Last fall, Steve Shunck, PR guru for BorgWarner Inc., sent me a cassette of Rick Mears’ retirement speech at the Team Penske dinner in December 1992. It came a week after Rick turned 40, and at the end of an unusually torrid year for the Kansas-born, California-raised legend.
In 1991, he had finished fourth in the championship, racked up six pole positions, scored two wins, and cemented his status at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a memorable triumph over Michael Andretti to join A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr. in the four-time Indy winner. But ’92, aside from a runner-up finish at the season-opening race at Surfers Paradise, had been a washout for Mears. He broke a bone in his foot and sprained his wrist in a sizable accident in practice for the 500, after a loose hose sprayed a rear tire with coolant. Come the race, he got caught up in someone else’s accident, which further damaged the bones and ligaments in his wrist, obliging him to wear a brace.
