Kevin Cogan Crash
On race day, Kevin Cogan started from the middle of the front row, next to pole-sitter Mears, and A.J. Foyt. As the field approached the start/finish line to start the race, Cogan suddenly swerved right, touching and bouncing off of A.J. Foyt's car. He then slid directly into the path of, and collected, Mario Andretti. Deeper in the field, the cars started to check-up. A fast-moving Dale Whittington nearly collected Geoff Brabham, lost control, spun across the track and ran into the back of Roger Mears. Both cars were eliminated. Bobby Rahal also reported getting hit from behind, but was undamaged. The green flag had not come out, and the race was immediately red flagged.
Cogan's shocking accident took out four cars, including himself. Foyt's team was able to make repairs, and pushed his car out for the restart attempt. Meanwhile, Andretti and Foyt were furious and outspoken about their displeasure with Cogan. Andretti shunned Cogan's attempts to explain himself with a light shove.
Andretti on live radio and television made the comment:
| “ | This is what happens when you have children doing a man's job up front. | ” |
Back in the garage area, Andretti complained about Cogan's abilities, claiming that Cogan was "looking for trouble," that he "couldn't handle the responsibilities of the front row," and that the Penske car he was driving was "too good for him."
The commonly outspoken Foyt also chimed in during comments to ABC-TV's Chris Economaki with:
| “ | ...he ran right square into my goddamned left front......'Coogin' | ” |
After he had cooled off, Foyt brushed it off a little saying "the guy pulled a stupid trick" and then back in the garage area of the crash and of Cogan that:
| “ | It was a stupid deal. The guy had his head up his ass. | ” |
Johnny Rutherford and Bobby Unser later placed some blame of the incident on the polesitter Rick Mears, for bringing the field down at such a slow pace. Director of competition Roger McCluskey mentioned an overwhelming disdain from the drivers about the poor pace set at the start. Mears contended that his intentions were to keep the same pace, rather than radically speed up and slow down. Gordon Johncock pointed out that Andretti had jumped the start, and could have avoided the spinning car of Cogan had he been lined up properly in the second row. Neither observation gained much attention.
Read more about this topic: 1982 Indianapolis 500
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