#8 Bettenhausen, Thermo King

INDIANAPOLIS, IND., SEPT. 6, 1969

There were almost enough entries for two races as 32 cars showed up for the Hoosier Hundred. Among the Offies, there were again two Fords and two Plymouths and a quintet of Chevies. Again, it was an all-STP, all dayglo front row, and again Greg Weld put the King-Plymouth on the pole at 34.60 sec. Again Andretti was beside him in the Kuzuma-Offy.

Andretti made short work of Weld to take the lead. Within five laps, the STP Plymouths were in trouble. Pollard had handling trouble and stopped. Weld's brakes were already gone, but he pressed on. Foyt, running second, followed Andretti and waited to see what developed.

Andretti cold lead as he pleased while there was a cushion for him to work. As the cushion wore away, he had to move out with it until there was nowhere left to go. When he had to come down into the hard, slick part of the track, the Kuzuma wouldn't work. A yellow flag for Bill Puterbaugh's engine fire cost Mario his four-second lead. When the green came out again on Lap 5, Foyt made his move and took the lead on the 55th lap. Another yellow gave Bobby Unser and Bettenhausen a chance to close up as well and suck up the STP car when the green came out.

Al Unser reserved his moves for late in the race as he came from eighth at the start. He picked off the cripples, Weld and Andretti, less than 20 laps after Andretti had been ready to lap him. Later in the race, Andretti clipped the inside fence, breaking his left front wheel. Rather than stop, he hung in during the final laps, but had to give way to Weld and struggle in Sixth. Foyt roared to his sixth victory in the Hossier Hundred ahead of Bettenhausen, Bobby and Al.