Though Fittipaldi started on the front row and dominated much of the race, he found himself running second in the waning laps.

Danny Sullivan suffered a broken arm in a practice crash, then mechanical failures sidelined all three cars on race day.

The race was sanctioned by USAC, and was included as part of the 1989 CART PPG Indy Car World Series.

The apron at the bottom of the track (typically used for warm-up and cool-down laps, as well as an escape lane for slowing cars), which was previously known to be bumpy, relatively flat, and usually avoided by drivers, was also repaved.

USAC announced penalties would be assessed for driving with four wheels below the white line excessively, other than to make routine passes in heavy traffic.

The rough and bumpy concrete pit lane was also paved over in asphalt and a guardrail was installed to protect the crew members in the sign board area.

In addition the pneumatic jacks built into the cars were found to be embedding themselves into the soft asphalt of the pit lane.

This necessitated crews to affix steel plates on the pit lane to accommodate the jacks (a practice that was also later deemed unsafe).

Rahal, along with Arie Luyendyk at Dick Simon Racing, fielded the new Cosworth DFS "short stroke", and updated version of the mainstay DFV.

Rookie Scott Pruett, the IMSA GTO and SCCA Trans-Am champion, moved to the Indy car ranks, and took over the vacated seat at Truesports.

Per USAC rules at the time, the cars would be allowed one trip through the qualifying draw order, and the pole round would be concluded.

Bobby Rahal and A. J. Foyt followed, and the field was already filled to eleven cars by 1:30 p.m. At 2 p.m., Mario Andretti (220.486 mph (354.838 km/h)) tentatively put himself third.

With Mears and Unser Sr. firmly holding the top two spots, the rest of the session focused on which driver would round out the front row in third starting position.

Andretti complained he could not get to the proper level of turbocharger boost due a possibly malfunctioning pop-off valve, but USAC took no action.

The Penske Team started preparing a back-up machine for Sullivan, with Geoff Brabham selected to shake the car down.

On Bump Day, much of the attention was focused on three-time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford, the biggest name who had not yet qualified.

As the day opened, Billy Vukovich III (216.698 mph (348.742 km/h)) put his car in the field with an impressive run, ranked 16th-fastest overall.

His career was interrupted in 1986 when he was sentenced to five years in prison for his involvement in a drug trafficking ring with his father (John Paul Sr.) and subsequently refused to testify against him.

In 1984 Rutherford successfully bumped his way into the field with a Foyt backup car in the last ten minutes of time trials.

The top three race qualifiers and their respective pit crews were automatically eligible: Rick Mears, Al Unser Sr., Emerson Fittipaldi.

Michael Andretti, who had started in the seventh row, had been chasing Fittipaldi the entire race and by the 150-lap mark, he was within sights of the leader.

Team owner Rick Galles made the call not to pit – their fuel calculations were close enough that believed they could make it to the finish.

With two laps to go, Unser approached a line of slower cars consisting of Rocky Moran, Ludwig Heimrath Jr., Bernard Jourdain and John Jones.

[14][15] The pace car escorted the field around the final corner, and for the second year in a row, the race finished under caution.

Fittipaldi also spoke, in his native Portuguese, a greeting to the people in Brazil in victory lane, to the thunderous roars of the crowd.

Al Unser Jr., after being checked out and released from the track hospital, congratulated his adversary on the win, and rejected theories that Fittipaldi intentionally crashed him in response to their previous year's tangle at the Meadowlands.

– Larry Henry described the crash involving Al Unser Jr. and Emerson Fittipaldi on Lap 198 for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.

Pit reporter Gary Gerould took over the duty of introducing the starting command, but it would be the final time that was done on the radio broadcast.

Three-time Indy winner Johnny Rutherford failed to qualify for the race, and joined the crew as "driver expert."

Pit reporters Jack Arute and Brian Hammons were joined by Dr. Jerry Punch, who appeared at Indy for the first time.