The start of the 1982 Indy 500

[robc317]

In the TV broadcast of this race Bobby Unser was interviewed in the pit area (he was a car owner that year) and agreed that the start was "Way too slow". Why the green flag hadn't been waved already is beyond me. It's almost as if the starter was waiting for the entire field to come through turn 4. But regardless of the cause, it was one of the craziest things I'd ever seen.

[pajasa62]

That was the slowest start I had every seen for a car race...want to blame someone other than Cogan? Don't blame Andretti (which is nonsense) blame Mears for bringing them down WAAAAAY too slow. Cogan lost it getting into gear and up to speed.

[bofustjohnson]

@1969captainron ahhh,yes it was his fault....he was atleast 2 car lengths ahead of his proper position.....i think all those guys are told 50 times, STAY in position thru the green flag, get up to speed and then show your stuff....typical mario speak...he looks stupid trying to defend his running into cogan by STILL trying to bend those words into cogan appearing out of nowhere to ruin his race....if he hadn't smashed into cogan they all might have pitted and rejoined the race.

[cincyblows]

Cogan and Andretti turned toward each other. Watch the video carefully. Johncock doesn't tell the whole story. Nor does Foyt.

[PTpredsfan]

My dad was at that race and he took pictures of the cars being towed away. Very cool.

[SIGMAMAN69]

As unfortunate as that was, I don't think it was fair that Cogan took so much crap for so many years for it. Penske really let him hang out to dry.

[rmrooster01]

look how they are going down perfectly straight and outta nowhere cogan swerves both ways and into the wall. Andretty was looking forward, and he gunned it and cogan went right into him. Theres absolutely nothing ANdretti could have done. Johncock is full of .... Johncock won but Mario is one of if not the greatest all around car racer. He won Indy, Nascar, EuropeGP,  Can Am endurance, Dirt track, etc....

[gtw9009]

@jooljetkmae I agree about Mario. At the time, they interviewed Rick about Mario's comments and he said that it's the decision of the pole sitter as to how to bring the field around and he's right. He later softened that in subsequent interviews by admitting that he probably brought them down too slow. But, that still doesn't make it his fault. Kevin lost it and Mario took a gamble by trying to jump on it early and he paid.

[gtw9009]

Cogan didn't have 11 starts by 1982. It was only his 2nd start. What happened was that Rick brought them down slow (Rick later commented and admitted as much) and Cogan put down the hammer...if you could imagine 700 horses...he simply lost it. There was no "broke" on the car...both crew chief and Penske never stood up for their driver on the broken argument because they knew it wasn't true. Cogan just lost it. He should have admitted it.

[jamdawg]

Dad and I were at this race. We couldn't believe that we scored tickets about 10 rows behind the pits. When this happened, everyone in the area had that "WHAT THE ####!" look on their faces. The ending was a classic.

[1more4theroad]

It's easy to be a Monday morning quarterback with this, saying how Mario could have driven around Cogan. Thing is, no one knows, ever, if he could have. There are no should-of's and could-of's. If things were different, everything else would be different, too. Not just Mario's reaction. It is what it was and what it was was just too dang bad.

I was in turn 1 and the disappointment to see them slow down was sickening. The finish helped make up for it.

[jlonnon]

Gordy is 100% correct...Andretti payed for being too careless at the start. Its not about they start at indy..its about preserving the car for the last 30 laps. He took himself out carelessly.

[Dietpepsivanilla]

Had Mario done that, he might have taken out Gordy and then what? Gordy blames Mario for the rest of his life. Mario's right. He came to race. Gordy may have won two 500s (and that's awesome), but Mario won one, a CART championship, a USAC title AND a World Championship. Gordy couldn't even race on road courses.

[sir945]

@jlonnon thank you gordy got on the radio and told pat patrick that mario needs to get back or something is going to happen

[cgdale]

The middle of the front row was a cursed position. After Mario won from there in 1969, no #2 starter even finished the race until 1990, and some finished dead last. No one won from the middle until Montoya in 2000. Who knows, maybe Cogan's crash was just destiny.

[BlueFox284]

Hmmm. Too bad they couldn't get Cogan speak a few words in this one. . .

And yeah, Mario was waaaaay out there. But that's racing.

[texonthebeach]

Cogan may look like a spoiled brat. Okay so what?

The right rear halfshaft cv joint broke from what I was told later. No one cares to take the blame.

[afannell]

Cogan was made an escape goat for that hole incident that Penske fired him after one season. Cogan career and reputation was messed up after that event.

[penske13]

you were told wrong. derrick walker crew chiefed that care and he sais that they never founf out what caused cogan to spin.

[texonthebeach]

Cogan stated it. HOWEVER, how's about those "CV JOINT ONLY" specialists that the teams employed in the later years? If a race car part came out in perfect shape, it was too heavy, no one ever argued about that. CV Joints make excellent paper weights, thus they must have weight right? Thousands of cv joints-one breaks at the wrong place at the wrong time, it is posssible.

[indydude]

@texonthebeach They weren't able to tell if it broke because of the crash damage. Rick Mears had a similar problem in a private test at MIS which was caused by a broken CV Joint. Team Penske should've stood behind their driver and let that be known it was possible the car broke.

[sir945]

i remember gordy got on the radio and told the team mario needs to get back and i my opinion mario has no one to blame but him self because he did drive up on mears to get a good jimp on the start and looked what happend

[slompappy]

that's what happens when you let a boy do a man's job

[VampireYoshi]

Gotta be with Andretti, though, on it not being something you expect, and thus you have to be there to race. They were all going in a -straight line-...Michael was ahead of the second row on the start of 1992, only feet behind the first row, and he took the lead into the first turn. Mario did NOT take himself out, he was racing hard. On the flip side, nothing wrong with Johncock's tactics either. The fault was Coogan's, by not anticipating the turbocharger kicking in.

[Dimage25]

I'm with Johncock. If you stop the vid at 1:34, you can see Mario making contact with Kevin and at 1:41 Gordy comes into the picture, that just shows how far in front of row 2 Mario was driving. He really took himselfe out!