By John Sturbin, Raceday San Antonio
Gordon Johncock, whose open-wheel odyssey took him from Oswego (N.Y.) Speedway to a pair of Indianapolis 500 victories, died of natural causes on Monday, Sept. 28, 2026 at his home in South Branch, Mich. Mr. Johncock was 90.
Born Aug. 5, 1936, in Hastings, Mich., the lifelong resident of the Great Lakes State won 25 INDYCAR races and was crowned national champion in 1976. However, Johncock is best-known for winning both memorable and forgettable 500s, each driving for Patrick Racing.
Nicknamed “Gordy,” his stirring drive late in the 1982 Indianapolis 500 wheeling the No. 20 STP Wildcat Mark 8B/Cosworth earned him a second victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Pat Patrick’s Wildcat remains the last American-built car to win “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”
Johncock’s duel with Rick Mears of Team Penske during the closing laps of the 1982 race was the most thrilling to that point, prompting renowned ABC-TV broadcaster Jim McKay to claim he’d “never seen anything like it.” Johncock masterfully covered Mears’ last-lap passing attempt in Turn 1, then outran the 1979 race-winner to the finish line. Their margin at the checkered flag was a then-record 0.16-seconds, still the seventh-closest finish ever.
Johncock later said he was fortunate to win, as he hit an unfamiliar bump low in Turn 3 on the 200th and last lap that pushed his car up the track and gave Mears an opportunity to gain ground.
“I pretty near lost it,” Johncock told The Indianapolis Star in 2016. “Ask Rick; he saw it (because) he was right there. I had never run that low before in Turn 3, but I knew I had to if I was going to be able to stay in the throttle. It was just a little rougher down there than I expected.”
The 1973 Indy 500 was one of tragedy and poor weather, with rain postponing the race two days. Johncock started 11th in the No. 20 STP Double Oil Filter Special Eagle/Offenhauser and grabbed his first lead on Lap 40. Soon after, teammate Swede Savage and crew member Armando Teran were involved in separate horrifying accidents.
Johncock, who led 64 laps, was in front of Bill Vukovich II when rain ended the race on Lap 133. With the annual Victory Banquet canceled, Johncock and his Patrick crew “celebrated” with hamburgers at a local Burger Chef restaurant after visiting Savage in the hospital.
Johncock properly celebrated following his 1982 victory, and Mears said he never felt so good finishing second. “I remember thinking during the race that if we can’t win it would be great to see him win,” Mears said.
After watching replays of the duel with Mears, Johncock said, “It gives you goosebumps…(that) well, I did it again!”
Johncock’s “hard-charging, no-nonsense style of racing” was noted by J. Douglas Boles, IMS and INDYCAR president.
“While his 1973 Indianapolis 500 victory was overshadowed by tragedy, that race was an inflection point for safety, leading to a vital shift in track engineering and regulations,” Boles said. “Gordon was unable to truly celebrate his first win, so that made his second win in 1982, following a thrilling duel with Rick Mears, all the more memorable. His victory is one of the iconic moments in the history of the Speedway.
“Remembered as much for his quiet life away from racing, Gordon left a lasting impact on the world of motorsports. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends.”
Championship NTT IndyCar Series team-owner Chip Ganassi was a teammate of Johncock’s at Patrick Racing during the 1980s. Ganassi was a five-time starter in the Indianapolis 500 and fastest rookie qualifier at IMS in 1982.
“I could tell a quick story about my old teammate pal,” Ganassi, 68, said during a ZOOM conference earlier this week. “We were in Las Vegas in 1983, and it was just after the Summer Olympics, I think, which were in ’82. We were at Caesars Palace racing (on a parking lot circuit), and between sessions there were sort of all these…that was one of the first races where there were celebrities walking around and people you recognized. And Bart Conner was there, the gymnast. Remember he won a bunch of medals at the Olympics just recently.
“I said to Gordy, ‘Hey, look, man, there’s Bart Conner.’ And only Johncock could get away with saying this, in his own mild-mannered way. He said, ‘Who’s he drive for?’ Only Johncock could get away with saying that sort of (comment) at the time there were all these new young guys coming into the sport. I’ll never forget that about him.
“He was a good teammate, a great guy to be around. I spent a lot of time with him and the STP people and Richard Petty back in the day there when all of us were STP sponsored. Really special to have an intro to INDYCAR racing through those guys. I’ll never forget it.
“I most recently saw him, it’s been a while, up at Michigan, up at MIS, I think, at a NASCAR race when I was up there. Maybe five years ago or so I saw him. I talked to him about six months ago, and yeah, he’ll be sorely missed. Great guy.”
As one of the top Midwest drivers traveling east, Johncock’s resume at Oswego Speedway included three feature victories and 11 top-five finishes wheeling low-slung/high-powered Supermodifieds between 1962 and 1963. An historic 5/8-mile paved oval, Oswego Speedway widely is known as the “Indy of the East.”
After a successful stint in Sprint Cars, Johncock’s INDYCAR career began in 1964 with a dirt race in Springfield, Ill., and it didn’t take him long to display true talent. Johncock placed fifth as a rookie in the 1965 Indy 500 driving a front-engine roadster, in a race that saw five rookies finish in the top nine. He won for the first time nine races later at The Milwaukee Mile. Johncock also scored the first of his 20 career poles that year.
Johncock started his own team in 1967, joining Houston native A.J. Foyt Jr. as the sport’s only owner/driver. Johncock won six races during a three-year span.
Johncock nearly won a few more Indianapolis 500s. He finished third in 1976 and 1978, and was fourth on two other occasions (1966 and 1974). In 1977, Johncock was leading Foyt, the eventual winner, with 16 laps remaining when his car’s engine crankshaft broke. He had led 129 laps.
Johncock’s INDYCAR career spanned 262 starts over 25 seasons. He actually retired twice, the first time during the opening week of 500 practice in 1985. He served as a commentator on the IMS Radio Network for that race. Two years later, he replaced the injured Jim Crawford and finished 22nd.
Johncock drove in his last 500 in 1992, retiring on Lap 60 with engine failure. He officially finished 29th. His 24 starts in the race rank fifth among all drivers, tied with three-time race-winner Johnny Rutherford of Fort Worth, Texas, and Scott Dixon of New Zealand. Rutherford joined Patrick Racing’s lineup during the 1983–1985 seasons, competing alongside Johncock, Ganassi and Bruno Giacomelli of Italy.
Johncock led a combined 339 laps in the Indy 500, which stands 15th all-time. He also was one of the last open-wheel drivers to have competed in front- and rear-engine Indy cars.
Johncock was successful in stock car racing, too, competing in 21 of NASCAR’s top-division races. He made three starts in the Daytona 500, NASCAR’s Super Bowl, qualifying fifth in 1973. Johncock recorded three top-five finishes in NASCAR, highlighted by a fourth in the 1973 Firecracker 400 at Daytona International Speedway. He also won a pole at Atlanta Motor Speedway that season.
After Johncock’s second retirement, his focus turned to his timber business in South Branch, Mich., located 200 miles north of Detroit. Johncock enjoyed such a quiet life away from racing that some employees were surprised to learn he had been a race car driver, much less a two-time Indy 500 winner.
Johncock kept most of his racing memorabilia in his basement, although his two winner’s plaques have shared a wall with artwork of the 1982 win, the race’s checkered flag and a stuffed deer head in his living room. He seldom attended the 500 after retiring.
“It was a job I used to have,” Johncock once said of racing. “Now I have a different job.”
Johncock was inducted into the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame in 1997 and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1999.
Johncock is survived by his wife, Sue; three daughters (Patsy, Pamilee, Peggy); two sons (Gordon Jr., Wally); stepdaughter (Valerie) and 12 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
