The tone for the race was set early when pole position winner Roberto Guerrero spun out and crashed on the parade lap.

Unser's victory was considered by some an "upset," as his somewhat inauspicious Galmer chassis was not expected to excel on ovals, and its first generation "Chevy-A" engine was starting to become a lame duck powerplant in the series.

It met with instant success as Al Unser Jr. won the pole position for the season opener at Surfers Paradise and finished 4th.

Rookie driver Paul Tracy continued into his second year with Penske, and was offered his first attempt at Indy with the team.

This coincided with a change in signage for Goodyear in American auto racing, as the company brought back their classic blue and yellow logo scheme for motorsports.

* Includes days where trackactivity was significantlylimited due to rain ROP — denotes RookieOrientation Program King Racing teammates Jim Crawford and Roberto Guerrero quickly established themselves as the cars to beat during the first week of practice.

The two drivers fielded a pair of Lola V-6 Buicks, an engine that many thought was finally beginning to show its potential after years of development.

Rookie Lyn St. James was finding speed difficult, running a 217.097 mph, her fastest lap of the month, nowhere near the top of the charts.

Al Unser, Sr. was named as a replacement for Nelson Piquet's entry, and Gary Bettenhausen suffered damage when his engine blew, causing a lazy spin in turn 1.

Among the other drivers securing a starting position were Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy, and Al Unser Jr. Scott Goodyear also put a Walker Racing team car in the field, taking a run of 219.054 mph.

Teammate Jim Crawford was still considered a threat, but another engine failure in the Sunday morning practice delivered the team yet another setback.

Danny Sullivan, who had to abort his Saturday run due to a yellow light, was placed at the front of the line for Sunday.

Crawford finally put his car in the field, but despite the 228.859 mph average (6th fastest overall), his status as a second day qualifier forced him to line up 21st.

Dick Simon Racing announced that an agreement had been made for Lyn St. James to utilize Philippe Gache's back up car, a Lola/Chevrolet.

The final full day of practice, meanwhile, saw Tony Bettenhausen Jr. run the fastest lap of the week for non-qualified cars, 221.033 mph.

Tom Sneva joined as a third driver for Menard Racing, and Pancho Carter's month came to an end when he broke his arm in a turn 2 crash.

[5] Brian Bonner and Mike Groff (a teammate to Scott Goodyear) also completed runs, filling the field to 30 cars.

The top three race qualifiers and their respective pit crews were automatically eligible: Roberto Guerrero, Eddie Cheever, and Mario Andretti.

[10] Mary F. Hulman gave the starting command at 10:51 a.m., and the pace car, driven by Bobby Unser led the field on the way to the first parade lap.

John Paul Jr.'s car experienced engine issues on the grid, but at the last second, he hastily pulled away to join the field.

The cold weather made for precarious conditions for the drivers, as it would be increasingly difficult to warm up the slick tires.

As the field entered the backstretch on the second parade lap, polesitter Roberto Guerrero gunned his machine to warm up the tires.

During this caution period, Mario Andretti made two pit stops to have identified (and replaced) a shorted ignition wire, and dropped one lap down.

In turn one, Jim Crawford lost control while attempting to pass John Andretti, and collected Rick Mears.

The wheel struck Gary Bettenhausen's left front suspension, sending him out of control into the inside wall at the start of the backstretch.

He dropped out of the Michigan 500 due to the nagging injured wrist he suffered in his practice crash and abruptly retired from driving in December.

Michael Andretti would not return to Indy for two years, due to his 1993 Formula One participation, and Jeff would qualify only one additional time in his career.

In addition, Eddie Cheever and Buddy Lazier would eventually go on to win the race, bringing the winners total to 13 drivers (representing 26 victories) in the 1992 field.

"The checkered flag is out...S-[cott] Goodyear makes a move!...Little Al wins by just a few tenths of a second!...perhaps the closest finish in the history of the Indianapolis 500!"

The last seconds of the call were included in a television commercial for Valvoline (Unser Jr.'s sponsor) which ran for several months following the race.