1982 Indianapolis 500

The 66th Indianapolis 500 was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, May 30, 1982. Gordon Johncock, who had previously won the rain-shortened 1973 race, was the winner. Rick Mears finished second by a margin of 0.16 seconds, the closest finish in Indy 500 history to that point.

Starting grid
Note: Following the Kevin Cogan crash on the pace lap, the cars of Cogan, Mario Andretti, Roger Mears, and Dale Whittington were eliminated. When the field was lined up for a second attempt to start the race, none of the four cars joined the field. Holes were left in the grid as those four spots were left vacant, with the first two rows conspicuously holding only two cars each, and only 29 cars took the green flag.


 * Yellow indicates the driver was eliminated during the Cogan crash, and did not start the race
 * Green indicates the driver was involved in the Cogan crash, but managed to start the race

Failed to Qualify

 * Bill Alsup (#2)
 * Pat Bedard (#36)
 * Tom Bigelow (#56, #73)
 * Scott Brayton (#37)
 * Phil Caliva (#38)
 * Steve Chassey (#11, #64)
 * Bill Engelhart (#59)
 * Dick Ferguson
 * Bob Frey (#64)
 * Tom Frantz (#77)
 * Spike Gehlhausen (#47)
 * Tom Gloy (#80)
 * Tom Grunnah
 * Ken Hamilton (#63)
 * Bob Harkey (#79)
 * Hurley Haywood (#34)
 * Gary Irvin (#90)
 * Jerry Karl (#32)


 * Sheldon Kinser
 * Steve Krisiloff (#34, #72)
 * Phil Krueger (#89)
 * Lee Kunzman
 * Bob Lazier (#34)
 * Greg Leffler (#43)
 * Ray Lipper (#73)
 * Al Loquasto (#86)
 * John Mahler (#92)
 * John Martin (#17)
 * Jim McElreath (#98)
 * Chip Mead (#49)
 * Mike Mosley (#48)
 * Teddy Pilette (#67
 * Roger Rager (#72)
 * Larry Rice
 * Tim Richmond
 * Joe Saldana (#58)

NOTE: The #35 Intermedics Innovator team formed an alliance with Patrick Racing;  George Snider subsequently qualified the team's backup car into the race.
 * Rusty Schmidt (#27)
 * Vern Schuppan (#18, #37, #99)
 * Billy Scott (#88)
 * Dick Simon (#22)
 * Gordon Smiley (#35)
 * Jan Sneva (#92)
 * Sammy Swindell (#64)
 * Bobby Unser (#55)
 * Leroy Van Conett (#46)
 * Dean Vetrock (#71)
 * Rich Vogler
 * Bill Vukovich II (#11, #18)
 * Desiré Wilson (#33)