lit a candle 8h agoMy dad had the 1982 finish taped over and over, Johncock holding off Mears by a car length. We watched it every Memorial Day when I was a kid in our living room in Spokane, him yelling like it was live every single time. 90 years old. Damn.
Their story
Gordon Walter Johncock, the unassuming Michigan farmer who became a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and the 1976 USAC national champion, died on 28 September 2026 at his home in South Branch, Michigan. He was 90. Motorsport outlets reported that he passed peacefully; no cause of death was made public. Born…
Gordon Walter Johncock, the unassuming Michigan farmer who became a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner and the 1976 USAC national champion, died on 28 September 2026 at his home in South Branch, Michigan. He was 90. Motorsport outlets reported that he passed peacefully; no cause of death was made public.
Born on 5 August 1936 in Hastings, Michigan, Johncock grew up on a family farm where he was driving a John Deere tractor under his father Walter's eye by age five. He left high school at 16 to work the farm and later took construction jobs. Racing entered his life almost by chance. A neighbor, Wayne Landon, took him to dirt tracks near Lansing. In 1955 his cousin Nolan Johncock helped persuade local car builders Bob Varney and Wendell Day to put young Gordon in a supermodified. He was immediately quick. For roughly a decade he raced nearly every night across Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, and Canada, mostly for owner Mace Thomas, building a reputation as a natural short-track charger with nearly 150 feature wins before he ever sat in an Indy car.
He debuted in USAC Championship Car competition in 1964 and went full-time in 1965. That May he finished fifth as a rookie at Indianapolis in a Weinberger Homes Watson roadster, one of the last front-engine cars to crack the top five, in a rookie class that also included Mario Andretti and Al Unser. His first Champ Car win came at Milwaukee in August 1965. After a stint as an owner-driver with Gilmore Broadcasting support, financial strain and bankruptcy pushed him toward Pat Patrick's STP team. There he found his greatest success.
The 1973 Indianapolis 500 made him a winner and a survivor of one of the darkest Months of May. Rain, a start-line crash that injured Salt Walther and spectators, the fatal pit-lane accident that killed crew member Armando Teran, and the fiery crash that mortally injured teammate Swede Savage cast a shadow over the race. When rain finally ended the event after 133 laps, Johncock was declared the winner. The victory banquet was cancelled; he and his crew ate hamburgers and went to the hospital to see Savage, who died 33 days later. Johncock always insisted the win was earned, not gifted by the red flag: his STP Eagle-Offenhauser had led a race-high 64 laps.
He clinched the 1976 USAC Marlboro Championship Trail title at Phoenix, snatching the crown from Johnny Rutherford. He won the first race contested under CART sanction, the 1979 Jimmy Bryan 150 at Phoenix. In 1982 he produced the finish that defines his legend. In a Patrick Racing Wildcat-Cosworth he held off Rick Mears by 0.16 seconds, then the closest Indianapolis 500 finish in history and still among the closest ever. Mears later joked that he rewatched the tape to see if "this time I get around Gordy." Johncock also won the 1982 Michigan 500, completing two legs of the old Triple Crown, and took his final Indy car victory at Atlanta in 1983. Across 26 seasons and more than 260 starts he recorded 25 wins, 76 podiums, and 20 poles. He also made 21 NASCAR Cup starts, with best finishes of fourth, and raced in IROC.
He retired abruptly during practice week for the 1985 Indianapolis 500, saying the fun had gone and the cars had become too fast. He returned for selected races, finished sixth at Indianapolis in 1991 despite flu-like illness, and made his final start in the 1992 Indianapolis 500. After racing he poured his energy into timber and forestry in northern Michigan, eventually owning Johncock Forestry Products in South Branch, a sawmill and landscape-supply business he ran with his wife Sue, whom he married in 1990. He preferred the mill yard to the microphone. "To me, racing was a job," he told NBC Sports. Halls of fame agreed he was more than that: Michigan Motorsports Hall of Fame (1985), Michigan Sports Hall of Fame (1992), Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame (1997), International Motorsports Hall of Fame (1999), Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (2002), and USAC Hall of Fame (2025). In 2023 BorgWarner presented him a Baby Borg for the 50th anniversary of his 1973 win; he drove an IMS tour bus around the Speedway with his extended family.
Biography adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and cited racing histories; IndyStar/motorsport death reports 2026-09-28; NBC Sports (Bruce Martin) 2023; Autoweek (Jerry Bonkowski) 2023; Timberline Magazine; Motorsports Hal.
In their own words
“By far the biggest thrill of my racing career was winning Indianapolis in 1982. The way it happened, the competition, so many near wins after 1973 and it all came together.”
Recalling the 1982 Indy 500 duel with Rick Mears (NBC Sports, 2023)
“I always tried to do the right thing, didn't create a lot of controversy, be in trouble or things like that. I just done my own thing, went racing, and then when the race was over, I'd either get in an airplane or my motor home and drive home and went to work the next day.”
Autoweek interview on his reputation, May 2023
“To me, racing was a job.”
NBC Sports interview at his South Branch home, 2023
“I was a charger, but I was clean. Why would you not want to be clean? Why run people off the track and wreck them and all of that? I didn't drive that way. I drove to finish.”
On his driving style (NBC Sports, 2023)
“I done most of my talking with a steering wheel.”
On avoiding public appearances (NBC Sports Baby Borg coverage, 2023)
“I didn't feel that race was given to us. We were one of the fastest cars that day and ended up winning the race.”
Defending the rain-shortened 1973 Indy 500 win (Autoweek, 2023)
“You need to do something. If you don't have something to do, you're just gonna sit around and fade away.”
On continuing to work at the sawmill in his mid-80s (Autoweek, 2023)
“I've been living out of a suitcase, packing and unpacking, for 30 years, and it just about killed me to leave the ranch last week and come here. Racing has changed in the past few years, and the fun has gone.”
Retirement press conference, Indianapolis, May 1985 (Los Angeles Times)
Same tape, different house. RIP Gordon.