Indy 500 veteran Kunzman persevered through life-altering injuries
Indianapolis 500 veteran driver Lee Kunzman has passed away at the age of 81. (IMS photo)
By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Lee Kunzman’s open-wheel racing resume features four starts in the Indianapolis 500, a combined total of 467 race-day laps completed around Indianapolis Motor Speedway and a best finish of seventh (twice).
These are the stats of a journeyman driver, albeit in a benevolent sense. Because the story chronicled throughout Kunzman’s back pages _ a journey from his small hometown of Guttenburg, Iowa, to “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” _ is one of old-school, Midwest, never-quit grit.
Lee J. Kunzman died on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025 in Indianapolis at age 81. A Celebration of Life Visitation was held on Saturday, March 8, at Conkle Funeral Home in Speedway, Ind., one walking block away from IMS’ famed 2.5-mile oval.
Three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford sadly marked the passing of another peer during a phone interview with racedaySA.com. “Yes, it’s happening too frequently,” Rutherford said from his home in River Oaks, Texas. “You wonder when it’s your turn. I just keep digging, keep churning, that’s all.”
Kunzman overcame a pair of life-altering, racing-related injuries en route to his Indy 500 starts in 1972, 1973, 1977 and 1979. Kunzman’s best finish at IMS was seventh in 1973 and 1977, the latter when he completed a personal-best 191 of 200 laps in the No. 65 City of Syracuse Eagle/Offy.
Kunzman’s best qualifying effort into the traditional 33-car field was 11th in the No. 89 Vetter Windjammer Parnelli/Cosworth in 1979. On the day (May 27) that Rick Mears of Team Penske won the first of his eventual record-tying four Indy 500s, Kunzman finished 30th when a failed scavenger (oil) pump ended his race after 18 laps.
Ironically, Kunzman scored what became his best INDYCAR finish barely one month before the 63rd edition of the 1979 Indy 500. Kunzman finished second to Rutherford at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga., in Race 1 of the Gould Dixie Twin 125s, the season’s second and third rounds conducted under sanction of the Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) on April 22 as tune-ups for the Month of May at IMS.
Each race was booked for 82 laps/124.804-miles around AMS’ high-banked/1.522-mile oval. Rutherford _ the Indy 500 champion in 1974 and 1976 with Team McLaren _ qualified the No. 4 McLaren/Cosworth on-pole for Race 1 with arch-rival Gordon Johncock starting second.
Rutherford and Johncock dominated the first 60 laps. But after a caution period ended with just 14 laps remaining, Kunzman wheeled the No. 21 car entered by Conqueste Racing Team into the lead. Rutherford reeled Kunzman in with eight laps to go, and following a spirited duel for the point, “Lone Star J.R.” passed Kunzman on the penultimate lap for the win. Tom Sneva finished third followed by Johncock and Mears.
“That was my last year with McLaren and I won both of those 125s,” said Rutherford, who turned 87 on March 12. “But I do not recall that Lee was second. Gosh, I don’t remember that. I just remember I won it.” Rutherford also started on-pole for Race 2, with Kunzman alongside in second. Rutherford led 61 of 82 laps to complete a sweep of a rare open-wheel doubleheader.
Kunzman book-ended his INDYCAR career of 48 total starts with single races in 1969 and 1980. He qualified for a career-high 13 races in 1973 under USAC sanction and finished 11th in the final standings with 1,260 points _ 320 points behind 10th-place A.J. Foyt Jr. of Houston. Kunzman was running at the finish in 11-of-13 events in ’73 with a best result of third at Ontario (Calif.) Motor Speedway. He led races on four occasions for 17 laps, completing 1,333 of a possible 1,873 laps for 2,406.5 miles. His total season earnings were $59,576.
Kunzman’s overall career stat line included one second-place result, three thirds, two fourths, three fifths and 12 finishes between six-and-10. His total purse earnings were $259,954.
Kunzman and Rutherford, who was born in Coffeyville, Kan., were products of the U.S. Auto Club’s rough-and-tumble dirt-track ranks.
“We were not what you’d call ‘good friends,’ you know, just friends,” said Rutherford, whose racing career began as a teen-ager after his parents made joint-career moves to Fort Worth, Texas. “The interesting thing is that we both came from the same area. The first Sprint Car that I ever drove was owned by a gentleman who also gave Lee his first ride…because Lee was from that area of Northern Iowa.”
Kunzman was born on Nov. 29, 1943 in Guttenberg, Iowa, to Albert and Julina Kunzman. Guttenberg was settled by German immigrants in the 1800s and known as “the best little German town outside of Europe.”
Kunzman initially began drawing attention as a racer in 1967, when he won Rookie of the Year honors in the IMCA Sprint Car division, as well as Little 500 Rookie of the Year honors at Anderson (Ind.) Speedway. Kunzman’s move to USAC eventually produced 30 career national feature victories _ 16 in the Midget ranks and 14 in Sprint Car. Kunzman set the stage for a short-track career that culminated with his induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 2006 by winning his first USAC start at the Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds in Davenport, Iowa.
Kunzman’s breakout year in USAC was the 1969 season. Kunzman earned eight USAC National Midget victories, including the Astro Grand Prix on an indoor dirt oval built inside the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Astrodome in Houston. Kunzman also notched his first INDYCAR start at Phoenix International Raceway in late 1969. Open-wheel expert/author Dave Argabright reported that Kunzman appeared destined for greatness.
“I usually went after it right away,” Kunzman told Argabright in an interview years later. “I was the rabbit. I still feel that way, but sometimes I didn’t use the best brain power. But I wanted to win. I wanted to be a race driver’s race driver. I thought if you won a lot of races and went fast, that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Kunzman posted another major USAC National Midget victory in 1970, capturing the famed Night Before the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park. But seven days later, Lee suffered severe burns on 40 percent of his body and multiple fractures when the throttle stuck on his Sprint Car during a USAC heat race, triggering a violent crash at I-70 Speedway in Odessa, Mo.
Argabright reported that Kunzman’s car ramped over an outside wall and through the fencing, tearing a hole in its fuel tank. Soaring high into the air, the car struck a mercury vapor light on a pole outside the track, igniting the fuel.
The car then slammed to earth in the track’s parking lot. Kunzman tried to free himself from the wreckage only to discover that his hands were useless _ because both of his arms, his wrist, neck and several vertebra were broken. Kunzman managed to escape the burning wreckage but in addition to his broken bones he had suffered severe burns, including some disfiguring of his face.
“For the rest of his days, the handsome boy from Guttenberg would endure double-takes from people when he went out in public,” Argabright wrote.
Kunzman required two months in a Kansas City hospital to recover. Undaunted, he returned to racing less than six months later at a USAC Midget race in April 1971 at Tri-County Speedway in Cincinnati. “Fighting fatigue and the pain of his mending injuries, Kunzman outdueled Jerry McClung and Larry Rice to win the 40-lap feature,” Argabright reported.
That result launched a successful comeback era for Kunzman, who finished fifth, third and second, respectively, in the USAC National Sprint Car standings from 1971-73.
Kunzman’s INDYCAR career also began to flourish during that time-frame, as he finished third in late 1973 at Texas World Speedway in College Station. However, misfortune struck again, as Kunzman suffered severe head injuries and paralysis on the left side of his body after crashing during a tire test at Ontario Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile oval in December 1973. Kunzman crashed after the apparent failure of his car’s wing mount at approximately 200-mph, sending him head-on into the wall.
Argabright recounted Kunzman’s grievous litany of injuries, beginning with the aforementioned brain injury, a broken eye socket, injuries to his eye, several broken bones and paralysis and loss of feeling on his left side. “His recovery was measured not in months, but years; it began with an uninterrupted six-month hospitalization,” Argabright reported. The injuries forced Kunzman to sit-out the entire 1974 season.
Months of rehabilitation allowed Kunzman to return to the cockpit in March 1975 for the 500-mile INDYCAR race at Ontario Motor Speedway, where he finished fourth at the site of his accident 15 months prior.
Kunzman retired from the cockpit after the 1980 season.
“The second injury, at Ontario, was much more difficult to overcome than the first,” Kunzman told Argabright in 1998. “The first injury created appearance problems, but I could overcome that. The second was very difficult. No matter how strong my goals were, a brain injury is very hard to overcome.
“There were many, many surgeries in both cases. It was almost like surgery and recovery had become a way of life. Eventually I got back about 80 percent of function in my left side. Which is damn good, coming back from zero. I was happy with that.”
After retiring as driver, Kunzman went to work for Longhorn Racing in 1981. He eventually moved to Hemelgarn Racing, which was founded in 1985 by Ohio native/businessman Ron Hemelgarn. The team originally competed in CART before switching to Tony George’s fledgling/rival Indy Racing League (IRL). Kunzman was Team Manager when Hemelgarn Racing won the 1996 Indy 500 under IRL sanction and the INDYCAR championship in 2002, both with second-generation driver and Colorado native Buddy Lazier behind the wheel.
In addition to the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, Kunzman was a proud member of the Indy 500 Oldtimers Club.
