"I had mixed emotions": When Michael Andretti serendipitously won at Laguna Seca before clinching IndyCar title

American motorsport legend, Michael Andretti, secured the 1991 CART PPG Indy Car World Series (IndyCar) at Laguna Seca. Before the main event, he even won an all-star non-points race (Malboro Race) at the track by managing a pass on Rick Mears on the final turn of the final lap.

Moreover, courtesy of his efforts, Andretti raked in $275,000 in the non-championship race. While he eventually won 1991's 17-race championship by amassing a victory on Sunday (Newman-Haas Racing), he had mixed emotions after his Saturday win over Rick Mears.

Via an interaction with the LA Times, he had said:

"I couldn’t believe it when I saw Rick stalled in the turn. To tell the truth, I had mixed emotions. Rick deserved the race. He had dominated all the way and did a great job, but I’ll take it."

During the closing stages of the 1991 Saturday event, Rick Mears had a fuel pickup issue in his Penske-Chevrolet. When it came to the main raceday on Sunday, Michael Andretti put on a flawless performance by leading the most laps from pole position.

In the overall 17-race campaign, Andretti won nine Grand Prix events and amassed 234 points to finish ahead of Bobby Rahal (200 points) in the Drivers' standings.

Al Unser Jr. secured third place (197 points), whereas Rick Mears ended up in fourth place with 145 points.

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Rick Mears' take on losing Saturday's race to Michael Andretti

While Michael Andretti asserted that he had mixed emotions back in the day in regard to the 1991 Saturday race at Laguna Seca, Rick Mears was fuming in the post-race interaction. He made his frustration absolutely clear by stating that Andretti might just have bumped into him before tha last lap overtake.

He came up with his assessment and said (via the aforementioned source):

"I might have been better off if he’d bumped me. It might have got me going. As soon as we got out of the corner, and the fuel got back in balance, we drove around the track with no problems. We had a couple of gallons (of fuel) left; it just didn’t pick up at the critical moment."

Rick Mears (three-time champion) and Michael Andretti are absolute legends in the IndyCar series. Mears, in his career, amassed 203 race (last outing, 1995 Michigan 500) starts and put on board 29 wins, 75 podiums, 75 podiums and 40 pole positions.

Andretti, on his part, also brought the curtain down on his IndyCar career in a strong fashion. He amassed over 300 race starts and secured 42 wins, 100 podiums and 32 pole positions. During his racing career, he also secured 13 race starts in the pinnacle of motorsport, Formula 1.