In A Checkered Past, you get a lap-by-lap account of Unser’s racing career with some of his personal life thrown in. The photos on their family tree literally show men in racing goggles and helmets as early as 1915. Winning the Indianapolis 500 nine times, they are stalwarts in the racing world, a standard to which race car drivers even today aspire. Anyone who knows even a little about racing knows the impact of the Unser family on the sport. Unser’s book, though, is at its finest when it covers the racing world. The final chapter of his book finds him committed only to the simple goal: “I want to live a life led by Jesus.” That, he says, is his solution to his addiction. Though the younger Unser freely admits he wasn’t “made for jail,” and that rehab or Alcoholics Anonymous didn’t work for him, he often seems unaware that he hasn’t been held fully accountable for his actions. As subsequently reported in a Motorsport magazine article, “ Al Unser Jr.: Fall from grace,” we don’t know why Al Unser Sr., upon receiving a draft copy of A Checkered Past, never acknowledged it to his son. We don’t know how it impacted his family, his children. For this charge, Unser got his driver’s license suspended for a year, received a 365-day sentence that was suspended, and was required to do 480 community service hours.Įven in telling his own story, Unser is elusive about his personal life. His most recent DUI was in 2019 when Unser reportedly lost his balance in a field sobriety test and rolled down an embankment. Charged in 20 with driving under the influence, and in one of those cases a misdemeanor hit and run, Unser has avoided actual jail time for charges. He doesn’t say in the book why he didn’t go through with it, but even now, that past dominates Unser’s story. I had been able to pull myself out of the hole a few times. “It’s like falling down the rabbit hole in Alice in Wonderland. He was retired from racing, fired from the Indy Racing League as an official, and was in the midst of a deep depression. In 2012, on his 50th birthday, Unser decided to commit suicide, saying that he’d reached a crisis point. The book begins with the younger Unser holding a loaded gun to his head. delves into the Unser family and their place in the racing world and their influence on his racing career. Download, Driver #8, and Beast, Al Unser Jr. With co-author Jade Gurss, whose other books include Dale Jr. His recent book, A Checkered Past ( Octane Press, 2022), tells a multifaceted story about Unser. greeted fans and signed their book, ’A Checkered Past,’ at Morgenstern Books in Bloomington as part of a book tour throughout Indiana. In March, Jade Gurss (left) and Al Unser Jr.
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