Dan Snyder agrees to $6.05 billion sale of NFL’s Commanders

• April 13, 2023

By ROB MAADDI and STEPHEN WHYNO (AP Sports Writers)

Dan Snyder has a deal in place to sell the NFL’s Washington Commanders for the biggest price paid for a North American professional sports team.

A group led by Josh Harris and Mitchell Rales that includes Magic Johnson has an agreement in principle to buy the team for a record $6.05 billion, two people with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Thursday.

The people confirmed the deal was a fully financed, nonexclusive agreement that was not yet signed. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal hasn’t been finalized.

Another person told The AP a deal hasn’t been sent to the NFL for approval yet. The league declined to comment.

Once the deal is approved, Harris would own controlling stakes in teams in three of the four major North American pro sports leagues. He and David Blitzer have owned the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers since 2011 and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils since 2013.

Harris has owned a piece of the Pittsburgh Steelers, which he needs to sell before getting the Commanders.

The price for the Commanders tops the previous record of $4.65 billion set when Walmart heir Rob Walton’s group bought the Denver Broncos last year. Johnson, the basketball Hall of Famer who also owns part of Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers, was also part of Harris’ bid for the Broncos.

Rales, co-founder of the Danaher Corp. and a Maryland resident, and Johnson were relatively late additions to the group. Rales and Harris grew up in Bethesda in the Washington suburbs and give the team local ownership roots.

The sale of the Commanders is pending the execution of a contract and then approval from the rest of the league’s owners, which could happen as soon as their next meeting in Minnesota in May but may take longer. It would need 24 of 32 votes to pass, which is not expected to be a problem after the Broncos sale was unanimously approved and given that Snyder was beginning to fall out of favor with the group.

Snyder bought his boyhood favorite team in 1999 for $750 million and despite mounting criticism repeatedly said he’d never sell. That changed after multiple investigations by the league and Congress into Washington’s workplace misconduct and potential improprieties. The congressional investigation found Snyder played a role in a toxic culture.

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay in October became the first to suggest there was “merit to remove” Snyder, a nearly unprecedented move that would have also taken a three-quarters majority to happen. Instead, two weeks later, Snyder and wife Tanya hired Bank of America Securities to explore a possible sale of the team.

It quickly became apparent the Snyders, who bought out the previous minority owners in 2021, were not looking to maintain a controlling interest. Canadian investor Steve Apostolopoulos and Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta were among the other bidders after early interest from Washington-area businessman Todd Boehly and mortgage executive Mat Ishbia, who instead paid $4 billion for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Mercury.

The group led by Apostolopoulos was the only other one to submit a fully financed bid.

Lawyers representing over 40 former team employees hailed the news of an agreement in principle, saying it “marks the end of a long, difficult chapter” for their clients and fans. Lisa Banks and Debra Katz welcomed the new owners and said they “hope a new chapter can truly begin” within the organization.

Harris and Rales will soon assume control of a once-storied franchise that has fallen far from its 1980s and early ’90s glory days, when Washington won the Super Bowl three times. With Snyder in charge, the team made the playoffs just six times in 24 seasons, only twice won a postseason game and went 166-226-2 overall.

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The new owners will inherit coach Ron Rivera, who has run Washington’s football operations for three seasons, none with a winning record, including an NFC East title at 7-9 in 2020 followed by a first-round loss.

Their biggest immediate challenge for the long-term future of the organization is a new stadium to replace FedEx Field, the rushed-to-completion home of the team since 1997 in Landover, Maryland, that has not aged well. Virginia abandoned a stadium bill last spring given the number of off-field controversies swirling around the team.

Getting fans back is a major priority after Washington ranked last in the league in attendance in 2022 and were second-last in 2021. The team rebranded last year as the Commanders after dropping the name Redskins in the summer of 2020 and going by the Washington Football Team for two seasons.

It was not immediately clear what latitude Harris and Rales might have to make their own changes to the team name, logo or other aspects of design, or if they have any interest in changing course when they take over.

​ Orange County Register 

Visit the Cherry Blossom Festival in Huntington Beach this weekeend

• April 13, 2023

The Orange County Cherry Blossom Festival is coming up in Huntington Beach.

The three-day festival is a springtime celebration of Japanese and Japanese American culture that is a tradition in the community.

Highlights will include the Sakura Night Market with lots of food and drinks to try, entertainment, activities, art and cultural performances.

The festival helps fund an international student exchange program between Huntington Beach and its sister city, Anjo, Japan.

If you go

When: 5 to 10 p.m. on April 14; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on April 15; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 16

Where: 7111 Talbert Ave, Huntington Beach

Information: occbfest.com

​ Orange County Register 

Children can create, explore with Imaginology this weekend at fairgrounds

• April 13, 2023

Imaginology is back at the OC Fair to give kids from preschool to high school, as well as adults, a chance to discover and learn more about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) through different interactive exhibits.

Visitors can explore makeshops, watch demonstrations, take part in competitions and put lessons to practice with various hands-on activities.

There will also be entertainment for all. Some of the performances will include a children’s choir, a teen indie rock band, a violin pop group and others.

Children can win a prize by getting a scavenger hunt card stamped as they go along. Dozens of community groups participate.

If you go

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 15 and April 16

Where: OC Fair & Event Center, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa

Cost: Free admission, $12 parking

Information: ocfair.com/steam

​ Orange County Register 

Focus pages offer a detailed look at Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach race cars

• April 13, 2023

Throughout this week, the Southern California News Group published a series of six Focus pages in celebration of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which runs from Friday to Sunday, April 14-16.

These pages take a detailed look at all six classes of vehicles that will hit the city’s downtown streets throughout this weekend: IndyCars, IMSA, Porsches, trucks, cars that drift and Historic F1s.

Beginning today, all six of those pages are available online for subscribers to download as high-resolution PDFs. Check them out below.

Download a PDF of the IndyCar Focus page.

Download a PDF of the IMSA Focus page.

Download a PDF of the 911 Focus page.

Download a PDF of the Drift Focus page.

Download a PDF of the Trucks Focus page.

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​ Orange County Register 

Here are the $5 meals you can get at Del Taco

• April 13, 2023

Del Taco has added four combos called $5 Del’s Deal Value Meals to its lineup for a limited time.

Each meal comes with a small order of crinkle-cut fries and a small drink, according to a news release from the Lake Forest-based chain.

The choices are three Snack Tacos, which are mini versions of Del Taco’s hard-shell tacos; a Grilled Chicken Taco with a Snack Queso Quesadilla; a Crispy Chicken Taco with a Snack Queso Quesadilla; and a bean and cheese burrito with a Snack Queso Quesadilla.

Many of the items are included in Del Taco’s 20 Under $2 menu.

Information: deltaco.com

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​ Orange County Register 

OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer receives raise

• April 13, 2023

The Orange County Board of Supervisors has approved a nearly $43,000 pay increase for District Attorney Todd Spitzer, bumping his annual salary to $353,236.

About every three years, the county does a market rate study to ensure directors and elected officials are in alignment with the current marketplace, county spokeswoman Molly Nichelson said. In this case, the pay hike was made to keep pace with Spitzer’s equivalent in San Diego County, Summer Stephan. Officials said Orange County regularly use San Diego as a benchmark.

Spitzer’s overall compensation increases to $531,477, including all benefits. Spitzer has served as district attorney since 2018; he easily won reelection last year.

The board voted 4-0 for the pay increase. Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento abstained, saying he has not been on the board long enough to fairly consider Spitzer’s job performance.

“I have simply not had the time to evaluate his performance,” Sarmiento said. He was elected in November and took his seat in January. “But I don’t want my abstention to be considered a comment on the success or deficiencies in the department. I haven’t had a chance to get to know or evaluate his performance or management of his office.

The City News Service contributed to this report.

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​ Orange County Register 

Douglas Schoen: Democratic wins in midwestern elections offer the party a roadmap for 2024

• April 13, 2023

Despite the victories of liberal candidates in Wisconsin and Chicago last week, neither race should be interpreted as a full-throttled endorsement of the progressive agenda.

Rather, the landslide victory of Judge Janet Protasiewicz in her race for Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is best-understood as a rebuke of the Republican Party, whose far-right and anti-choice positions have made the GOP’s brand toxic to a significant share of the electorate.

In the Chicago mayoral race, progressive Brandon Johnson’s narrow victory would not have materialized had Johnson not moderated his stance on crime and policing in the final stretch of the campaign by rejecting the left’s ‘defund the police’ positioning.

In turn, both races offer the Democratic Party a roadmap for a 2024 messaging strategy. By shifting to the center on crime and continuing to draw a contrast with the GOP’s extreme positions on abortion and other issues, Democrats can position themselves as the only party that stands for public health and safety, as opposed to Republicans, who take extreme stances and play politics without offering solutions.

The margin of Protasiewicz’s victory – 11-points – in the swing-state of Wisconsin is remarkable, and suggests that abortion remains a potent issue that plays to Democrats’ advantage, as was the case in the 2022 midterms.

Democratic groups in the state outspent Republicans in what was the most expensive judicial race in U.S. history, and focused most of their messaging on attacking Protasiewicz’s conservative opponent, Dan Kelly, for his anti-choice positions.

A victory for Kelly would have arguably been attainable had he not supported a draconian state abortion ban from 1849. His loss suggests that Republicans will continue to lose winnable races due to their anti-choice stances, as more than 6-in-10 Americans support legal abortion in all or most cases.

While there is evidence that Democrats are less successful in elections where abortion rights are not directly on the ballot, the party has a new opportunity to nationalize the issue to their benefit. Just three days after Democrats proved the strength of their pro-choice positioning in Wisconsin, a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas suspended the FDA’s approval of the most common abortion drug.

The decision threatens to make abortions less accessible even in states where the procedure is fully legal, and directly negates the common conservative justification for restricting national abortion rights: that the decision should be left up to the states, not the federal government. The Biden Administration released a statement pledging to protect abortion access, and many Democrats facing tough reelections in 2024 have already begun aggressively messaging on the issue.

While clearly important, abortion was not the only issue at play in the Wisconsin race: Donald Trump, Trumpism, and Republican election denialism were on the ballot, as well.

Kelly was hired following the 2020 elections by the Wisconsin GOP to advise on efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s win and declare Donald Trump the victor, which just barely failed. Protasiewicz underscored that Trump’s GOP could try to overturn the election once again next year, which could only be stopped by ensuring that Kelly, a Trump-loyalist, wasn’t on the bench.

The losses of extreme, Trump-backed, anti-choice candidates in last year’s midterms should have facilitated the GOP breaking from Donald Trump and formulating a more moderate social agenda. Instead, the party is doubling-down on this toxic positioning, giving Democrats the opportunity to turn the 2024 election into a referendum on Trump and Trumpism, as the party did successfully in 2018, 2020, and 2022 when they otherwise lacked a more cohesive message.

Unless Republicans listen to voices like Rep. Nancy Mace and moderate their blanket opposition to abortion, they will find it more challenging to regain the presidency, win control of the Senate, and hold onto the House.

But to be sure, Johnson’s narrow victory in Chicago over his moderate opponent, Paul Vallas, suggests that attacking GOP extremism is just one piece of a successful 2024 Democratic message, and should not be the party’s entire strategy.

Crime was a major vulnerability for Democrats in the midterms, and continues to be a top concern for voters across the country. The most significant Democratic losses in 2022 were in blue areas, namely New York’s suburbs, where Republicans tied high crime rates to failed progressive policing and criminal justice policies.

In Chicago, the majority of voters (54%) cited crime as the most important issue to their vote this year, per polling by my firm, Schoen Cooperman Research, for the Manhattan Institute. Chicagoans’ concerns about crime also led to the downfall of progressive Mayor Lori Lightfoot, whose perceived failure to address the issue made her the first incumbent to lose reelection in four decades, after failing to advance out of a primary round.

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Although the progressive wing has been emboldened by Johnson’s win, the left must recognize that this come-from-behind victory would not have been possible if Johnson hadn’t moderated his position. Toward the end of the campaign, Johnson walked back previous statements where he had expressed support for cutting police funding. He outwardly made a promise that he was “not going to defund the police.” Johnson also aired ads promising to add 200 new detectives to the Chicago Police Department.

While perceptions that Vallas was a closet Republican likely also aided Johnson’s win – as Vallas was once heard referring to the impeachment of Trump as a “witch hunt” – many polls showed Vallas leading prior to Johnson’s pivot on public safety.

Johnson’s narrow victory suggests that there is a need for national Democrats to formulate a common-sense, holistic public safety platform. It should involve drawing a contrast with the GOP’s extreme guns-everywhere agenda, rejecting defunding the police, and supporting law enforcement as well as public safety programs related to education, job training, and mental health services.

By pairing this moderate public safety positioning with their messaging on abortion rights, the Democratic Party can set itself up for success in 2024.

Douglas Schoen is a longtime Democratic political consultant.

​ Orange County Register 

From King of the Beach to personal struggles, racing icon Al Unser Jr. strives to rise anew

• April 13, 2023

If you ever drive across the country, from west to east, you’ll likely find yourself on Interstate 40, the nation’s modern arterial highway.

But for those with a taste for nostalgia, for a time long gone, for an era when the automobile was the undisputed king of long-distance travel, ditch the I-40 about halfway through New Mexico and rumble along its predecessor:

Historic Route 66.

This iconic slice of Americana overlaps with the I-40 for long stretches. But just west of Albuquerque, father and progeny part ways, separating, at least for a bit, across the desertscape.

Drive eastward on Route 66, officially Central Avenue along this portion, through the beige expanse for about four miles. You’ll pass Unser Boulevard. And then you’ll want to slow down – lest you miss it.

Lest you miss Unserville.

The place where, for one legendary racing clan, it all began. The place where the Unser family seized the American dream, rising from simple gas merchants to rulers of open-wheel racing. The place where the story of Al Unser Jr. started.

Unser Jr. is one of his family’s greatest champions. And its most-puzzling enigma. He twice claimed the Indianapolis 500. He’s been charged with driving under the influence and driving recklessly. He won the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, which returns Friday, a record six times. He’s struggled with sobriety and faced financial ruin.

RELATED: Grand Prix of Long Beach: Schedule of events for 3 days of racing

He’s risen and he’s fallen – and, at 60 years old, he’s trying to rise again.

His story, and his family’s, is one of triumph and tragedy. Like Route 66, Unser Jr’s life has been expansive; like Route 66, he has been weathered and beaten. But also like Route 66, his and the Unser family’s legacy remains a quintessential part of Americana.

And it all began at Unserville.

As a Long Beach native and a lifelong fan of my local grand prix, I had long been curious about the man nicknamed “King of the Beach.”

Despite his legendary status in the world of professional racing, Unser Jr., in recent years, has been a somewhat obscure figure in the sport he once ruled.

Unser Jr., who now lives in Indianapolis, hasn’t been to the Grand Prix of Long Beach since 2019 and won’t be in town this weekend, though he said he’s hoping to return next year. He rarely grants interviews. And the most-intimate look at his life came by his own hands, when he published an unflinching memoir in 2021, titled “Al Unser Jr.: A Checkered Past.”

But a few weeks ago, with the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach quickly approaching, a friend and I went on a road trip to Albuquerque.

Journeying there, to the city referred to by those in the know as “The Land of Unserville,” was my opportunity to find out more about the racing champion.

Just north of downtown Albuquerque, in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque, is the Unser Racing Museum.

Make no mistake, the Unsers are one of pro racings blue-blood families. They have a record nine Indy 500 wins combined. The most successful racers in the family – brothers Al Unser Sr. and Bobby Unser, and Al Unser Jr. – won a combined 108 open-wheel races. And each is in multiple halls of fame. (Unser Jr., though, is the only one in the Long Beach Motorsports Walk of Fame, having been inducted in 2009.)

Unser Jr.’s father., himself a racing legend – having taken the checkered flag at the Indy 500 four times – opened the family’s museum in 2005, in memory of his parents, Jerry and Mary Unser.

The museum, boasting more than 60 vehicles, is shaped like a wheel, with each spoke representing a different aspect of Unser history. Four generations of the family are represented within its walls.

Bobby Unser is a three-time Indianpolis 500 winner.

Unser Sr. died in 2021, at 89 years old. His widow, Susan Unser, personally supervises the museum’s operations. She responds to website queries, answers fan mail and works to keep the family’s legacy alive in the racing zeitgeist.

She was gracious enough to offer me a private tour of the facility.

“Al put the same passion he had when he was racing into creating the Unser Racing Museum 18 years ago,” Susan Unser said, “as a way to honor the family’s celebrated success in motorsports.

“The Unser collection,” she added, “will live on to tell that story.”

The focal point of the two-building museum is a yellow race car, with the No. 25 adorned on the side; it spins on a turntable and glows beneath a spotlight. The vehicle is a teammate of the car in which Unser Sr. won his fourth Indy 500 in 1987, when he was 47 years old.

An annex is filled with Unser Sr.’s antique car collection. A trophy room overflows with gold, silver and crystal prizes.

The museum houses a library spanning the history of racing, original artwork, championship jackets and race-worn helmets.

Among the displays is a champagne Cadillac Seville that the Championship Auto Racing Teams, which sanctioned American open-wheel racing from 1979 to 2003, gave Unser Jr. when he won the 1992 IndyCar title.

Unser was hoping for a Corvette and viewed the Cadillac as “an old man’s car that a 70-year-old would drive,” said Don Friedberg, a museum docent.

Friedberg had a trove of tales about the Unser family.

Mary Unser, for example, would arrive at whatever track her boys, Al Unser Sr. and Bobby Unser, were racing on and make a huge pot of chili – enough to serve the drivers and teams. It became a tradition at Indy 500 races, Friedberg told me.

The Unsers didn’t always get long, the docent also said, but if you crossed one of them, they would all unite – against you.

That’s not quite surprising, though, for a family with a clear competitive streak and hardscrabble origins.

“I was born and raised on Route 66.”

— Al Unser Jr.

Today, the Unser family is Albuquerque royalty. Dropping the clan’s name will likely earn you a smile from Albuquerque natives, as well as a yarn about the family.

But the family’s early days in New Mexico were prosaic.

Jerry Unser Sr. – the original patriarch, father to four sons, including Al Unser Sr. – built his family’s home and a filling station along Route 66 in 1935.

That was during the depths of the Great Depression and five years into the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl turned Midwest prairies into apocalyptic landscapes and forced tenant farmers to migrate west – along Route 66.

Today, Route 66 is not the artery of the nation’s transit like it once was. And the dirt road that, at one time, ran perpendicular to Route 66 and the racing family’s home is now a four-lane highway named Unser Boulevard.

Still, it’s easy to imagine Jerry Unser Sr. and his family interacting with real-life versions of the Joads – John Steinbeck’s protagonists in his great American novel, “The Grapes of Wrath,” which was published in 1939 – during a pit stop on the latter’s journey to California.

Perhaps that itinerant family looked at the Unser compound, encircled by an adobe wall, with a wooden beam hanging over the entrance bearing the name “Unserville,” and longing for their foreclosed-upon homestead.

But while any migrants would have soon moved on, the Unsers stayed – and their success grew.

The Unser family operated a wrecking service near their home in the 1940s. And the original filling station grew into Unser Garage, which boasted a set-up to rebuild engines, a foreign car parts fabrication shop and an automotive service center.

“I was born and raised on Route 66,” Al Unser Jr. said in a recent phone interview from Indianapolis, where he currently lives.

“Aunt Lisa still lives there,” he added, referring to the wife of Bobby Unser, who died in 2021, nine months before Al Unser Sr. joined him. “You would be welcome to knock on the door. She and Uncle Bobby would always be open like that.”

I visited the family home during my trip, but opted not to disturb Unser Jr.’s aunt. Instead, I soaked in the open spaces on which the property sits – its closest neighbor, the Westward Ho! Motor Court, is two minutes down the road – and the relative accessibility of the dwelling owned by racing icons.

The Unser family, though, was never stationary.

Jerry Unser Sr. and two of his brothers competed in road races, particularly the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, in Colorado, where the family lived before moving to New Mexico.

The patriarch’s sons followed in those racing footsteps.

Al Unser Jr., in particular, got his taste for speed at a young age.

At 9 years old, he began taking to the track at Route 66 Karting in Albuquerque. By 11, he had graduated to sprint-car racing. He entered his first road race before he could legally buy alcohol.

“I was a natural in the kart,” Unser Jr. said. “I became a race car driver – just like my Dad.”

Soon, he joined Championship Auto Racing Teams – and his rise to stardom began.

But while his ascent to racing royalty began early, so did his addictions. And his personal tragedies.

Unser Jr. first smoked marijuana with his cousin Bobby Unser Jr. before he was even a teenager. He was a self-admitted stoner throughout high school.

The future “King of the Beach” was 19-turning-20 in 1982 when his cousin was jailed for driving under the influence and his little sister, Debbie Unser Jr., died in a dune buggy accident; she was the second Unser to perish in a vehicle-related incident after uncle Jerry Unser, who was killed during a practice run at the 1959 Indy 500.

The same year his sister died, Al Unser Jr. also married his first wife and fathered his first of four children.

Yet, none of that deterred him from drugs and alcohol. If anything, his sister’s death fueled his addiction. He smoked weed, snorted cocaine and emptied alcohol bottles throughout the 1980s.

But it took years before he understood the link between his trauma and addiction.

He didn’t deal with his trauma, in fact, until he attended a group therapy session on loss and grief about a decade ago. During that session, he sobbed.

“Nearly 30 years later,” Unser Jr. said, “those unhealed wounds came rushing back to me.”

But the trauma also didn’t stop him from conquering the racing world.

Unser Jr. finished second in the 1985 CART championship point standings – just one point behind his father.

A year later, he won the International Race of Champions, at just 24 years old.

He also won the 24 Hours of Daytona race in 1986 and 1987.

In 1988, he finally nabbed his first CART championship.

That same year, Unser Jr. began his reign as King of the Beach.

Al Unser Jr. waves to the crowd after winning the first of four straight Long beach Grand Prix titles in 1988. He would add two more in 1994 and 1995 and he holds the race records for most wins (six) and podium finishes (nine).

He won the Grand Prix of Long Beach four consecutive years, from 1988 to 1991.

“My predecessor as King of the Beach was Mario Andretti,” Unser Jr. said. “When I dethroned Mario as King of the Beach, it wasn’t the way I wanted it to be done. I accidentally ran into the back of him. I was so upset with myself. I had a lack of patience. I was being too aggressive and I made a huge mistake by running into the back of him.”

Danny Sullivan dethroned Unser Jr. in 1992 – but his first of two Indy 500s was a worthy consolation that year.

And Unser Jr. would go on to reclaim the Long Beach crown in ’94 and ’95.

“I love Long Beach,” Unser Jr. said in an interview before I left on my pilgrimage to Albuquerque. “I have lots of favorite memories from there. No matter what I did in practice to change the car and make it better, we always did the right thing and won.”

But throughout it all, his drinking and his partying – and even a bit of philandering – continued.

In his memoir, Unser Jr. described that period as a “private hell.”

On his 50th birthday, April 19, 1992 – just a week after he finished fourth in the Long Beach Grand Prix, which he led for 54 laps – he contemplated suicide, he wrote.

By 1995, Unser Jr.’s addictions were so severe that his loved ones were planning an intervention.

His record sixth Long Beach Grand Prix title nixed those plans.

And so, his hard-living ways went on.

The intervention-that-wasn’t, in a way, marked the top of the spiral through which Unser Jr. would descend over the next quarter-century.

He kept drinking. His life slowly crumbled.

Unser Jr. divorced his wife in 2001. A month later, at a craps table in Las Vegas, he met the woman who would become his second wife, a coupling that would last 12 years.

He became estranged from his children.

Unser Jr., who announced his retirement in 2004, pleaded no contest to a DUI charge stemming from a car crash in Nevada in January 2007. In 2011, he was charged with drunken and reckless driving, with Albuquerque authorities saying he was traveling at more than 100 mph while drag racing.

This undated Clark County Detention Center booking mug photo released by the Las Vegas Police Department shows Al Unser Jr. Two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Unser was charged with driving under the influence after leaving the scene of a freeway crash in Las Vega. He was arrested after he was identified as the driver of a car that sideswiped another on the Las Vegas Beltway on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2007, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Honea said. Honea said Unser failed several field sobriety tests before being taken into custody. (AP Photo/Las Vegas Police Department, HO)

Unser Jr. also went in and out of rehab centers, with his father paying the $40,000 a month fee for one facility and embarrassing media coverage forcing him into another.

He tried Alcoholics Anonymous as well. But attending meetings proved tough, he said, since fans would recognize him and ask for autographs.

In October 2017, Unser Jr. tried a change to scenery, leaving Albuquerque for Indianapolis to work for the Harding Racing team and live with his mother, who has lived there for 35 years.

But two years later, in 2019, Unser Jr. was arrested again. This incident, though, seemed to be his personal Rubicon on the road to sobriety.

On May 19, 2019, he was arrested in the Indianapolis area on a charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. Before he was apprehended, he stumbled down an embankment.

“I’ve had several rock bottoms,” Unser Jr. said. “All my DUIs were famous; the May 19 incident in Indianapolis, that was the end of it.”

He’s been sober ever since, Unser Jr. said.

Unser Jr.’s road to recovery hasn’t been easy.

But he’s had help along the way.

The move to Indianapolis did help his personal life. That’s where he met his third wife, Norma, through church friends. They married in 2021 – a day before his memoir came out.

“Norma is a dynamo,” Unser Jr. said. “She is go, go, go, nonstop –  200 mph.”

His wife has also taught him to not take things so seriously – and that winning isn’t everything.

“She doesn’t take life so seriously,” Unser Jr. said. “When she was on her scooter and she fell over, she wanted to post it on (social media).”

His wife has also had a deep faith all her life.

For Unser Jr., meanwhile, faith is a more recent development.

When he moved to Indianapolis, Unser Jr., being a dutiful son, began accompanying his mother to church.

One day, while standing in the church, he had a revelation.

“I thought, ‘I have not really given this a try – to let Jesus into my life,’” Unser Jr. said. “There it was: Instantly, there was a warm feeling in my stomach. I have not looked back since.”

Becoming a believer in Jesus, he said, was the real reason he’s been able to recover from addiction.

“Jesus Christ became the bridge between me and God,” he said. “God was this all-encompassing entity that was everywhere all at once – yes, he is a power greater than myself but for some reason, in my mind, I couldn’t put it together.”

In July 2020, Unser Jr. was baptized.

“By connecting through Jesus, I could grab onto his right hand,” he added. “Through Jesus, I have had a real relationship with God. For some reason, I just didn’t get it before.”

“You never know when that thought is going to come in your mind, that feeling that a drink would be nice right now. There is no control over the triggers.”

— Al Unser Jr.

There’s a nondescript mountain, not far from where Unser Jr. grew up, from which you can see all of Albuquerque.

Unser Jr. told me that during turbulent times, he would climb the mountain, look out on the city that reveres him and reflect.

A couple of days after visiting the Unser Racing Museum, I found that mountain and climbed it.

Looking out on the desert city, I reflected on what I’d learned about Unser Jr. and his family. I thought about his life’s pit stops and pitfalls. He’s a celebrity, a hall of famer, the King of the Beach.

But he’s also a man who has faced family and personal tragedy. He’s man who has stumbled – and a man who is well aware of that fact.

“The substance use disorder is still there,” he told me. “That’s why it is one day at a time.

“You never know when that thought is going to come in your mind,” Unser Jr. added, “that feeling that a drink would be nice right now. There is no control over the triggers.”

Besides the looming threat of relapsing, however, things are looking good for Unser Jr.

His recovery is going well. His memoir helped him reconnect with his children.

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And he’s getting ready to return to the world of professional racing – at the head of his own team.

Unser Jr. said he is working with an up-and-coming team that will soon launch on the Indy NXT, a developmental series formerly called Indy Lights.

He’s also, apparently, learned to cope with his trauma and his addiction, with the help of his faith and his wife.

“I think about Jesus Christ and then I call someone,” Unser Jr. said. “Right now, I call Norma, by the time I make the phone call and hear her voice, it’s gone”.

Unser Jr.’s life, to this point, has traveled along a fraught road. There have been potholes and detours. He’s driven in the fast lane and been broken down on the shoulder.

Like Route 66, he has been weathered and beaten.

But like the highway he grew up on, his legacy is secure.

And like the child of Route 66 that he is, Al Unser Jr. will keep motoring down the highway, for as long as he can.

​ Orange County Register