1,000 Greatest Drivers: Bill Vukovich/Gordon Johncock/Louis Meyer
Keepin' it 300.
I was gonna paywall this but I’ll remove it, because it is almost 4 in the morning and I want to go to bed. I believe with this post I have now finished 300 driver entries, making the list 30% complete but I might have miscounted and there are obviously some of the earlier columns I’m going to want to rewrite. I didn’t want to write a long intro, but I also wanted to write three today and the final three (Mauri Rose/Al Unser/Rick Mears) tomorrow to complete all 21 Indy 500 drivers I had scheduled. This leaves only two Indy 500 winners who are locks on my list who I haven’t written about: Emerson Fittipaldi who I have scheduled for a different part of the year because I don’t really consider him an IndyCar driver first and Felix Rosenqvist, who just won, so he should probably wait. Obviously, there are still some other Indy 500 winners I will probably list who aren’t locks. Thank you and good night.
BILL VUKOVICH……………………..USA
Born: December 13, 1918
Died: May 30, 1955
Best year: 1954
Best drive: 1954 Indianapolis 500
Arguably the greatest Indy 500 driver in history, Vukovich was the son of Serbian immigrants. His father was originally a police officer and carpenter, but eventually became a sharecropper and bought a vineyard after Vukovich’s birth. When a weak harvest resulted in the family’s property being foreclosed, his father committed suicide two days before Vukovich’s 14th birthday. Bill eventually dropped out of high school once he had to become a breadwinner. He caught the racing bug at age seven when he attended IndyCar races at the short-lived Fresno, California wooden board track.
After begging numerous car owners for driving opportunities, future IndyCar constructor Fred Gerhardt agreed and Vukovich won his fourth start in 1936 before switching to midgets in 1938. When racing resumed after World War II, he won back-to-back United Racing Association titles in 1945 and 1946, the 1948 Turkey Night Grand Prix, and the 1950 AAA National Midget Championship. He first became an IndyCar regular in 1951 before emerging as a star in 1952 after he replaced Mauri Rose at Howard Keck’s team and stopped racing midgets.
In the 1952 Indy 500, Vukovich led 150 laps until his steering arm broke with nine laps remaining, triggering a crash that handed Troy Ruttman the win. Vukovich also won two dirt races at Detroit and Denver for J.C. Agajanian that year, but he rarely raced outside Indianapolis afterward. In 1953, he won from the pole and led 195 laps in staggering heat, but I’m more impressed with his 1954 win because he started 19th. Vukovich entered the 1955 race as the overwhelming favorite and was leading on Lap 57 when Rodger Ward broke an axle and flipped. While trying to avoid him, Al Keller spun into Johnny Boyd, who collected Vukovich, vaulting his car over the catchfence and into a terrifying series of barrelrolls before it landed upside down and on fire atop some spectators’ cars parked at the Speedway. He died of a basilar skull fracture, becoming the second defending champion after Floyd Roberts to die in the subsequent race. The Vukovich name continued as Bill Vukovich II was an IndyCar winner, while Billy Vukovich III became the first third-generation Indy 500 starter before a fatal sprint car crash at Bakersfield.
Despite only making five starts, Vukovich’s 485 Indy 500 laps led rank ninth all time, and no other driver led the most laps three times in a row or been the TNL four times in a row. While many consider Vukovich the best IndyCar driver ever, I can’t agree. Too many IndyCar fans seem to believe that only Indy 500 performances matter and the other races don’t count. I disagree so I tend to rate Indy specialists lower than drivers who dominated the entire schedule like Jimmy Bryan. Additionally, Europe had stronger competition than the US in the ‘50s, which explains why I gave him no top five seasons. Even if he might have been something of a one-trick pony, arguably no one was better at that trick.
Year-by-year: 1946: C-, 1948: C-, 1950: C, 1952: E, 1953: E, 1954: E, 1955: C+
GORDON JOHNCOCK……………….USA
Born: August 5, 1936
Best year: 1976
Best drive: 1968 Langhorne 150 at Langhorne Speedway
Johncock won two Indy 500s and one IndyCar title during the period when the balance of power in IndyCar racing shifted from USAC to CART. Initially a supermodified driver, he became an IndyCar regular in 1965, winning his first race at Milwaukee that year for the Weinberger & Weiseck team. After a winless 1966, Johncock launched his own team, joining A.J. Foyt as the only active owner-driver. Despite this risky move, he won twice every year from 1967-1969. I’m most impressed by his win at Langhorne in 1968 because it was the most dangerous track on the schedule and he outdueled that year’s dominant driver Bobby Unser. However, after losing his sponsorship from Gilmore Broadcasting in 1970, he was forced to shut down his team.
After a couple disastrous seasons, a bankruptcy, and a divorce, Johncock reemerged with Patrick Racing in 1973. He earned the team’s first win in what many consider the worst Indy 500 as his teammate Swede Savage was badly injured in a fiery crash while his other teammate Graham McRae’s crewman attempted to rescue Savage before being struck and killed by a fire truck coming to Savage’s aid. Johncock dominated but didn’t celebrate while Savage died 33 days later. Nonetheless, this launched Patrick’s run as one of the top IndyCar teams. Johncock and Savage’s replacement Wally Dallenbach both won three races in 1973, but Johncock ultimately proved far superior, beating Dallenbach 21-9 in finishes, 12-5 in wins, and 1857-677 in laps led as teammates. He won the 1976 USAC title while Dallenbach went winless, and arguably was even more dominant in 1977 in most statistics relating to leading and on-track passing. In 1979, he won the first CART race at Phoenix.
Although the 1982 Indy 500 started tragically as Gordon Smiley, another former Johncock teammate, was killed in qualifying, race day proved to be a happier one as Johncock held off a substantially faster Rick Mears by .16 second in the then-closest Indy 500 finish. After an injury at Michigan in 1983, Johncock had a lackluster 1984 season before only making sporadic 500-mile race appearances afterward. Upon retiring in 1992, Johncock focused on farming and the timber business after purchasing Quimby Lumber, activities he claimed to enjoy more than racing.
Johncock is now underrated primarily because he eschewed the limelight but also because he receives too little credit for making Patrick a powerhouse. Throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, Pat Patrick’s team was seen as Roger Penske’s chief rival, but Penske won Indy 500s and championships with numerous drivers while Patrick typically struggled without Johncock or Emerson Fittipaldi, and Johncock vastly outperformed his predecessor, eventual three-time Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford. Johncock is also sneakily versatile for a driver who peaked in an era exclusively consisting of superspeedways, having won on both road courses and dirt tracks. He also occasionally competed in stock cars, winning two USAC Stock Car races and one IROC race. He really isn’t hyped enough, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Open wheel model: #464 of 931 (-.058)
Teammate head-to-heads: 42-20 (2-6 vs. Mario Andretti, 2-0 vs. Tom Bagley, 1-0 vs. Scott Brayton, 21-9 vs. Wally Dallenbach, 0-1 vs. Emerson Fittipaldi, 1-0 vs. Stan Fox, 2-1 vs. Chip Ganassi, 10-1 vs. Steve Krisiloff, 0-1 vs. John Paul, Jr., 0-1 vs. Johnny Rutherford, 1-0 vs. Swede Savage, 1-0 vs. Dick Simon, 1-0 vs. Gordon Smiley)
Stock car model: N/A
Teammate head-to-heads: 1-3 (0-1 vs. Darel Dieringer, 1-2 vs. Bobby Unser)
Year-by-year: 1964: C-, 1965: C+, 1966: C+, 1967: E, 1968: E-, 1969: E, 1970: C, 1972: C, 1973: E, 1974: E, 1975: E, 1976: E, 1977: E, 1978: E-, 1979: E, 1980: C, 1981: C, 1982: E-, 1983: C-
LOUIS MEYER………………………...USA
Born: July 21, 1904
Died: October 7, 1995
Best year: 1928
Best drive: 1928 Indianapolis 500
The son of a bicycle racer who emigrated from France, Meyer was born in Yonkers but moved to California in his early childhood. Initially, his elder brother Eddie Meyer, Jr. was regarded more highly after winning the 1926 AAA Pacific Big Car Championship while Louis was seen as more of an engineer than a driver, but Louis went on to far eclipse his brother. Nonetheless, Eddie’s connections aided him and Frank Elliott hired him as an engineer for the 1926 Indy 500. The next year, Meyer served as Wilbur Shaw’s chief mechanic and relief-drove his car for 53 laps, but he wasn’t yet highly regarded as a driver.
All that changed when out of the blue despite minimal driving experience, Meyer became the third consecutive rookie Indy 500 winner in 1928 after Frank Lockhart and George Souders. Meyer led only the last 19 laps after Tony Gulotta’s fuel line clogged. He was leading in 1929 until his car stalled for seven minutes on his final pit stop, handing the win to Ray Keech. However, Keech was killed two weeks later in a crash at Altoona. Although Keech was leading when the race was stopped, Meyer was handed the win since Keech didn’t finish, which effectively handed Meyer the title. The new “Junk Formula” of 1930 adversely affected Meyer’s trajectory, but he won at Indy again in 1933 by five laps, which also made him the first three-time champion.
His record-setting third Indy win in 1936 came from 28th (tying Ray Harroun for the worst starting position for a winner). That race introduced several traditions as starting with Meyer, all winners would receive milk, the Borg-Warner Trophy, and the pace car. He retired after being ejected from the car in a crash in the 1939 Indy 500 with three laps remaining. However, he remained heavily active as an engineer. He and Dale Drake purchased the Offenhauser engine program after World War II, which had a near-monopoly on the field for the next two decades and won every Indy 500 from 1946-1964 until rear-engine formula cars eventually made it obsolete. Meyer sold his interest in the business at that point and instead began developing the Ford engine that overtook the Offy before Ford withdrew its factory involvement.
The main thing that stands out about Meyer’s driving career is his good fortune. Several of Meyer’s contemporaries like Keech, Billy Arnold, Bob Carey, and Bill Cummings seemed more naturally talented, but Meyer reaped the benefits primarily because he was the only big star to survive the era. I honestly am more impressed by his engineering, because typically he inherited the lead after other drivers dropped out (he had only 2 TNL despite 8 wins) so he primarily won because of his cars’ reliability, but since he did design the engines, he still deserves credit. However, I prefer to rate the more dominant drivers over plodding, methodical drivers who primarily benefit from others’ misfortune, which is why I’ve rated him lower than you might think.
Year-by-year: 1928: 4, 1929: E, 1930: C+, 1931: E-, 1933: E, 1935: C+, 1936: E, 1937: C+, 1939: E-