The 73rd Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Sunday, May 28, 1989. The race was won by Emerson Fittipaldi, a two-time Formula One World Drivers' Champion. Fittipaldi became the first Indy 500 winner from Brazil, the first foreign-born winner of the race since Mario Andretti in 1969, and the first non-American winner since Graham Hill in 1966. Though Fittipaldi started on the front row and dominated much of the race, he found himself running second in the waning laps. Michael Andretti passed Fittipaldi for the lead on lap 154, then led until his engine blew. Al Unser Jr. moved up to second, but trailed Fittipaldi by a big margin. Gambling on fuel mileage, Unser caught up to Fittipaldi after a fortuitous caution period on lap 181, and subsequently took the lead on lap 196.
On the 199th lap, Unser was leading Fittipaldi, at which time the two leaders encountered slower traffic. Down the backstretch, Unser and Fittipaldi weaved through the slower cars, then Fittipaldi dived underneath going into turn three. The two cars touched wheels, and Unser spun out, crashing into the outside retaining wall. Fittipaldi completed the final lap under caution behind the pace car to score his first of two Indy 500 victories. Unser was uninjured, and despite the crash, was still credited with second place. Fittipaldi received $1,001,600 in prize money, the first time an Indianapolis 500 winner received over one million dollars.
After dominating the previous year's race, all three cars of the Penske team failed to finish the race in 1989. Rick Mears won the pole position, his record fifth Indy pole, and Al Unser Sr. qualified second. Danny Sullivan, however, suffered a broken arm in a practice crash, and had to qualify a backup car on the second weekend of time trials, so he started 26th. Mechanical failures sidelined all three cars on race day. It was the only year in the decade of the 1980s, and the first time since 1976, that the Penske team failed to score a top five finish. Apropos to that, Fittipaldi won the race with a Penske PC-18 chassis, which Patrick Racing had acquired from Penske in a complex and multi-faceted trade deal.
The race was sanctioned by USAC, and was included as part of the 1989 CART PPG Indy Car World Series. At season's end, Fittipaldi became the fourth driver since 1979 to win the Indy 500 and CART championship in the same season. The win was also Patrick Racing's third and final Indy victory (1973, 1982, 1989). Former driver Chip Ganassi, who had become co-owner at Patrick Racing in 1988, enjoyed his first of seven Indy victories (as of 2025) as a car owner or co-owner.
Background and offseason
Track improvements Speedway management resurfaced the entire track with asphalt during the summer of 1988, which would result in higher overall speeds for 1989. The last time the track had been repaved was in 1976. The apron at the bottom of the track (typically used for warm-up and cool-down laps, as well as an escape lane for slowing cars), which was previously known to be bumpy, relatively flat, and usually avoided by drivers, was also repaved. The racing surface was separated from the apron by a painted white line. The smooth and re-profiled apron was now tempting drivers to dip below the white line in practice and during the race. Drivers were starting to treat the apron as an extension of the track width. USAC announced penalties would be assessed for driving with four wheels below the white line excessively, other than to make routine passes in heavy traffic.
The rough and bumpy concrete pit lane was also paved over in asphalt and a guardrail was installed to protect the crew members in the sign board area. The newly paved pit area made egress and ingress to the pits smoother and safer, but also sharply increased entrance and exit speeds, potentially putting crew members at risk. Within a few years, after a succession of incidents on the Indy car circuit, as well as in NASCAR, pit road speed limits would be implemented to curtail excessive speeding through the pit lane. In addition, the pneumatic jacks built into the cars were found to be embedding themselves into the soft asphalt of the pit lane. This necessitated crews to affix steel plates on the pit lane to accommodate the jacks (a practice that was also later deemed unsafe). In 1994, this would be finally be solved when the individual pit boxes were resurfaced in concrete.
Rule changes Goodyear arrived at the track providing both a hard and soft compound tire. The exclusive tire provider spent the off-season developing new tires that were better-suited to the newly repaved track. Teams were permitted to run either compound at any time, however, they were required to start the race on the same tires that they used during time trials. All teams qualified on the soft compounds, thus all were required to start the race on soft compounds. Teams electing to switch to hard compound tires for the race could do so on their first pit stop.
Team and driver changes
Team and driver changes were highlighted by Bobby Rahal's departure from Truesports. For 1989, Rahal switched to the Maurice Kranes Kraco Racing Team (A year later, the team would merge with Galles). Rahal, along with Arie Luyendyk at Dick Simon Racing, fielded the new Cosworth DFS "short stroke", and updated version of the mainstay DFV. However, Rahal's DFS engine blew during Carburetion Day practice, and for race day the team would have to revert to a previous generation DFX.
Rookie Scott Pruett, the IMSA GTO and SCCA Trans-Am champion, moved to the Indy car ranks, and took over the vacated seat at Truesports. The team would continue to field the Judd powerplant. After a noteworthy 6th-place performance in the 1988 race, Jim Crawford was back at King Racing.
Chip Ganassi joined Pat Patrick as co-owner at Patrick Racing for Emerson Fittipaldi's #20 Marlboro entry. Speculation was emerging that Pat Patrick was planning to phase out his full-time ownership role, perhaps pursue a leadership position in CART, or even retire. Patrick himself mostly rebuffed the rumors, stating that bringing in Ganassi as an investor was merely a "business decision". Meanwhile, team sponsor Marlboro was nearing the end of their contract. Patrick was still in good standing with Ilmor, and would continue to field the Chevrolet engine. A multi-faceted "trade" deal between Patrick Racing and Penske Racing unfolded over a period of about two years, involving sponsors, drivers, and cars. For 1989, an agreement was reached whereby Marlboro would stay for another season at Patrick and Penske would supply Patrick with two PC-18 chassis for Fittipaldi. In return, Penske would receive interim Marlboro sponsorship to field a third car for Al Unser Sr. at the three 500-mile races in 1989 (Indianapolis, Michigan, and Pocono).
Newman Haas Racing also made headlines, expanding to a two-car team for 1989. Mario Andretti was joined by his son Michael to form a two-car Andretti effort. It was also Michael's first opportunity to compete with the Chevrolet engine. Michael had previously driven for the Kraco Racing Team.
Alfa Romeo joined the CART series with Alex Morales Motorsports in 1989. However, they were not yet ready to compete at Indianapolis. Their debut would actually come a couple weeks later at Detroit. As a result, driver Roberto Guerrero would miss the Indy 500 for the first time since he arrived as a rookie in 1984.
Absent from the race as a driver was Dick Simon, who retired at the end of the 1988 season. Simon had been a participant at Indy since 1970, but was still entered as owner of Dick Simon Racing.
Race schedule Race schedule – April/May, 1989SunMonTueWedThuFriSat23 24 25 26 27 28ROP29ROP30ROP 1 2 3 4 5 6Practice 7Practice 8Practice 9Practice10Practice11Practice12Practice13Time Trials14Time Trials15Practice16Practice17Practice18Practice19Practice20Time Trials21Time Trials22 23 24 25Carb Day26Mini-Marathon27Parade28Indy 50029Memorial Day30 31 Color Notes Green Practice Dark Blue Time trials Silver Race day Red Rained out* Blank No track activity * Includes days where trackactivity was significantlylimited due to rain
ROP – denotes RookieOrientation Program
Practice – week 1
Saturday May 6 Opening day was Saturday May 6. Only eleven cars took to the track on a cold day, which saw snow flurries in the morning and the afternoon. Arie Luyendyk () led the speed chart for the day.
Sunday May 7 Practice picked up on Sunday May 7, with 44 cars taking to the track. Emerson Fittipaldi () set the fastest lap of practice thus far. Michael Andretti was also over .
Monday May 8 Rick Mears set an all-time unofficial track record at , the first ever practice lap over at the Speedway. His teammate Al Unser was close behind at .
Tuesday May 9 Rain washed out practice.
Wednesday May 10 Rookie Steve Butler crashed in turn 4, suffering a broken collarbone, sidelining him for the month. The speeds were slightly down from Monday, with Al Unser topping the chart at .
Thursday May 11 At 4:11 p.m. on Thursday May 11, Danny Sullivan's car lost the engine cover, causing him to break into a 180° spin in turn three. The car hit the wall hard with the right side. Sullivan suffered a mild concussion and a fractured right arm. Sullivan would be forced to sit out the first weekend of time trials. High winds kept the speeds down, with Jim Crawford in a Buick V-6 () the best lap of the day.
Friday May 12 Rick Mears blistered the track on the final day of practice before time trials. His lap of was the fastest practice lap ever run at the Speedway. Jim Crawford and Al Unser also topped . Mears finished the week as the favorite for the pole position.
Time trials – first weekend
Saturday May 13 Pole day was scheduled for Saturday May 13. Rain, however, washed out the entire day. All time trial activities were postponed until Sunday.
Sunday May 14 – Pole day On Sunday May 14, pole day time trials were held. Per USAC rules at the time, the cars would be allowed one trip through the qualifying draw order, and the pole round would be concluded. Al Unser Sr. drew first in line, and was the first driver to make an attempt. Unser set a track record on all four laps, and put himself on the provisional pole position with a track record run of .
A busy hour of qualifying saw several cars complete runs. Scott Brayton, Scott Pruett, Bernard Jourdain, Teo Fabi, and Michael Andretti were among those who completed runs. Bobby Rahal and A. J. Foyt followed, and the field was already filled to eleven cars by 1:30 p.m.
At 2 p.m., Mario Andretti () tentatively put himself third. The next car out, however, was pole favorite Rick Mears. Mears set a one-lap track record of , and a four-lap record of to secure the pole position. Minutes later, it was announced that Michael Andretti's car failed post-qualifying inspection. His run was disallowed as the car found to be 4.5 pounds underweight.
With Mears and Unser Sr. firmly holding the top two spots, the rest of the session focused on which driver would round out the front row in third starting position. Jim Crawford, in the Buick V-6, set a stock block track record of to sit in third at 2:40 p.m. Twenty minutes later, though, Emerson Fittipaldi took to the track, the final car eligible for the pole round. His run of put him on the outside of the front row, and bumped Crawford back to the inside of row two.