{"id":4120,"date":"2009-04-19T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-19T09:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/grand-prix-keanu-reeves-al-unser-jr-win-pro-celebrity-race\/"},"modified":"2009-04-19T09:07:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-19T09:07:00","slug":"grand-prix-keanu-reeves-al-unser-jr-win-pro-celebrity-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/grand-prix-keanu-reeves-al-unser-jr-win-pro-celebrity-race","title":{"rendered":"Grand Prix: Keanu Reeves, Al Unser Jr. Win Pro-Celebrity Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style='float:left;padding-right:10px;padding-bottom:5px;'><img src='images\/archive\/sports\/photo27547.jpg' align='left' \/><\/div>\n<p>       <!--StartFragment-->           <\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The only Way up for Keanu Reeves was out, as he won the  Toyota Pro-Celebrity race on Saturday by avoiding a race-changing pileup at  turn six.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>The pileup catapulted Al  Unser Jr. to the front of the race, where he easily won the pro category, and  took out prior race leaders Danny Way and Fonzworth Bentley.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Way, who led the celebrity category at Friday&rsquo;s practice and  qualifying round, was out in front of all drivers for the majority of the  race&mdash;when Raven-Symone crashed on lap five, bringing the race under a yellow  flag, Way was out in front of Unser Jr. and the rest of the field by five-plus  seconds, and looked like he would win easily.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;My thought when we came under the yellow was, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s nice to  see Danny again,&rsquo;&rdquo; said Keanu Reeves at the post-race press conference.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;Because we hadn&rsquo;t seen him in a  while.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">After the caution, Unser Jr. blasted out, as did Fonzworth  Bentley, and the race tightened up at the top as the leaderboard opened up.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Then, on the last lap, positions  changed again as Unser, Bentley, and Way jockeyed for positioning around turn  six&mdash;Unser Jr. squirted by, but Way went straight into a wall, and was then  rear-ended by Bentley (who went on to finish last after getting taped  together).<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Reeves said when he  went by, he thought, &ldquo;Wait, did I just win?<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>I&rsquo;d better not crash.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">He held on and took the checkered flag, beating second-best  celeb Ken Baker by two-and-a-half seconds.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m still a little in shock,&rdquo; he said after.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;I can&rsquo;t say I&rsquo;m not glad to have won,  but I am a little surprised.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>I  mean, what a way to win: I didn&rsquo;t crash.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The other drivers at the press conference admitted they&rsquo;d  been rooting for Reeves as the underdog.<span style=\"\">&nbsp;  <\/span>Carlos Mencia said, &ldquo;You were in front!<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>You were in a movie called <i>Speed <\/i><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">and you&rsquo;re the One, man!&rdquo;<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>And Jamie Little added, &ldquo;You should be really proud&mdash;it  doesn&rsquo;t matter that there was a crash, you finished first.&rdquo;<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Way wasn&rsquo;t as happy, shaking his head visibly disgusted  after the crash and telling a crowd he was &ldquo;pretty pissed&rdquo; about crashing, and  that he felt cheated of his win by the yellow caution flag.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Little was upset about the way he  handled it, saying at the press conference, &ldquo;You blame yourself, not those  around you.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>It&rsquo;s not Bentworth&rsquo;s fault  and it&rsquo;s certainly not Toyota&rsquo;s.&rdquo;<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Reeves  joked that his friend Dave Meara (who had won the race before) shouldn&rsquo;t give  him too much crap: &ldquo;At least Danny can say, &lsquo;Yeah, but I drove straight into a  wall!&rsquo;&rdquo;<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Way finished with the  fastest lap, however, even beating Al Unser Jr., the undisputed King of the  Beach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Reeves and the other competitors had nothing but nice things  to say about Unser Jr.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s like  a Jedi master,&rdquo; said Reeves.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>&ldquo;He&rsquo;s  so relaxed, but with the eyes of an assassin.&rdquo;<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>For Unser Jr., it&rsquo;s the seventh time he&rsquo;s crossed the LB  Grand Prix finish line in the lead&mdash;though the previous six times, in the <i>actual  <\/i><span style=\"font-style: normal;\">race, might mean a little bit more.<span style=\"\">&nbsp; <\/span>Reeves said all the Prix workers were  holding up seven fingers to Unser Jr. as they took their victory ride, the two  champs waving to the fans from the back of a Toyota Tundra pace car, enjoying  themselves and soaking up a last lap of Long Beach sun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><object height=\"340\" width=\"380\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/925WHFmm4CY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6\" \/><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/925WHFmm4CY&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" height=\"340\" width=\"380\"><\/object><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">For HIGH QUALITY click HQ<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-style: normal;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>           <!--EndFragment-->                            <\/p>\n<style type=\"text\/css\">  body {  \tbackground: #FFF;  }  <\/style>\n<style type=\"text\/css\"> body { \tbackground: #FFF; } <\/style><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an upset, Keanu Reeves aced Danny Way to take the checkered flag; to nobody&#8217;s surprise, so did Al Unser Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4120"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4120"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}