By Paul Kelly | Published: May 3, 2021
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, one of the most colorful, outspoken and popular drivers in the history of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” died Sunday, May 2 at his New Mexico home. He was 87.
Unser won the Indianapolis 500 in 1968, 1975 and 1981. He is one of just 10 drivers to win the “500” at least three times and is a member of numerous motorsports Halls of Fame, including induction into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1990. Unser and Rick Mears are the only drivers to win the “500” in three different decades.
He was one of six members of the Unser family to race in the Indianapolis 500. Bobby and his brother Al, a four-time winner, are the only brothers to win the race.
Bobby Unser, 87, Indianapolis 500 champ in great racing family, dies
FILE - In this May 24, 1981, file photo, Bobby Unser holds three fingers aloft after winning his third Indianapolis 500 auto race ,in Indianapolis, Ind. Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has died. He died of natural causes at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. He was 87. (AP Photo/File) Anonymous
FILE - Auto racer Bobby Unser is shown at the Indianapolis 500 auto race in Indianapolis, Ind., in this May 30, 1971, file photo. Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has died. He died of natural causes at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. He was 87. (AP Photo/Chuck Robinson, File) CR
Bobby Unser, 87, Indianapolis 500 champ in great racing family, dies
FILE - In this May 24, 1981, file photo, Bobby Unser holds three fingers aloft after winning his third Indianapolis 500 auto race ,in Indianapolis, Ind. Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has died. He died of natural causes at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. He was 87. (AP Photo/File) Anonymous
FILE - Auto racer Bobby Unser is shown at the Indianapolis 500 auto race in Indianapolis, Ind., in this May 30, 1971, file photo. Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser has died. He died of natural causes at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday, May 2, 2021. He was 87. (AP Photo/Chuck Robinson, File) CR
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Bobby Unser, a beloved three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and part of the only pair of brothers to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing,” has died. He was 87.
He died Sunday at his home in Albuquerque of natural causes, Indianapolis Motor Speedway said Monday.
Unser was one of the greatest racers in the history at the speedway, capturing the race in 1968, 1975 and 1981.
“He is part of the Mt. Rushmore of Indy,” said Dario Franchitti, another three-time Indy 500 winner.
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Younger brother Al Unser is one of only three drivers to win the Indy 500 four times 1970, 1971, 1978 and 1987. The Unser family tradition stretched to Al Unser’s son, Al Unser Jr., who won the Indy 500 in 1992 and 1994.
Jenna Fryer
FILE - Race car driver Bobby Unser is shown in this 1977 file photo. Bobby Unser, a three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and part of the only pair of brothers to win âThe Greatest Spectacle in Racingâ has died. He was 87. He died Sunday, May 2, 2021, at his home in Albuquerque, New Mexico of natural causes, The Indianapolis Speedway said Monday. (AP Photo/File) May 03, 2021 - 2:07 PM
There wasn t much Bobby Unser wouldn t do to promote the Indianapolis 500, which is how he found himself at a show-and-tell at an Indiana elementary school a few years ago.
He had the famed Indy 500 winners Borg-Warner Trophy with him and proudly showed the students the Unser legacy. He pointed to the nine places where their faces are sculpted into the sterling silver â four spots for his little brother, Al; three for himself; two for nephew Al Jr.