Unser Jr.

	Renna

SPARTA, Ky. -- This was supposed to be a day of celebration for Kelley Racing in the Indy Racing League.

It was supposed to be a day where Al Unser Jr. would make a triumphant return to the IRL, after missing the last two races while he was in a treatment center to overcome alcohol abuse.

Instead, it became a day of brutality for the team as driver Jason Priestley suffered a serious head injury along with broken feet and a broken thoracic vertebra when the actor crashed his Infiniti Pro Series car in Sunday morning's practice session.

The brutal nature of the day continued when one of the team's three IRL drivers, Tony Renna, lost control of his car when he entered the pits on the 94th lap of the Kentucky 100.

Renna's car slammed into his pit crew, pinning three of them to the wall. Bernie Hallisky, the left rear tire changer, suffered a broken right leg and was transported to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for surgery Sunday night.

Rusty Hurford, a fabricator who works behind the wall, suffered neck pain and was transported to Carroll County Hospital in Carollton, Kentucky. Jeff Horton, the fuel man, was checked and released from the infield care center.

"Tony came in a little hot, and when you come in off the asphalt, concrete doesn't have nearly the grip and he didn't stop," team owner Tom Kelley said. "He hasn't made any pit stops to speak of. He composed himself and got back out there and ran a good race. We had three cars in the top 10 and I'm really pleased with that."

Renna continued in the race and finished seventh while Scott Sharp led the Kelley contingent with a fourth-place finish. Unser finished sixth in his IRL return, but this was no day to celebrate at Kelley Racing.

"Anybody can win when everything goes their way," Kelley said. "I'm proud of the team because we had a really, really tough day today from the start with Jason and I'm sure everybody's mind was on that.

"The first thing on my mind is Jason and I got word halfway through the race it looks like he might be all right," Kelley said. "We were concerned that he might not make it. Then, we had our pit crew banged up pretty good. But we fought through it, the guys sucked it up."

Renna was so distraught after injuring his pit crew, the driver was crying inside his car. Kelley was able to calm down the man who filled in while Unser was in rehab and he was able to regain his composure for another top-10 finish.

"He was crying in the car," Kelley said. "He sucked it up and got in there. The kid has a lot of heart and I expect good things out of him in the future. I love the kid. He's like my kid. Everybody makes mistakes every now and then, but we are here with everybody through thick and thin.

"We win together and we lose together."

After the race, Kelley walked up to Renna and put his arm around him to offer him some words of encouragement.

"I just told him I loved him and to hang in there, we are all a family," Kelley said. "Sometimes, you can get down on yourself and I just want to make sure he knows that is not the case here. We hang together and he has our undying support.

"He's a damn good driver and I think we can win a race with him this season. Tony has as good ability as anybody, he just needs seat time. For him to go through all we went through today and for him to handle it shows me a lot of moxie."

Renna was trying to put the day to rest after a difficult race. His thoughts were more on the one thing he did wrong, rather than all the moves he made right in the race.

"I overshot the pit and I should have gone straight through and done another lap," he said. "I turned it sharply and I missed it. When we got rolling again, the yellow flag was long enough to make changes that we needed to make and we stayed on the lead lap and finished in the top 10."

To make the situation even worse for Renna, when he had to return to the pits to repair the damaged front wing from the pit road crash, he had to pit in Unser's area while medical crews tended to the injured crew members that he had run into just moments earlier.

"My concerns were with the guys that were injured and I was thinking about that, but at the same time, I had to get out of the pits, be nice and smooth and do what I needed to do in the race," Renna said.

"We were able to survive. I haven't done any pit stops before joining the IRL. It's fairly new to me, but that's an excuse. I made a mistake and I'm really, really sorry for that."

Renna joined the team earlier this year to serve as a driving coach to Priestley. Because of what happened to the actor earlier in the day, Renna admitted his concern for his fellow driver made the day that much grimmer.

"We're all thinking about him," Renna said. "Our hearts are with him as well as with Bernie and the other crew guys who were hurt in our deal."

On a positive note, Unser's return was impressive as he appeared on his way to the front of the field until a restart midway through the race saw him get off the throttle and shuffle all the way back to the rear of the pack.

"Al got hosed on that restart and he had to get out of it so far," Kelley said. "On a track like this, you can't get all of that back."

Said Unser, "I'm a little disappointed with the fact Eliseo Salazar tried to hit me, but we just go forward from here. My team did a great job. I can't thank everyone at Kelley Racing enough."

Unser's father, four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser, felt tremendous pride, not only seeing his son return to active racing, but to see him fight an alcohol problem that was beginning to affect his life.

"It makes me very happy to see Al back," said his father. "I think he is picking up in the race car where he left off. I think Al is more at ease with himself now. We'll have to wait and see how well he does with his program. As long as Al is straightened out and away from alcohol, that's all the better."