Cogan Not Bluffing : Despite His Tough Luck at Indianapolis, He Plans to Return After Shattered Leg Heals

If Kevin Cogan were a normal person, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway would probably be the last place in the world he would want to see again.

But race drivers are not normal people and Kevin Cogan is a race driver.

So he sits at home in Palos Verdes Estates, looking out over the Pacific, and waits impatiently while a leg shattered at Indianapolis last May 26 takes time healing--with the help of a metal rod from the top of his hip bone to the top of the knee, held in place by one huge screw in the hip and two smaller ones in the knee.

The surgery on the right thigh, which was splintered near the hip in four lengthwise pieces, plus a broken right shoulder and forearm, took Dr. Terry Trammell 7 1/2 hours to complete. The bones were so fragmented that lock wire was used to hold pieces in place.

So what does Cogan think about while undergoing therapy that may last the rest of the year and perhaps into 1992?

“I had a couple of teams talking with me about testing, and then racing, next year, but now I have to wait to heal up,” Cogan said. “I hope I’ll be there (at Indianapolis) next year. It’s amazing. I always seem to be able to go so fast there, then some crazy thing happens. That’s my goal, to get back there again.”

Cogan, 35, has been going to Indy every year since 1981 and it would be difficult to find anyone with a more heart-breaking record.

The frustration started in his rookie year. Cogan qualified 12th and finished fourth, but lost the prestigious rookie-of-the year award to Josele Garza, who led briefly before crashing and finishing 28th.

“The other guy had a good PR man and I didn’t,” Cogan said.

The next year he set a track record of 204.638 m.p.h. in one of Roger Penske’s cars and sat in the middle of the front row after teammate Rick Mears bettered his record later in the day.

But on race day, he didn’t even make it to the starting line. His car fishtailed out of control as the field approached the start, first bumping A.J. Foyt and then careening across the track in front of Mario Andretti.

“Something broke in my car and when Andretti screamed about my not having enough experience to be in a front-row car, Penske never said a word in backing me up,” Cogan said. “No one remembered that I’d finished fourth the year before and I’d finished third at Phoenix in the race just before Indy.”

Worse than that, he lost his ride with Penske, who runs the winningest team in Indy car racing.

In 1986, driving for Pat Patrick, Cogan led the 500 for 13 laps late in the race and appeared to have the checkered flag in sight until Arie Luyendyk’s car slid out of control and brought out a yellow flag. Only six laps remained but when racing resumed with two laps to go, Bobby Rahal swept past Cogan and won in the closest three-car finish in Indy history as Cogan held off Mears for second.

“If Arie doesn’t bring out the yellow (caution flag), there was no way Rahal or Mears could have caught me,” Cogan said. “I had a good lead on them, but I knew I was in trouble when I saw the yellow because whenever I had put my foot down hard on a restart, the car barely moved. Once it got up to speed it was no problem, but I couldn’t hold off Rahal.”

Two years ago, Cogan made only two laps before being involved in one of the Speedway’s most spectacular accidents. Coming off the fourth turn, he spun into the inside retaining wall, then careened into the end of the pit wall where his car exploded. Cogan, upside down in what remained of the tub, slid several hundred yards down pit row before stopping.

He walked away with cuts and bruises.

Then he tangled with Roberto Guerrero last May in an accident 25 laps into the race that did not appear nearly as threatening--but suffered massive injuries to his right side.

“I was pretty upset at the time, and I still am, having to go through all of this for something that never should have happened,” Cogan said. “I felt I had a solid shot at winning. I was one of the fastest cars on the track and I was just biding my time early in the race when I get knocked out by a lapped car.”

Cogan, who qualified on the second day, started in the sixth row, even though his qualifying speed of 222.844 m.p.h. in a Lola-Buick was fifth fastest among the 33 starters. In the first 12 laps, he moved from 16th to seventh and was preparing to make a run at the leaders when disaster struck.

“I had pulled alongside Roberto (Guerrero) in the front straight and turned in real low (in the first turn) to make sure he had plenty of room,” Cogan said. “He moved up to the right and I went low to lap him when he suddenly came back across the track and his rear wheels ran over the front of my car.

“I was really shocked when I realized for sure he was going to hit me. He was a lap down and I don’t know what he was thinking about. Either he didn’t see me, and I can’t believe that because I had the brightest (colored) car in the race and I was alongside him, or he was trying to block me, which would be stupid because I was lapping him.

“When he hit me, the car really jumped. I’ve looked at the films and the nose of my car was down on the yellow line (at the track apron), that’s how much room I gave him. He had moved well to the right at first and it was almost as if he’d changed his mind about letting me through.”

Guerrero’s version: “We were racing side by side for a whole lap. I left him the same amount of room as I had in Turns 2, 3 and 4. All of a sudden I felt a little bump in the rear and that was it.”

The little bump sent both cars slamming into the outside wall, from where they rebounded to the infield grass. Guerrero climbed out of his Lola-Alfa with only a bruised shoulder, but Cogan had to be cut out of his mangled car, the entire right side of which was totally destroyed.

“I don’t know what got to me the most, sitting there knowing I’d been knocked out of a race I had a chance to win, or sitting there knowing I was going to be laid up for a long, long time,” Cogan reflected.

That was nearly three months ago. Now he is hoping and waiting at home with his wife, Tracy, and their two young sons.

“I’m in a wheelchair and about to get some crutches, but the doctors say I have to be real careful not to jar the leg or I’ll have to start all over again,” he said. “I’m working with a therapist, but there’s not a whole lot I can do with the right leg. I get in the pool, up to my neck, and walk on the bottom. I don’t put but maybe nine or 10 pounds’ weight on the leg. That’s almost nothing, but they’re afraid if I put more weight on it, it will break again.”

Cogan tries to keep his mind occupied working on real estate deals, but he doesn’t watch much racing.

“I tried to watch the Michigan 500 but it was discouraging to see only about five cars running at the end (seven to be exact, but two of them were 30 laps behind),” he said. “Something’s going to have to change if racing is going to continue growing. Some way, CART is going to have to get more sponsors interested. Without them, it’s impossible to have cars. Quality cars, that is.

“That’s what John Menard gave me this year at Indy, a quality car. People don’t always take me serious when I say I had a real shot at winning, but the way that Buick was running the last week, I was definitely going to be in the hunt. I had been second-quickest all month. Only Emmo (Emerson Fittipaldi) had a faster time and on the morning of the time trials we had exactly the same time, which was more than a mile and a half quicker than the next guy.

“When we went out to qualify, we figured the only car we had to beat for the pole was Emmo’s, but the track (conditions) had changed after Randy Lewis’ crash. It was greasy and crummy. I was going about 220 on my first warmup lap, but the next time around, when I tried to go flat out in the third corner, I lost a lot of traction so we pulled in and decided to wait until later in the day.

“Right after we pulled in, Penske pulled Emmo out of line. They were going to wait, too. At that time there was no forecast of rain at any time, but you know what happened.”

Late that afternoon, Cogan, Fittipaldi, Luyendyk and Gary Bettenhausen--all the fastest cars--were waiting to qualify when it began to sprinkle. That left the front row of Mears, Foyt and Mario Andretti intact and the first four rows filled with many slower cars.

“We were like the others, we could easily have made the front row even under the poor conditions, but we were greedy,” Cogan said. “We all wanted the pole.”

In Cogan’s second qualifying attempt the next morning, the engine blew. That left his car with two strikes against it and only one chance remaining.

“The crew really detuned the engine,” he said. “They put in a tall gear that turned very low revs. It probably cost us two miles per hour, but we couldn’t risk going real fast because if it blew the engine we’d miss the race.

“I wasn’t even trying for speed and still we were fifth fastest. I couldn’t wait for the race to start. I hadn’t been in but two races in two years and I was eager to make a good showing and show everyone that I hadn’t dropped out of sight. I figured race day was going to be a showcase day for me.

“And it would have been, too. Twenty laps after my accident, Emmo was leading and I’d passed him and Arie (Luyendyk) on the first lap and Arie ends up finishing third.

“From being the fastest car on the track to being out of the race was a real nightmare.”