Cogan Caught in the Switch : He Wasn’t Prepared for Drag Race at End

Kevin Cogan has driven dune buggies and go-karts, as well as all manner of open-wheel race cars, but there is no drag racing in his driving background.

That little educational lack probably cost Cogan dearly Saturday in the Indianapolis 500.

Accomplished drag racers know how to anticipate the start, how to mash the accelerator just an instant before the light turns green, how to beat an opponent out of the starting hole.

With five miles left, the Redondo Beach driver found himself in a drag race with Bobby Rahal. He didn’t win the drag race. He also didn’t win the 500.

Rahal beat him out of the hole. And Rahal won the 500.

“Basically, Bobby just got the jump on me and beat me down into Turn 1,” Cogan said. “I think he got on the gas before I did.”

Precisely, and for those who appreciate correctness, it provided the wrong result to this 70th running of the race that made Indianapolis semi-famous.

Wasn’t it Cogan who only 11 laps earlier had made the gutsiest move of the race? Wasn’t it Cogan who had blown by Rahal just seconds after Rahal had blown by leader Rick Mears? Wasn’t it Cogan who had come within a hair of hitting the wall trying to hold off the still-charging Rahal? And wasn’t it Cogan, blamed by Mario Andretti and so many others for the accident at the start of the 1982 Indy, who finally was going to vindicate himself?

With seven laps to go, a mere 17 1/2 miles, the victory was Cogan’s for the taking. It was in the bag.

Then, in the finest traditions of racing, the bag ripped.

Hollander Arie Luyendyk, running an unspectacular 11th, suddenly assumed a very high profile when he ran over something that punctured his right rear tire coming out of the fourth turn.

“It snapped away and I spun around,” Luyendyk said of his suddenly wild car. “I’m looking ahead of myself and I’m thinking, ‘I’m heading straight for the pit wall!’ I turned a little bit and went right to the inside wall. I hit the brakes, too, of course.”

It wasn’t a bad accident, as accidents here go, but the timing was most unfortunate for Cogan, who suddenly had a yellow flag in front of him and his mirrors full of Rahal.

“I was aware that I was a major factor in the race,” Luyendyk said. “I saw them trying to clean everything up in a hurry. I actually felt a little (bleep) about it. But that’s oval racing. In the yellow flag, the race neutralizes.”

Neutralizes may not be just the proper term, for under Condition Yellow, the leader is required to slow his pace and the driver immediately behind him is allowed to camp on his tail.

“I thought, of all the things I didn’t want to happen, that was it,” Cogan said of the yellow flag.

Everyone else in the field, of course, thought that such a development was quite marvelous, Rahal particularly so. “I was glad to see it,” he said. “The red light was flickering on my fuel gauge.” That was an indication that he was running a tad low on fuel, and running at lower speeds under the yellow reduces fuel consumption.

Running under the yellow also gave Rahal a chance to fix his sights squarely on Cogan, who, as the leader, had to concern himself with controling things behind the pace car.

ABC announcer Sam Posey, himself a former driver, tried to engage Cogan in TV conversation during the yellow, an invitation that Cogan casually but firmly declined, suggesting that he was a little busy. Later, just as casually but just as firmly, too, Cogan declined an opportunity to criticize Posey for his lack of consideration.

“There was just a lot going on,” Cogan said. “I pretty much knew it wasn’t going to finish under the yellow. It looked to me like the car that was in the pit lane had been moved very quickly, and here they don’t tell you when you pick up so I just wanted to keep my eye on the pace car.”

Rahal, too, was quite aware that there would be no yellow-flag finish. “I think they would have had a mutiny in the grandstand if they finished on the yellow,” he said.

So both had to prepare themselves for the green flag. “The rules basically are that the leader of the pack starts the field where he feels comfortable or safe doing it,” Cogan said. “You’re not supposed to start it before Turn 3--sometime before 4, between 3 and 4 if you want. The pace car turns off its lights (when the green flag is imminent).

“When I came around the fourth turn, I just put my foot down. That’s how you restart these things.”

Right, and nobody knew that any better than Rahal. Mears saw his move from behind. “Basically, he just got a good jump,” Mears said. “He was in Kevin’s tow, too. That gives you just a little bit more force.”

Luyendyk, too, saw it from his vantage point and approved. “It was a good move,” he said. “A good racing move.”

Good for Rahal, bad for Cogan.

“I’m extremely disappointed, obviously, but I think anybody would feel that way in the same position,” Cogan said. “It’s the biggest loss I ever had.”

“Bigger than 1982?” someone wanted to know.

“I don’t give a (bleep) for 1982,” he said, supplying all the vindication he apparently considered necessary.

“It’s almost kind of like basketball. It doesn’t really matter what happens till the last two minutes most of the time. . . . We run hard all day long, but it seems like it always comes down to the last few laps. It’s kind of interesting that this year it was a horse race right to the very end.”

Basketball? Horse racing? Nice sports, to be sure. Funny, though. He didn’t mention drag racing.