The 1981 Indianapolis 500 ended with one of the most disputed finishes in American racing, and Mario Andretti was right in the middle of it.
On May 24, 1981, the 65th Indy 500 rolled with seven former winners on the grid and approximately 400,000 fans watching the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. The race had already produced major drama before the finish. On lap 58, Rick Mears’s car caught fire in his pit, and Rick Mears himself caught fire. Five laps later, Danny Ongais suffered a crash that tore his car in half.
The yellow-flag controversy
The decisive controversy came on lap 149, when Mario Andretti and Bobby Unser pitted for fuel and Unser was accused of passing cars under the yellow. Andretti said Unser passed four cars on the yellow, while Jim McKay reacted on TV with, “What’s he doing!?” Jackie Stewart also weighed in, calling it “That is a no-no.”
Andretti said he could not believe what he was seeing and asked, “What should I do?!” He also said, “Bobby went right up to the front!” The dispute was not just about the race order. It also involved tens of thousands in prize money and the public record of who won the 1981 Indianapolis 500.
Hours of review that night
Bobby Unser crossed the finish line first 51 laps later, but the story did not end there. That night, racing stewards watched the tape and argued for hours over what happened and whether the result should stand.
Unser later said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that I won the 1981 Indy 500.” Andretti, meanwhile, summed up his view bluntly: “Bobby’s done things like this... only this time he got caught—like Nixon.”
That is why the 1981 Indianapolis 500 remains such a major moment in racing history. It was not simply a race with a close finish. It was a full-scale dispute over who won, what the tape showed, and how the result should be remembered.
