During the month of May, an unusually high 25 crashes occurred during practice and qualifying, with one driver in particular, Jim Crawford, suffering serious leg injuries.

Unser proceeded to win the race with a year-old March 86C chassis, and the venerable Cosworth DFX, the powerplant's tenth consecutive Indy victory.

The race was sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, and was included as part of the 1987 CART PPG Indy Car World Series.

Al Unser was unable to secure a ride before the month of May, and arrived at the track unemployed, albeit shopping around for a competitive car.

The most noticeable construction project completed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for 1987 was a series of electronic dot matrix scoreboards installed around the track.

Derek Daly and Dick Ferguson both brushed the wall in the south short chutes, but both nursed their cars back to the pits.

Gary Bettenhausen spun, and Phil Krueger suffered rear suspension damage after tagging the turn four wall.

Many teams who had struggled during the week with handling problems, sat idle on pole day, waiting for better track conditions.

It was a strategic move, in order to secure Sullivan a tentative spot in the field in case time trials were rained out on the second weekend.

Three-time Indy 500 winner Al Unser Sr. was officially announced as the replacement for the injured Danny Ongais at Penske Racing.

Al Unser Jr. had been struggling to get his 1987 March/Cosworth up to speed during the first week of practice, and was unable to qualify during the first weekend of time trials.

Al Unser Sr.'s Penske Racing teammate Danny Sullivan started taking laps for the first time in a 1986 March chassis, powered by an Ilmor Chevrolet Indy V-8.

After the crash, the track stayed mostly quiet until 4:45 p.m. Steve Chassey made his second attempt to qualify, but again waved off following three, slow, inconsistent laps.

Ed Pimm, after days of frustration, handling problems, and with the oil light flashing during his run, managed to bump Swindell out.

The top three race qualifiers and their respective pit crews were automatically eligible: Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, and Rick Mears.

Rahal's Truesports crew was led by chief mechanic Steve Horne, and was decked out in casual Hawaiian shirts for the occasion.

Andretti, marching closer to a clean sweep for the month, defeated Rahal in the final round to notch Newman/Haas Racing's first and only victory in the Pit Stop Contest.

Kevin Cogan blew an engine, Randy Lewis dropped out with a gearbox failure, and Michael Andretti broke a CV joint, then had a pit fire.

On lap 34, Bobby Rahal, who had been running as high as second, made an unscheduled, five-minute long pit stop due to an electrical problem.

Meanwhile, Tom Sneva and Arie Luyendyk, clinging to the top ten, both started losing ground to Fabrizio Barbazza.

During the post-race coverage, Jim McKay briefly announced on-air that the Associated Press wire service was reporting that a spectator fatality had occurred,[19] but he did not connect the incidents.

Roger Penske called Unser into the pits a few laps early, in an effort to "put the pressure on Guerrero"[21] in hopes of moving up to second place.

The green flag came out with four laps to go, and Al Unser Sr. held off Roberto Guerrero by 4.496 seconds, to win his record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 victory.

Mario Andretti's dominance of the month, and subsequent failure to achieve victory, was largely unprecedented in modern times.

All upper case "CUMMINS" decals (an improper rendition of the company's logo) were used on the right sidepod (the side least visible, and seldom photographed).

Luke Walton reprised his traditional duty of introducing the starting command during the pre-race; however, he did not have an active role during the race.

With four pit reporters now part of the crew, Bob Forbes went back to exclusive duty covering the garage area and track hospital.

Unser had been working CART series races on NBC (with anchor Paul Page) and had been part of the IMS Radio Network crew in 1986.

Three pit reporters served on the crew: Jack Arute, Al Trautwig, and Jerry Gappens (the future CEO of New Hampshire Motor Speedway[27]).

[28] And history is matched as the twin checkered flags come out for our second four-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, Al Unser!Lampley: And now, here it is.