GORDON "GORDY" JOHNCOCK - 08/05/1936
a former racing driver, best known as a two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500 and the 1976 USAC Marlboro Championship Trail champion, and also competed in selected CUP events. Johncock was most often simply referred to as "Gordy." Johncock's first USAC victory was scored at the Milwaukee Mile in August 1965. He won six further races before winning the Indy 500 in 1973. At the 1973 Indianapolis 500, Johncock was racing for the STP/Pat Patrick team. A major accident at the start involving Salt Walther, coupled with two days of rain, postponed the race until late Wednesday afternoon. When the race was held, Johncock's teammate Swede Savage was severely injured in a fiery crash on lap 58. A moment later, Armando Teran, a pit crew member on the same STP/Patrick team, was struck by a fire truck going northbound in the pits rushing to the accident, and was fatally injured at the scene . When the race resumed, Johncock who had led the most laps, was leading when rain fell again on the 133rd lap and the race
was declared official. After a short and muted victory lane celebration, Johncock went to visit Savage at the hospital. Afterward, the celebratory victory banquet was canceled. About a month later, Savage died from his injuries. In the 1975 Indianapolis 500, he started the race on the front row but retired with ignition problems on the 11th lap. Johncock won the USAC national title in 1976, snatching the title from Johnny Rutherford in the final race of the season at Phoenix International Raceway. In 1976 and 1978 he finished third at Indianapolis, and in 1977 he was leading AJ Foyt when the cars crankshaft broke with sixteen laps to go. Foyt went on to claim the win.
Johncock had the distinction of winning the first CART sanctioned Indy car race at Phoenix in March 1979, and he won one further race until May 1982. Johncock took a second Indianapolis 500 victory in 1982, winning by 0.16 second over Rick Mears. Mears was rapidly closing on Johncock in the final laps. In Mears' final pit stop, Mears' team made a miscalculation and filled his car with more fuel than it needed to finish the race. As a consequence Mears had to catch up a significant distance on Johncock, and on the 197th and 198th laps came from 3 seconds back to within car lengths. On the final lap, Mears tried to pass Johncock for the win, with Johncock making a decisive defense of first place in Turn One. Johncock competed in
21 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events in his career. He earned three top-fives and four top-tens in his limited schedules. The best of those finishes were a pair of fourths in 1973 at Daytona and 1966 at Rockingham. For his career Johncock race 273 Indy car events collecting 25 wins, and 111 top five finishes. He claimed the two Indy 500 wins, the 1976 series championship, and finished in the top five in points 13 times out of 24 seasons. Some info from Wikipedia
1973 Indy 500 win
1981 Indy 500 win
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