“I kept my fingers crossed”: When Dale Earnhardt made a surprise call to Al Unser Jr. during a live show after the Indy 500 win

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. once spoke to Dale Earnhardt on a live TV show. The former had just won the race in 1992.

After his victory at the Indy 500, 'Little Al' appeared on an ESPN call-in show. His first caller was the former NASCAR driver and Coca-Cola 600 winner that year, Earnhardt. He showered Unser Jr. with praise and expressed his feelings about the race. He said (via nascarman on X):

"I was going to congratulate the lad. We sort of struggled in there and sort of waited them out. I was riding long air and I kept asking 'was Indy over? Is Indy over? " and they said "Michael blew up and Little Al was leading" and I kept my fingers crossed till he won," Dale Earnhardt said.

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The 1992 Indy 500 will forever go down as the greatest finish in the event's history. The event saw a two-man duel for the victory of the most prestigious race, as Al Unser Jr. led Scott Goodyear by three-tenths in the last four laps.

However, the race leader, Unser Jr., lost his car a little on turn four, which presented Goodyear with an opportunity to close the gap, and was on his Galles Racing Galmer's gearbox. The American driver won the race by 0.043 seconds ahead of Scott Goodyear.

When Al Unser Jr. talked about his 2006 Indy 500 outing

Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. once spoke about his 2006 outing. During the 2006 event, he drove the A1 Team USA Geico Dreyer and Reinbold racing car and started the race in 27th place. However, he crashed during the race and finished in 24th place.

While talking to East Bay Times in 2016, Unser Jr. recapped his 2006 outing in detail and mentioned:

"I was wondering if I was going to be excited, if I was going to enjoy it, or if I was going to go, ‘Nah, this is too fast'. But it was too slow. I wanted to go faster. My goal is to drive as many different race cars as I possibly can, I’m not under contract with anybody. I’m a true outlaw. I have a lot of opportunities. I’m not a car owner, I’m not an engineer, and I don’t want to be. I’m a driver. That’s what I spent my whole life doing, and I want to keep doing it. You walk away, enjoy watching it, but I learned different,”

Al Unser Jr. participated in 56 races throughout his IndyCar career. He had 19 starts at the 'Greatest Spectacle of Racing' and won twice at the event.