Gordon Johncock 1936-2026

Two-time Indy 500 winner Gordon Johncock has died at his home in South Branch, MI of natural causes. He was 90 years old.

Johncock got his start at age five behind the wheel of a John Deere tractor on the family farm in Hastings, MI. From those inauspicious beginnings he went on to start the Indy 500 24 times, winning twice – both with Patrick Racing – in 1973 and 1982.

Johncock’s career started in the late 1950s racing super-modifieds. He had most of his success on paved tracks, though he did get some memorable wins on the dirt. As a 19-year-old he began racing and winning Midwest Modified races at tracks like Louisville, Jackson, Lansing, Pinecrest, Ottawa, Kalamazoo and Eldora.

His first ‘500’ win was a 500-lap race on a quarter-mile paved oval in Galesburg, MI in 1958. In 1964, driving a USAC Sprint car, he set  half-mile world record at high-banked Winchester Speedway in Indiana, turning a blazing lap of 104.773 mph.

The transition to the big stage came under the brightest lights: Johncock was part of one of the Indy 500’s all-time greatest rookie fields in 1965, joining Mario Andretti, Billy Foster, Jerry Grant, Masten Gregory, Gordon Johncock, Bobby Johns, Arnie Knepper, Joe Leonard, Mickey Rupp, George Snider and Al Unser.

He started 14th and finished fifth behind Jim Clark, Parnelli Jones, Andretti and Al Miller. Johncock was driving one of only six front-engine cars in the field that day, and his fifth-place marked the last top-five finish for a roadster at the Brickyard.

Later that year, he won his first Indy car race at Milwaukee driving a rear-engine car after starting fifth and beating A.J. Foyt – who famously put his front-engine USAC dirt car pole.

The following year, he finished fourth, and actually had a shorter elapsed time than winner Graham Hil. But Johncock was caught up in a first lap accident, and wasn’t allowed to repair his car during the red flag.

In just his third year at the Speedway (1967) he started on the outside of the front row with Mario Andretti on the pole and Dan Gurney in the middle. He finished 12th on that occasion, and after a few years of frustrating results, his number finally came up at the Speedway for the first time in 1973. Although even then, it took three days for him to get the job done.

He started 11th and led 64 of 133 laps, with Bill Vukovich II in second as the only other driver on the lead lap. Rain delayed the start of the first day, followed by a horrific accident on the frontstretch which immediately brought out the red flag.

The next day, the cars were on the pace lap and a lap away from starting when the rains came again, ending the day before the race could start.

Finally on day three the rains temporarily stopped and the race was started… until the heavens opened again after 133 laps and the race was declared official.

His second win in 1982 was more satisfying. Starting fifth, he led 57 of 200 laps, but the highlight reel moment was his holding off a charging Rick Mears in the final stages to take the win by just 0.16s – at the time, the narrowest winning margin in Indy 500 history.

"By far the biggest thrill of my racing career was winning Indianapolis in 1982,” he said.

“The way it happened, the competition, so many near wins after 1973 and it all came together and the car lasted in 1982. Plus, I've got amazing respect for Rick Mears - one of the very best. He was never my teammate, but I think we could have been good ones.

“I think the more pressure that was on me during a race the better I did, and with the car pushing so bad and Rick on my tail, it was great. I'll never forget it. There are so many memories from that day - the crazy start, my final pit stop and winning by such a narrow margin – lastly pushing so hard the final laps with Rick in my mirrors.”

A relentlessly consistent 1976 – he was only off the podium twice, and one of those was a fifth place – added the IndyCar Series title to his resume.

In March 1977, after Indianapolis Motor Speedway was repaved the previous fall, Johncock unofficially became the first driver to break the 200mph barrier in a Goodyear tire test. However, official records can only be set during qualifying and the race, and in May, Tom Sneva became the first driver to officially break the 200mph barrier with the first two of his four qualifying laps topping the mark.

A third Indy win looked to be on the cards, but instead, the 1977 Indy 500 would come to be described by Johncock as the biggest disappointment of his career. He led 129 laps, and was leading the race on lap 184 when his crankshaft broke, allowing A.J. Foyt to slip past and become the event’s first four-time winner just 16 laps later.

His squeezed in a few more wins, the last coming in a Cosworth-powered Wildcat at the 1983 curtain-raiser at Atlanta, before retiring from full-time competition in 1985.

But he was tempted out of retirement for the 1991 Indy 500 to drive for Ron Hemelgarn, famously saying they "got me out of the field" of his Michigan farm. He started 33rd and finished sixth at the age of 54. He returned to the Brickyard for a final time in 1992, only to retire with an engine failure.

Outside of open-wheelers, Johncock ran the Daytona 500 in 1966, '67 and '73. His best finish was 29th in 1966, and his best start was fifth in 1973. He also won two USAC Stock Car races.

Johncock is enshrined in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1992), the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame (1997), the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1999) the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2002) and the USAC Hall of Fame (2025).

In 2023, Johncock received a ‘retro Baby Borg’ from BorgWarner to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his 1973 Indianapolis 500 win. The day started with a breakfast for family and close friends, followed by a tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and Gordon driving the IMS Museum tour bus around the track.

Later at Binkley’s Kitchen and Bar in Indianapolis he was presented the retro Baby Borg while wearing a red flannel shirt, as did the 75 attendees per guidance on the invitation: “Dress Attire – Johncock casual – flannel shirt and jeans.”

Away from racing, he loved farming and forestry business, and had moved in and out of that world since the mid-1960s. He owned Johncock Forestry Products in South Branch, MI since 2010.

Johncock is survived by his wife, Sue; three daughters (Patsy, Pamilee, Peggy), two sons (Gordon Jr., Wally); stepdaughters (Valerie and Traci); and 12 grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.