Bobby interpreted as extending to Turn 2 and Mario didn't. It's an unfortunate controversy, but in the end I think justice was done.

[sshepard94]

I always thought Bobby, unlike Al and Al Jr., was annoying but I side with him on this one. Mario seems to handle it with class in this interview.

[racedriver52]

thats crazy i dont know who to side with