This was my first Indy 500; I was 12. My dad wrote for the local paper but felt my brother and me were too young to go to the race until that year. My dad predicted Gordon Johncock would win; trying to sound knowledgeable, I predicted a wreck on the first lap. We were both right. I met Cogan several years later and he seemed aloof but not necessarily rude or over his head. We wasn't untalented but obviously over his head that year.
AJ actually was able to his car and came out on the restart and smoked everyone taking and extending the lead over Mears for the first 30 laps or so. Ultimately, Aj's car broke and I think it was related to Cogan running into him. This was Foyt's last best shot for Five as his father (head mechanic) passed the following year and he just didn't have the same burning passion any longer.
Growing up, my family had a tradition on Memorial Day weekend that we'd all listen to the live radio broadcast of the Indianapolis "500", and that evening, we'd all watch the taped and edited replay (edited down to 2 hours, including commercials) of the race on ABC-TV (the race wasn't yet televised live).
I started to watch this and they showed Kevin Cogan. I thought “now why does that name stick in my mind...?” Then when the wreck happened I instantly remembered when I saw this “live” on TV. Everybody in Indiana hated the guy after that. Mario and AJ were HUGE fan favorite.
Something you may not know: During the years (1971-85) that ABC carried the Indianapolis "500" on a same-day tape-delay, Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and (later on) Sam Posey would record their commentary of the start, the first few laps, the last few laps and the finish as they happened. The middle of the race was edited to fit the time remaining in-between the start and finish, and the announcers would "call" the middle part of the race as the edited tape was being broadcast that evening.
Man, this is gold!! Thanks for the upload. I I remember watching this as a 16 yr old kid in Phoenix, Arizona. What a great memory for me. Not so much for Andretti, Foyt & Cogan.
I know that there are some slightly closer finishes at Indy now, but I think the 1982 Indy 500 Finish AND Start are still the most exciting ones to this day.
The best part of this race was A.J. whacking away at his transmission with a giant screw driver while Tom Carnegie said "I'd say Foyt is unhappy". Epic
I think it was more out of frustration for A.J than actually trying to get the transmission back in gear. No doubt he was still POed about Cogan ( "Coogan") nailing the the left front of his car in the ensuing crash at the start. Which hurt the handling and probably forced A.J to use the gearbox much harder than intended.
A good indication of what happened to Cogan happens later in this very race. Tony Bettenhausen's car takes a hard right on the straightway at speed. Even the announcers caught that. Just very unfortunate set of circumstances for Cogan. A pure racer though, and no he didn't pay for his ride (contrary to whats been posted). Despite being the class of the field at Cleveland & Riverside, he failed to score a win that year, and we all know Penske likes WINS. Cogan did score 3 Top 5 Indy fins.
One of the most bizarre moments in the 500's long history. Cogan's crash alone would have made it so, but many fail to notice that what Dale Whittington does in the background (row 8) is just about as crazy!! Just weirdsville!
Rumor has it that Mario Andretti told Whittington’s brothers Don & Bill that if he came back to Indy that he would expose their drug smuggling activities. I don’t k ow if that’s true or not but those Whittington brothers were practically a drug cartel
@@deanladue2327 And now you know the magic of Ammonium Perchlorate sublimation, low Hg=high Hp. Once the silicone saturates the track, no traction. The talking heads call it 'rain', yet no rain clouds. Ppl claim Indycars are 50%, complete BS. They don't count oxydizers as fuel.
Wow! 80's Flashback. Actual Americans in the field! Love the graphics and music. 130 looks like pace car speeds in comparison to 230s. Nice they actually waited (or tried to) until the entire field was on the front straight. That was a different era in American Open Wheel.
There's a pretty big case for a failure in the rear suspension. Rick Mears had a rear suspension go out on him at Michigan earlier that season in the same way, and Cogan looked to the right left corner as he got out, almost like he thought something broke.
Cogan was in way over his head. He had a very fast car in a big moment. I watched this raced live at 10 years old...AJ foyt was pissed,,,,,,,this was a classic race.....this is the race that I can never forget.
What happened to Coogan (have called him that ever since the King of Texas renamed him...) was two-fold. Mears was, in fact, bringing them around too slowly, given the nature of turbocharged engines, and the awesome surge of energy they get when one punches the throttle from a cold start. Coogan likewise had cold tires, in comparison to heat of race pace. The combination of the two produced a right-veering motion that became unrecoverable only after his car impacted and was deflected by Foyt's.
The same thing happened to Roberto Gerroro in the 91 or 92 Indy, he was in POLE POSITION and had a similar issue on the back strech on the pace laps. Pretty embarssing but it can happen.
Looking at it frame by frame, it looks like something weird happened to the right rear tire, it looks deformed right after the car veers right, then it appears to shrink compared to the left rear right before he hits Foyt.. Pause right before the crash then use < and > to advance or rewind one frame at a time. Could be an artifact of the potato cam they were using but I'm not sure.
I know, he always seems to not be able to get the right words!!! Haha But seriously, how low did cogan feel crashing out AJ, & Mario? I don't know if I'd ever come out of the trailer
If you remember, that happened to Roberto Guerrero in 1992... he started on the pole, but spun and crashed on the pace lap. It was a cold day, and that led to a lot of crashes...most of them on restarts when the tires were cold...
Yes, further back in the pack. Dale Whittington swerved into Roger Mears' car similiar to Cogan's manuever. In his book, A.J. Foyt blamed the crash on too slow of pace lap speed and driver inexperience when they hit the throttle and the turbocharger boost kicked in and the cars got away from them. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty unique situation.
"Car racing always will be dangerous" Sir Jackie Stewart (1939- ) Retired british Formula 1 driver. World Champion in 1969, 1971 and 1973. Greetings from Venezuela.
Kevin's instinctive reaction was to walk to the back of his car & examine the righthand side rear in particular. Please remember that this recording is not the original broadcast & is edited. Kevin's "I don't know what happened" is more of a "no comment" because in the unedited interview he says "no point in saying i was hit from behind until I see the video." That says it felt like he was hit.That's a good description for a broken halfshaft & how it feels when it goes CLUNK! Common early 80's.
Looking at it frame by frame, it looks like something weird happened to the right rear tire, it looks deformed right after the car veers right, then it appears to shrink compared to the left rear just before he hits Foyt..
@@carlfrye1566 Read first. I never said he was. I re-iterated what Kevin said in his interview. It was a broken halfshaft. There were many broken halfshafts in the early to mid 80's. It took them awhile to resolve the problem because the problem wasn't consistent in how they were failing. There was an extensive in article in either On Track or Autoweek about it back then with a list of known halfshaft failures and this incident was on the list.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex Playing at 0.25 speed, at about 3:59.6 when Cogan's car is at 90° to the track direction, significant tyre inflation is clearly visible - how much is uncertain, but it doesn't take much deflation to lose traction. Definitely no sparks from the wheel rim grinding on the track. Could also have been a broken steering rod. Being in Australia, I watched the race replay several hours later (we don't stay up until 4 am waiting for you guys to get started 😅). The commentators speculated about the possibility of a broken half shaft, which would make sense if it was common at the time. The fact that Roger Penske refused to comment on the cause means either: (1) The car was embarassingly at fault, or (2) The suspect parts were destroyed in the secondary crash.
@@DucatiPaso750 Same here. Indiana kid and the race was everything for our state growing up. But I also was pissed at the guy since AJ and Mario were my favorite 2 drivers.
In the minutes following the crash, on the radio, most of the drivers...Rutherford, Johncock, among them, all thought that Mears took the field down way too slow. Which could have been the reason Cogan was in first gear as he said he was, and if they were going faster, he wouldn't have gunned it so abruptly. Everyone at Penske maintains that "nothing broke." We'll never know if that's true or not.
Penske immediately had the destroyed PC-10 covered up and locked away in the hauler. Wouldn't even let USAC or CART officials have even a glimpse of it. So yep, you wonder.
hated when McKay was replaced by Lampley. neither one really knew racing but at least Mckay came across as a likeable guy who didnt make you want to punch him in his shit sniffing face.
I always found Sam Posey's remarks amazing, since the IMS Radio Network crew was all over the crash. Rodger Ward immediately suggested that either 1) Kevin was riding the brakes to engage the turbo, released, and it came around or 2) He simply gunned it in 1st gear (when he should have been in 2nd) and it came around. It wasn't hard to do that back then. Posey's analysis...."Absolutely no idea." 4 years later Sam would call Cogan on the radio with 3 laps to go..."I'm kinda busy now Sam"
From 1971 through 1985, ABC carried the Indianapolis "500" on a same-day tape-delay basis, edited down to a two-hour (or later, three-hour) tape (including commercials). During those years, the commentary of the start, the first few laps, the final few laps, and the finish by Jim McKay and either Jackie Stewart or Sam Posey would be recorded as the events took place. The commentary of the middle of the race was done as the edited tape was broadcast. Thus, the commentary you hear in this clip was recorded at the time.
yeah Sam posey was a space cadet. Woulda liked to have heard Sam and Larry Nuber call a race together. With a big bag of weed to split between them over the next 4 hours.
It didn't end his career per se, but it ended Cogan's chance at being one of the elite drivers. Penske dropped him more for publicly criticizing the car and denying any culpability than actually wrecking. After this, Cogan drove for second tier teams. And if anything could demonstrate the existence of curses, its the history of the Andrettis at Indy!
"Coogan" did at least win one Indy Car race. He almost won the 500 in 1986, but Bobby Rahal got him on the restart with two laps left. Coogan ended up second.
As disappointing as Cohan’s 2nd place finish was that year, it should have shut his critics up. He would have won for sure if not for that late yellow flag
Perfection in the "ground effects" technology of the time. But because of the tragic accident involving Gordon Smiley, ground effects technology was banned after the '82 season. And the new 1983 PC-10B couldn't compete with the new 'March chassis.
The accident looked very much like what happened to Roberto Guerrero at Indy (from the pole no less) lost it on the first parade lap on admittedly a very cold day to be racing.
The difference was the field was on the back straightaway and Roberto was in the pole position when he lost it. So he didn't take anyone else out. No doubt that it gave some drivers involved in the '82 crash some serious flashbacks.
I remember this race and you bring up a good point that I don't remember hearing about back then. He WAS way out in front for about half a lap... way out in front of the other 2 cars in the 2nd row. I almost could not even make out that he was there until he was hit because he was so close behind the inside car on row 1.
Yes. Cogan's teammate Rick Mears had the same thing happen to him during a private test session at Michigan the following month. Penske kept it quite while they fixed the flaw. Would've been nice if Penske would have stood behind his driver, but Penske has pride in building the best and his reputation meant more than standing behind a driver that was a public relations nightmare following this unfortunate incident.
Gosh how I miss the sportscasters of the day and the sport as it was then. Jim McKay was the voice of auto racing like Pat Summerall or Curt Gowdy was to football of Vin Scully is to baseball.
I remember after that race there were some driver complaints that the flagger was very late giving them the green, which made the front row late to accelerate and bunched up the field, especially the first several rows. That was caused by an ongoing problem at Indy with the field getting too strung out on the last pace lap and not being in their eleven rows of three for the start. In years past they had gotten the green no matter what and sometimes all but the first couple of rows were strung out nearly in single file coming out of turn four on the last pace lap. It made for really sloppy starts. Track officials took a hard line and the flagger was directed to not drop the green flag if the field was strung out on the last pace lap, to send them around again for another pace lap. You can see it play out in this video. They were almost at the start/finish line and the flagger still had given them no signal either way. Some drivers were holding back and some were trying to go.
This happened because of a injector valve (butterfly valve) that was malfunctioning on Cogans car. They found this out later that it was a problem on a couple other cars after the race. The valve was either partially closed or all the way open. Once you punched the accelerator, it opened all the way and forced a overflow of fuel into the combustion chamber and accelerated the engine suddenly. Totally was not Cogans fault.
Sorry, there isn't to my knowledge. I do remember it being discussed when it was actually happening and that it had been a problem that year. It was discussed with mechanics and drivers that stated they felt this was the problem. I wish I could find the interview, but no luck so far.
S P Sounds like the oldest type of excuse in the book such as when an F1 car chucks a rod or 2 and they call it a bad generator...ok, yeah right. How does this mysterious valve cause a driver to veer hard right?
At 5:57 you can see how far ahead Mario was...he was trying to jump the start. Johncock (his teammate) was right next to him, back in proper alignment, and says that if Mario was back in row 2 where he belonged, he could have steered to avoid Cogan.
Talk about fate, Cogan has a few bad crashes including one with injury that included Roberto Guerrero. Guerrero would later go on to crash a pole sitting car during the parade lap.
Also later in the season Cogan was involved in another crash at Michigan, ( again with Foyt!) I think after that, Penske had seen enough of Kevin Cogan.
Either wheel spin or a broken half shaft - if the former is true - then AJ and Mario are correct in their assessment of his abilities. I think the post race analysis seems to agree something broke on the car......but Penske unloaded Mr Cogan pretty quick after this incident. I think the Captain made his own decision about fault.
If there's one person that doesn't like being embarrassed, it's Roger Penske. Especially after Cogan was involved in another crash with Foyt at Michigan. Only this crash sent Foyt to the hospital, and Penske had seen enough of Kevin Cogan.
That's already been covered. Penske and crew chief at the time Derrick Walker deny anything wrong with the PC10. However several crew members and Mears himself say what happened at Michigan was exactly what happened to Cogan and the design flaw in the halfshaft was discovered and fixed following the Michigan incident.
It s very curious the yellow car at the end of the grip slips EXACTLY at the same place , in the same way and trajectory of Koogan.....would not be the absence of grip on a very specific right side of the track ?
@PorygonFanatics Split was 1996 so actually Robby competed in 3 Indy 500's before the split. He was a rookie in 1993 driving for Foyt. He finished 5th both 1994 & 1995 driving for Valvoline sponsored Derrick Walker owned team.
Fast forward to lap 37. Tony Bettenhausen is full speed on the mainstraight & almost the same spot where Cogan crashed, Tony's car suddenly veers right like Cogan's. Fortunately he was not hurt and no other cars were near. Was it cold tires? No he had many laps at speed on them. Did he jump on the throttle too hard? No, he was already flat out. Obviously it was mechanical failure, as Sam Posey eluded to & said "This is the sort of thing that may have happened to Cogan earlier".
Gordon Johncock nailed it when he said we should've been in 3rd gear coming off of turn 4 we were in 2nd gear Gordon along with Bobby Unser blamed Rick Mears for this
Man, I just remembered Jackie Stewert. He was smart, thoughtful and respected the legend of the 500. Here's a thought, I wonder how the old gaurd would do with all the camera angles, including the onboard cameras of today. I don't know if it would make it better or not. You're right, it was a simpler time.
ABC had commissioned specific music for all of their sports events. The Wide World of Sport had it's own. MNF had it's own, and the famous Trumpet fanfare for the Olympics was by ABC also. That is why in 1984, ABC wouldn't let NBC use it for the Los Angeles Games, so NBC hired John Williams to write a new theme. Four years later, ABC relented and now both themes are used during the Olympics.
Gordy said that Mario jumped the start and was out of line with the rest of row 2. Mario kinda admitted it, but said that when the race is starting that he don't hold back.
What happened there was that Sneva, who lined up on the inside of the third row (and had trouble even getting his car started), didn't have the steering wheel fastened (or couldn't get it fastened), and it came off in his hands.
@Zoomer30 Great comment...I was remembering that myself as I was watching and then saw your comment. I believe it was 1992...the first year Little Al won the race.
Cogan blames the whole thing on a broken half-shaft during the gear change as they were approaching the start/finish line...... BULLS#%T! It was all driver error.... Pure and simple.
I agree that Cogan caused it and was mostly at fault. However it wasn't entirely his fault. The film shows and all the fellow drivers said the same thing: the start was WAAAY too slow. So Rick Mears is partially to blame as well. Mostly Cogan's fault but Mears brought the field down so slow which also makes him partially to blame.
In my opinion it was both Mears' and Cogan's fault. Cogan for his driver error and Mears for bringing the cars down at such a slow pace. Any racing expert will say that the start attempt was WAAAY too slow.
+thevmanvj How can you say that? Was there any wheel spin from Cogan's car? No. Even when he was still in the cockpit he was looking around toward the back end. He got a tough break and the arrogant Mario and AJ, who made plenty of mistakes at the Brickyard, let him hang out to dry.
Yes, those two and I must add Jim Mckay and Bobby Unser to that list. Today's commentators are good, but you're right, the passion isn't there as much. Mckay wasn't the biggest racing expert, but it wasn't cause of a lack of effort. Tom Sneva was good too, and witty. I was actually impressed with Jason Priestly in 2001 too.
@tonip420 Yeah we were big Mears fans too as well as Cogan. I have a CIRCLE TRACK magazine in which Kevin was quoted as saying "Rick has THE touch on ovals - nobody is better!" I probably didn't get it exact but that's pretty much what he said and I thought that was pretty cool of him to say. Rarely did you hear drivers praise other drivers.
PorygonFanatics Rumor had it that Dale's brothers Don & Bill were warned by Mario that he would expose their drug smuggling if Dale ever came back tonIndy.
no they weren't that good, in the year they won Le Mans ('79) Klaus Ludwig did almost all the driving in that car (there were 3 drivers on the car, a Porsche 935)
Actually, that is not accurate. McLaren did it in 1995. Ferrari did it in 1965, which ironically, is Ferrari's last overall victory at LeMans. Their P-51 Precious Metal is one of my favorite air racers though, but they were done racing at Reno by the time I came along.
That was 1988 - the story behind that is Cogan signed up to drive for Cahill/Garner Racing (yes actor James Garner) for the '88 season. I'm sure Cogan thought this was going to be a great new team when he signed. But Cahill didn't deliver any team at all and by February Cogan filed suit against Cahill/Garner, but suddenly the Machinist Union seat opened and Cogan got the call. Didn't have the heart? maybe ... See reply below....
@@hmdwgf Thank You. The only other race I went to was in '85 but seating in a different section around turn 2 thinking I wouldn't see anything crazy, then Danny Sullivan pulled off the spin in front of us. I couldn't believe how he regained control of the car. I've been blessed to see two of the crazier things to happen at Indy
@ratzinator1 It's not here in this particular video but somewhere there's a frontstretch camera video & you get a halfway decent view of the cockpits and you could see Kevin w/ both hands on the wheel turning it the opposite direction the car is going before he hits Foyt. Leads me to believe something broke on his car like he said.
Rick Mears led the field down to the line too slowly. Not to mention that Penske had a similar problem happen with Rick Mears in a private test. Kind of too bad, too, because Cogan wasn't 100% at fault.
7:28.. Mario's comment about "..children doing a man's job.." I've heard that line before in F1 also :D Usually when a Rookie takes out a big name driver.
@PorygonFanatics: I have spoken with several sportswriters who cover and covered Indy car racing and *none* of them heard anything about Mears having a similar wreck in a test at Michigan until Donald Davidson mentioned it in 2004. I don't know that Davidson, who has a lot of trivia about the IMS, is necessarily a solid source.
It's almost 100% the same thing that later happened to gerraro (not sure on the name, he was the pole sitter in the 91 92 or 93 500). His car just made a right hand hook on him right into the inside wall. And he was a vet and the freaking pole sitter These cars are really touchy going slow like that and i think kc got way too much grief for it.
Last time Mario was on the track at Indy I believe he was going over a hundred, upside down and 10 feet in the air....think he blamed it on a broken jack shaft.
@tonip420 Actually Foyt's car only had minor damage, The crew repaired it and Foyt didn't just make the start but stormed into the lead going into Turn 1. He led like the first 22 laps! He dropped out about the halfway mark with transmission problems which was another classic image, as he got out and began hammering on his transimission! I never heard anyone complain about their tickets because they were treated to one of the closest finishes in history!
Mears didn't bring field down too slow. If you want to set the field pace at the start of the race, you have to be the pole sitter. Same deal at the US 500 with Vasser. Mario deserved better but racing against USAC no names was always going to be a problem. As for the cars, the 1982 Ferrari that Didier Pironi was driving was a better looking car. The Tyrrell 012 has a unique diffusion system nearer the monoquoque than the front wing. The Wildcat vs The Penske, great finish.
At 5:25 Mears appears to cut right towards Cogan . 5:27 Cogan cuts right into Foyt . I wondered if Cogan sees Mears in his peripheral and gets spooked .
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This was my first Indy 500; I was 12. My dad wrote for the local paper but felt my brother and me were too young to go to the race until that year. My dad predicted Gordon Johncock would win; trying to sound knowledgeable, I predicted a wreck on the first lap. We were both right. I met Cogan several years later and he seemed aloof but not necessarily rude or over his head. We wasn't untalented but obviously over his head that year.
I still say Cogan was over his head and he raced for my dad’s boss.
AJ actually was able to his car and came out on the restart and smoked everyone taking and extending the lead over Mears for the first 30 laps or so. Ultimately, Aj's car broke and I think it was related to Cogan running into him. This was Foyt's last best shot for Five as his father (head mechanic) passed the following year and he just didn't have the same burning passion any longer.
Growing up, my family had a tradition on Memorial Day weekend that we'd all listen to the live radio broadcast of the Indianapolis "500", and that evening, we'd all watch the taped and edited replay (edited down to 2 hours, including commercials) of the race on ABC-TV (the race wasn't yet televised live).
I started to watch this and they showed Kevin Cogan. I thought “now why does that name stick in my mind...?” Then when the wreck happened I instantly remembered when I saw this “live” on TV. Everybody in Indiana hated the guy after that. Mario and AJ were HUGE fan favorite.
@2:50"Chet Pillip is the 1st bearded driver here in 46 years"
I laughed my ass off at that one.
+blackeyedcheese Kevin Cogan was the driver without pubic hair according to Mario Andretti!
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Currently several driver has a beard like Hinch, Rossi, and sometimes Munoz. And Alonso. :D
Hipster before hipster was hipster.
scott... or just a normal "mans man" back then.
Something you may not know:
During the years (1971-85) that ABC carried the Indianapolis "500" on a same-day tape-delay, Jim McKay, Jackie Stewart, and (later on) Sam Posey would record their commentary of the start, the first few laps, the last few laps and the finish as they happened.
The middle of the race was edited to fit the time remaining in-between the start and finish, and the announcers would "call" the middle part of the race as the edited tape was being broadcast that evening.
Interesting...thanx for that tidbit...I did not know that.
Man, this is gold!! Thanks for the upload. I I remember watching this as a 16 yr old kid in Phoenix, Arizona.
What a great memory for me. Not so much for Andretti, Foyt & Cogan.
I know that there are some slightly closer finishes at Indy now, but I think the 1982 Indy 500 Finish AND Start are still the most exciting ones to this day.
"Cooogin!!" -Classic AJ.
Mario's "children" comment also applies to his grandson last year at Indy.
The best part of this race was A.J. whacking away at his transmission with a giant screw driver while Tom Carnegie said "I'd say Foyt is unhappy". Epic
Forgot that one. Class I. Tks for flashback there!!
I think it was more out of frustration for A.J than actually trying to get the transmission back in gear. No doubt he was still POed about Cogan ( "Coogan") nailing the the left front of his car in the ensuing crash at the start. Which hurt the handling and probably forced A.J to use the gearbox much harder than intended.
Although the race had a controversial start, it had the most memorable finish in the history of the Indianapolis "500" (at least up to that time).
Yep: Mears, Johncock was one of the best finishes. I saw it from turn 4.
A good indication of what happened to Cogan happens later in this very race. Tony Bettenhausen's car takes a hard right on the straightway at speed. Even the announcers caught that. Just very unfortunate set of circumstances for Cogan. A pure racer though, and no he didn't pay for his ride (contrary to whats been posted). Despite being the class of the field at Cleveland & Riverside, he failed to score a win that year, and we all know Penske likes WINS. Cogan did score 3 Top 5 Indy fins.
For 20 yrs., my Dad & I would always cheer for Mario Andretti to win @ Indy.
and he simply never could, he ALWAYS had something happen that wasnt his fault it was incredible how bad his luck was at this specific track.
@@davidca96 The two of us ALWAYS felt super bad when he wasn't the victor. Year after year.
One of the most bizarre moments in the 500's long history. Cogan's crash alone would have made it so, but many fail to notice that what Dale Whittington does in the background (row 8) is just about as crazy!! Just weirdsville!
Isn’t that just locking up the brakes and losing control?
Hit Dennis Firestone, and spun in the fluids put down by Cogan.
Rumor has it that Mario Andretti told Whittington’s brothers Don & Bill that if he came back to Indy that he would expose their drug smuggling activities. I don’t k ow if that’s true or not but those Whittington brothers were practically a drug cartel
@@deanladue2327 And now you know the magic of Ammonium Perchlorate sublimation, low Hg=high Hp. Once the silicone saturates the track, no traction.
The talking heads call it 'rain', yet no rain clouds.
Ppl claim Indycars are 50%, complete BS. They don't count oxydizers as fuel.
Wow! 80's Flashback. Actual Americans in the field! Love the graphics and music. 130 looks like pace car speeds in comparison to 230s. Nice they actually waited (or tried to) until the entire field was on the front straight. That was a different era in American Open Wheel.
There's a pretty big case for a failure in the rear suspension. Rick Mears had a rear suspension go out on him at Michigan earlier that season in the same way, and Cogan looked to the right left corner as he got out, almost like he thought something broke.
Cogan was in way over his head. He had a very fast car in a big moment. I watched this raced live at 10 years old...AJ foyt was pissed,,,,,,,this was a classic race.....this is the race that I can never forget.
those Gurney-Eagle's (Herm Johnson) were awesome looking cars... my fave indy car ever
What happened to Coogan (have called him that ever since the King of Texas renamed him...) was two-fold. Mears was, in fact, bringing them around too slowly, given the nature of turbocharged engines, and the awesome surge of energy they get when one punches the throttle from a cold start. Coogan likewise had cold tires, in comparison to heat of race pace. The combination of the two produced a right-veering motion that became unrecoverable only after his car impacted and was deflected by Foyt's.
I remember seeing this on the tape delayed ABC broadcast when I was 12.
The same thing happened to Roberto Gerroro in the 91 or 92 Indy, he was in POLE POSITION and had a similar issue on the back strech on the pace laps. Pretty embarssing but it can happen.
1992. That was the year maybe half the field crashed out in so many cautions the crown moaned angrily with each crash
Looking at it frame by frame, it looks like something weird happened to the right rear tire, it looks deformed right after the car veers right, then it appears to shrink compared to the left rear right before he hits Foyt..
Pause right before the crash then use < and > to advance or rewind one frame at a time.
Could be an artifact of the potato cam they were using but I'm not sure.
The crash at the start would have been the best remembered part of the 1982 Indianapolis "500", were it not for the exciting and historic finish.
could you imagine buying tickets for this race in '82 and watching Foyt and Andretti get taken out BEFORE the race even started...
AJ's problem has always been, he's never been able to express himself. lol lol lol
I know, he always seems to not be able to get the right words!!! Haha
But seriously, how low did cogan feel crashing out AJ, & Mario? I don't know if I'd ever come out of the trailer
If you remember, that happened to Roberto Guerrero in 1992... he started on the pole, but spun and crashed on the pace lap. It was a cold day, and that led to a lot of crashes...most of them on restarts when the tires were cold...
Yes, further back in the pack. Dale Whittington swerved into Roger Mears' car similiar to Cogan's manuever. In his book, A.J. Foyt blamed the crash on too slow of pace lap speed and driver inexperience when they hit the throttle and the turbocharger boost kicked in and the cars got away from them. Whatever the reason, it was a pretty unique situation.
God I miss guys like Super Tex in racing........
"Car racing always will be dangerous" Sir Jackie Stewart (1939- ) Retired british Formula 1 driver. World Champion in 1969, 1971 and 1973. Greetings from Venezuela.
Kevin's instinctive reaction was to walk to the back of his car & examine the righthand side rear in particular. Please remember that this recording is not the original broadcast & is edited. Kevin's "I don't know what happened" is more of a "no comment" because in the unedited interview he says "no point in saying i was hit from behind until I see the video." That says it felt like he was hit.That's a good description for a broken halfshaft & how it feels when it goes CLUNK! Common early 80's.
He wasn't hit from behind, the 2nd row cars are way back. He hit the throttle and spun the tires.
Looking at it frame by frame, it looks like something weird happened to the right rear tire, it looks deformed right after the car veers right, then it appears to shrink compared to the left rear just before he hits Foyt..
@@carlfrye1566 Read first. I never said he was. I re-iterated what Kevin said in his interview. It was a broken halfshaft. There were many broken halfshafts in the early to mid 80's. It took them awhile to resolve the problem because the problem wasn't consistent in how they were failing. There was an extensive in article in either On Track or Autoweek about it back then with a list of known halfshaft failures and this incident was on the list.
@@MichaelClark-uw7ex Playing at 0.25 speed, at about 3:59.6 when Cogan's car is at 90° to the track direction, significant tyre inflation is clearly visible - how much is uncertain, but it doesn't take much deflation to lose traction. Definitely no sparks from the wheel rim grinding on the track. Could also have been a broken steering rod. Being in Australia, I watched the race replay several hours later (we don't stay up until 4 am waiting for you guys to get started 😅). The commentators speculated about the possibility of a broken half shaft, which would make sense if it was common at the time. The fact that Roger Penske refused to comment on the cause means either: (1) The car was embarassingly at fault, or (2) The suspect parts were destroyed in the secondary crash.
Now those cars were sleek.
I remember this. I was 13 and could only imagine how Cogan felt having two legends pissed off at him at the same time
My thought exactly . The faces of the two legends pissed off because of you . Wow.
Yep was thinking the same thing!!
Same here. 14 years old for me. It was broadcast on time delay back in those days.
@@DucatiPaso750 Same here. Indiana kid and the race was everything for our state growing up. But I also was pissed at the guy since AJ and Mario were my favorite 2 drivers.
Does anyone remember this race different? I do
In the minutes following the crash, on the radio, most of the drivers...Rutherford, Johncock, among them, all thought that Mears took the field down way too slow. Which could have been the reason Cogan was in first gear as he said he was, and if they were going faster, he wouldn't have gunned it so abruptly.
Everyone at Penske maintains that "nothing broke." We'll never know if that's true or not.
Penske immediately had the destroyed PC-10 covered up and locked away in the hauler. Wouldn't even let USAC or CART officials have even a glimpse of it. So yep, you wonder.
I love Jim McKay's call.
"How in the world could this have happened?!"
hated when McKay was replaced by Lampley. neither one really knew racing but at least Mckay came across as a likeable guy who didnt make you want to punch him in his shit sniffing face.
He always said that when there was a crash at the start, listen to the 1973 start crash.
R.I.P. Jim McKay.
RIP Chris Economaki
RIP Gordon Smiley he died just days before this.
Indy was never the same without Jim McKay and Chris Economacki
@@NUKE-W.E.F. And they moved Paul Page to Drag Racing ! :(
I always found Sam Posey's remarks amazing, since the IMS Radio Network crew was all over the crash. Rodger Ward immediately suggested that either 1) Kevin was riding the brakes to engage the turbo, released, and it came around or 2) He simply gunned it in 1st gear (when he should have been in 2nd) and it came around. It wasn't hard to do that back then.
Posey's analysis...."Absolutely no idea."
4 years later Sam would call Cogan on the radio with 3 laps to go..."I'm kinda busy now Sam"
From 1971 through 1985, ABC carried the Indianapolis "500" on a same-day tape-delay basis, edited down to a two-hour (or later, three-hour) tape (including commercials).
During those years, the commentary of the start, the first few laps, the final few laps, and the finish by Jim McKay and either Jackie Stewart or Sam Posey would be recorded as the events took place.
The commentary of the middle of the race was done as the edited tape was broadcast.
Thus, the commentary you hear in this clip was recorded at the time.
yeah Sam posey was a space cadet. Woulda liked to have heard Sam and Larry Nuber call a race together. With a big bag of weed to split between them over the next 4 hours.
Basically Cogan telling Sam to "F" off.
Jim McKay was the best. He had the ability to get you interested in barrel jumping at Grossingers (1963 Wide World of Sports).
Cogan however did win 1st place in the Farrah Fawcett Pretty Hair Contest!
Fun fact?
It didn't end his career per se, but it ended Cogan's chance at being one of the elite drivers. Penske dropped him more for publicly criticizing the car and denying any culpability than actually wrecking. After this, Cogan drove for second tier teams. And if anything could demonstrate the existence of curses, its the history of the Andrettis at Indy!
"Coogan" did at least win one Indy Car race. He almost won the 500 in 1986, but Bobby Rahal got him on the restart with two laps left. Coogan ended up second.
As disappointing as Cohan’s 2nd place finish was that year, it should have shut his critics up. He would have won for sure if not for that late yellow flag
What is the name of the song in the background when they show the starting grid?
I've always liked the Penske PC10. Very clean, fast looking design.
Perfection in the "ground effects" technology of the time. But because of the tragic accident involving Gordon Smiley, ground effects technology was banned after the '82 season. And the new 1983 PC-10B couldn't compete with the new 'March chassis.
The accident looked very much like what happened to Roberto Guerrero at Indy (from the pole no less) lost it on the first parade lap on admittedly a very cold day to be racing.
The difference was the field was on the back straightaway and Roberto was in the pole position when he lost it. So he didn't take anyone else out. No doubt that it gave some drivers involved in the '82 crash some serious flashbacks.
I remember this race and you bring up a good point that I don't remember hearing about back then. He WAS way out in front for about half a lap... way out in front of the other 2 cars in the 2nd row. I almost could not even make out that he was there until he was hit because he was so close behind the inside car on row 1.
Yes. Cogan's teammate Rick Mears had the same thing happen to him during a private test session at Michigan the following month. Penske kept it quite while they fixed the flaw. Would've been nice if Penske would have stood behind his driver, but Penske has pride in building the best and his reputation meant more than standing behind a driver that was a public relations nightmare following this unfortunate incident.
Gosh how I miss the sportscasters of the day and the sport as it was then. Jim McKay was the voice of auto racing like Pat Summerall or Curt Gowdy was to football of Vin Scully is to baseball.
I always saw McKay as the voice of ABC's Wide World of Sports too.
I remember after that race there were some driver complaints that the flagger was very late giving them the green, which made the front row late to accelerate and bunched up the field, especially the first several rows. That was caused by an ongoing problem at Indy with the field getting too strung out on the last pace lap and not being in their eleven rows of three for the start. In years past they had gotten the green no matter what and sometimes all but the first couple of rows were strung out nearly in single file coming out of turn four on the last pace lap. It made for really sloppy starts. Track officials took a hard line and the flagger was directed to not drop the green flag if the field was strung out on the last pace lap, to send them around again for another pace lap. You can see it play out in this video. They were almost at the start/finish line and the flagger still had given them no signal either way. Some drivers were holding back and some were trying to go.
Takuma Sato is the new Kevin Cogan :)
10 years later, and he's a two time winner
And he became better than Alonso
AJ sums it up nicely at the end 😁
I remember seeing this live burned into my brain, and years later I still can't believe it. What a miserable feeling.
R.I.P Gordon Smiley
Flippy Musa Respect
Saw the replay of it on ABC Sports that very day, Absolutely horrific. RIP Gordon Smiley.
And yes, it's been said many times....
"AJ Foyt blames Kevin Coooooogan"
Does anyone have the music they play during the grid? I remember finding it somewhere else at some point, but I can't now...
This happened because of a injector valve (butterfly valve) that was malfunctioning on Cogans car. They found this out later that it was a problem on a couple other cars after the race. The valve was either partially closed or all the way open. Once you punched the accelerator, it opened all the way and forced a overflow of fuel into the combustion chamber and accelerated the engine suddenly. Totally was not Cogans fault.
Very interesting. Is there a source for this explanation?
Sorry, there isn't to my knowledge. I do remember it being discussed when it was actually happening and that it had been a problem that year. It was discussed with mechanics and drivers that stated they felt this was the problem. I wish I could find the interview, but no luck so far.
S P Sounds like the oldest type of excuse in the book such as when an F1 car chucks a rod or 2 and they call it a bad generator...ok, yeah right.
How does this mysterious valve cause a driver to veer hard right?
It was those damn Whittington Brothers!!
@dalebshelton wich one are you refering to because i have made 2 comments of this video
Wow Rahal and Ganassi in the race
At 5:57 you can see how far ahead Mario was...he was trying to jump the start. Johncock (his teammate) was right next to him, back in proper alignment, and says that if Mario was back in row 2 where he belonged, he could have steered to avoid Cogan.
Bullshit
Why did the green flag take so long? It usually is out much sooner. They were almost up to the start finish line and still no green.
Not my fault, lol.
Didn't Roger Penske fire Cogan after this?
He fired him after the full season cuz he performed not to expectations. But this race definitely didn't help 😂
Talk about fate, Cogan has a few bad crashes including one with injury that included Roberto Guerrero. Guerrero would later go on to crash a pole sitting car during the parade lap.
Also later in the season Cogan was involved in another crash at Michigan, ( again with Foyt!) I think after that, Penske had seen enough of Kevin Cogan.
@@deanladue2327 I mean, not everyone can take out AJ Foyt and Mario Andretti at the same time😃
What is this song called in the grid song?
Either wheel spin or a broken half shaft - if the former is true - then AJ and Mario are correct in their assessment of his abilities. I think the post race analysis seems to agree something broke on the car......but Penske unloaded Mr Cogan pretty quick after this incident. I think the Captain made his own decision about fault.
If there's one person that doesn't like being embarrassed, it's Roger Penske. Especially after Cogan was involved in another crash with Foyt at Michigan. Only this crash sent Foyt to the hospital, and Penske had seen enough of Kevin Cogan.
That's already been covered. Penske and crew chief at the time Derrick Walker deny anything wrong with the PC10. However several crew members and Mears himself say what happened at Michigan was exactly what happened to Cogan and the design flaw in the halfshaft was discovered and fixed following the Michigan incident.
AJ Foyt - Best interview ever
It s very curious the yellow car at the end of the grip slips EXACTLY at the same place , in the same way and trajectory of Koogan.....would not be the absence of grip on a very specific right side of the track ?
Gordon Smiley, the crash at the start & that insane finish. The most memorable Indy 500.
@PorygonFanatics Split was 1996 so actually Robby competed in 3 Indy 500's before the split. He was a rookie in 1993 driving for Foyt. He finished 5th both 1994 & 1995 driving for Valvoline sponsored Derrick Walker owned team.
“COOOOOOOGAN”!!!!!
Fast forward to lap 37. Tony Bettenhausen is full speed on the mainstraight & almost the same spot where Cogan crashed, Tony's car suddenly veers right like Cogan's. Fortunately he was not hurt and no other cars were near. Was it cold tires? No he had many laps at speed on them. Did he jump on the throttle too hard? No, he was already flat out. Obviously it was mechanical failure, as Sam Posey eluded to & said "This is the sort of thing that may have happened to Cogan earlier".
Gordon Johncock nailed it when he said we should've been in 3rd gear coming off of turn 4 we were in 2nd gear Gordon along with Bobby Unser blamed Rick Mears for this
"How in the WORLD could this of happened?"
"Absolutely NO Idea Jim!"
You gotta love those old school graphics
Man, I just remembered Jackie Stewert. He was smart, thoughtful and respected the legend of the 500. Here's a thought, I wonder how the old gaurd would do with all the camera angles, including the onboard cameras of today. I don't know if it would make it better or not. You're right, it was a simpler time.
"It's an alcohol fire, you can't see the flames."
ABC used that music a lot for their racing coverage.
ABC had commissioned specific music for all of their sports events. The Wide World of Sport had it's own. MNF had it's own, and the famous Trumpet fanfare for the Olympics was by ABC also. That is why in 1984, ABC wouldn't let NBC use it for the Los Angeles Games, so NBC hired John Williams to write a new theme. Four years later, ABC relented and now both themes are used during the Olympics.
Gordy said that Mario jumped the start and was out of line with the rest of row 2. Mario kinda admitted it, but said that when the race is starting that he don't hold back.
@Hanjin13
Something had to have broken on the car for it to wreck like that.
@Zoomer30 And it also happened to Tom Sneva 1986 - he started on the 2nd row I believe. Everybody seems to forget about that one.
What happened there was that Sneva, who lined up on the inside of the third row (and had trouble even getting his car started), didn't have the steering wheel fastened (or couldn't get it fastened), and it came off in his hands.
*grows extra arms and quadruple facepalms*
those thirty something year old cars, (especially the Penske PC 10) still look awesome today. think they're better than the crap they're using today.
They had personality! They represented the culmination of team engineering, and they didn't roll off the cookie cutter assembly line of today's cars.
@Zoomer30 Great comment...I was remembering that myself as I was watching and then saw your comment. I believe it was 1992...the first year Little Al won the race.
Cogan blames the whole thing on a broken half-shaft during the gear change as they were approaching the start/finish line......
BULLS#%T!
It was all driver error....
Pure and simple.
I agree that Cogan caused it and was mostly at fault. However it wasn't entirely his fault. The film shows and all the fellow drivers said the same thing: the start was WAAAY too slow. So Rick Mears is partially to blame as well. Mostly Cogan's fault but Mears brought the field down so slow which also makes him partially to blame.
In my opinion it was both Mears' and Cogan's fault. Cogan for his driver error and Mears for bringing the cars down at such a slow pace. Any racing expert will say that the start attempt was WAAAY too slow.
+thevmanvj There was no way that was driver error...
+thevmanvj How can you say that? Was there any wheel spin from Cogan's car? No. Even when he was still in the cockpit he was looking around toward the back end. He got a tough break and the arrogant Mario and AJ, who made plenty of mistakes at the Brickyard, let him hang out to dry.
Didn't he teach Pastor Maldonado how to race? ;)
Yes, those two and I must add Jim Mckay and Bobby Unser to that list. Today's commentators are good, but you're right, the passion isn't there as much. Mckay wasn't the biggest racing expert, but it wasn't cause of a lack of effort. Tom Sneva was good too, and witty. I was actually impressed with Jason Priestly in 2001 too.
1:54 "Bobby Rahal is another rookie" I always forget they too were greenhorns once...
Coooogan!
@tonip420 Yeah we were big Mears fans too as well as Cogan. I have a CIRCLE TRACK magazine in which Kevin was quoted as saying "Rick has THE touch on ovals - nobody is better!" I probably didn't get it exact but that's pretty much what he said and I thought that was pretty cool of him to say. Rarely did you hear drivers praise other drivers.
The wreck in the back was due to Dale Whittington, who was absolutely loaded on cocaine, overreacting to the crash
+PorygonFanatics yeah I read about them. Wow !
+Cj Buford Yeah, Cogan had nothing to do with that one.
PorygonFanatics Rumor had it that Dale's brothers Don & Bill were warned by Mario that he would expose their drug smuggling if Dale ever came back tonIndy.
no they weren't that good, in the year they won Le Mans ('79) Klaus Ludwig did almost all the driving in that car (there were 3 drivers on the car, a Porsche 935)
Actually, that is not accurate. McLaren did it in 1995. Ferrari did it in 1965, which ironically, is Ferrari's last overall victory at LeMans. Their P-51 Precious Metal is one of my favorite air racers though, but they were done racing at Reno by the time I came along.
That's an understatement.
I had no idea that Chip Ganassi had raced before!
atjays neither did I! lol
Oh so very young. :-) AND Bobby Rahal was a rookie in this race.
There is a youtube clip where Chip wrecks spectacularly at Michigan
CG raced 5 times at Indy, best finish 8th in 1983.
@@MDCSWildcats86 No, his best Indy 500 finish was 2nd in 1986. I was there,,,
That was 1988 - the story behind that is Cogan signed up to drive for Cahill/Garner Racing (yes actor James Garner) for the '88 season. I'm sure Cogan thought this was going to be a great new team when he signed. But Cahill didn't deliver any team at all and by February Cogan filed suit against Cahill/Garner, but suddenly the Machinist Union seat opened and Cogan got the call. Didn't have the heart? maybe ... See reply below....
This is probably the most spectacular screw-up in motor racing history.
Roberto Guerrero......wrecking on pace lap
Craziest one I've seen in person. Dad and I had tickets a few rows behind the pits. A sure WTF moment
@@GeorgeAshburn That's awesome. To have been at that Indy 500 must have given you real bragging rights. I'm jealous.
@@hmdwgf Thank You. The only other race I went to was in '85 but seating in a different section around turn 2 thinking I wouldn't see anything crazy, then Danny Sullivan pulled off the spin in front of us. I couldn't believe how he regained control of the car. I've been blessed to see two of the crazier things to happen at Indy
@ratzinator1 It's not here in this particular video but somewhere there's a frontstretch camera video & you get a halfway decent view of the cockpits and you could see Kevin w/ both hands on the wheel turning it the opposite direction the car is going before he hits Foyt. Leads me to believe something broke on his car like he said.
Rick Mears led the field down to the line too slowly. Not to mention that Penske had a similar problem happen with Rick Mears in a private test.
Kind of too bad, too, because Cogan wasn't 100% at fault.
7:28.. Mario's comment about "..children doing a man's job.." I've heard that line before in F1 also :D
Usually when a Rookie takes out a big name driver.
@PorygonFanatics: I have spoken with several sportswriters who cover and covered Indy car racing and *none* of them heard anything about Mears having a similar wreck in a test at Michigan until Donald Davidson mentioned it in 2004. I don't know that Davidson, who has a lot of trivia about the IMS, is necessarily a solid source.
It's almost 100% the same thing that later happened to gerraro (not sure on the name, he was the pole sitter in the 91 92 or 93 500).
His car just made a right hand hook on him right into the inside wall. And he was a vet and the freaking pole sitter These cars are really touchy going slow like that and i think kc got way too much grief for it.
Gordon Smiley died this race in the Practice session right?
Last time Mario was on the track at Indy I believe he was going over a hundred, upside down and 10 feet in the air....think he blamed it on a broken jack shaft.
@tonip420 Actually Foyt's car only had minor damage, The crew repaired it and Foyt didn't just make the start but stormed into the lead going into Turn 1. He led like the first 22 laps! He dropped out about the halfway mark with transmission problems which was another classic image, as he got out and began hammering on his transimission! I never heard anyone complain about their tickets because they were treated to one of the closest finishes in history!
Mears didn't bring field down too slow. If you want to set the field pace at the start of the race, you have to be the pole sitter. Same deal at the US 500 with Vasser. Mario deserved better but racing against USAC no names was always going to be a problem.
As for the cars, the 1982 Ferrari that Didier Pironi was driving was a better looking car. The Tyrrell 012 has a unique diffusion system nearer the monoquoque than the front wing. The Wildcat vs The Penske, great finish.
“Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame.”
― Benjamin Franklin
@gamrguy101 Not sure Dennis Firestone is part of THAT Firestone family. He's from Australia
At 5:25 Mears appears to cut right towards Cogan . 5:27 Cogan cuts right into Foyt . I wondered if Cogan sees Mears in his peripheral and gets spooked .