Background
Defending champion Al Unser, Sr. returned to Penske to join a three-car effort with Rick Mears and Danny Sullivan. After a dismal go around with the PC-16 ('87), Penske introduced the brand-new PC-17 ('88), with promise. Mears and Sullivan, respectively won the pole positions for the first two races of the CART season. For the third year, Penske was fielding the Chevy Ilmor Indy V-8 engine.
Back-to-back defending CART champion, and 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal returned for his last season at Truesports. However, the team dropped Cosworth DFX and the took up development of the Judd AV engine. The engine was known to be down on horsepower, but excelled in fuel mileage and reliability, particularly in the 500-mile races.
Among the other changes included Al Unser, Jr., who left Shierson and re-joined Galles, who was now sporting the Ilmor Chevy. Raul Boesel took his place in the #30 Dominos Pizza entry.
During a tire test session in September 1987, Roberto Guerrero suffered a crash, and a serious head injury. After a lengthy recovery, Guerrero was back in the cockpit for 1988. Jim Crawford, who suffered serious leg injuries during time trials in 1987, also returned, signing with King Racing.
Billy Vukovich III, son of Bill Vukovich II, and grandson of two-time winner Bill Vukovich, would become the first third-generation driver in Indy history.
Many of the cars in the field were sporting the chrome wheel disc inserts, giving the 1988 month of May a unique visual appearance.
After becoming famous for being "first in line" at the Indy 500 from 1950-1987, longtime fan Larry Bisceglia of Chicago, and later from Phoenix, fell ill and missed the 1988 race. With failing health, he died December 7, 1988.
Read more about this topic: 1988 Indianapolis 500
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)
“I had many problems in my conduct of the office being contrasted with President Kennedy’s conduct in the office, with my manner of dealing with things and his manner, with my accent and his accent, with my background and his background. He was a great public hero, and anything I did that someone didn’t approve of, they would always feel that President Kennedy wouldn’t have done that.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)