|| *Comments on the 1988 Indianapolis 500:* View the most recent comment <#27> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. RaceFanX posted: 04.09.2009 - 12:47 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rick Mears' third Indy 500 win 2. Pacer posted: 04.21.2009 - 6:03 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The pace car for this Indy 500 was an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Convertible. 3. Darrell posted: 05.23.2009 - 6:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Failed to Qualify: Scott Atchison (#55) Gary Bettenhausen (#46) Tom Bigelow (#77) Pancho Carter (#28) Dale Coyne (#39) Dick Ferguson (#27) Spike Gehlhausen (#87), John Jones (#12) Johnny Parsons (#36) Ed Pimm (#27) Gordon Johncock (#60) Harry Sauce (#36) George Snider (#84) 4. MegaRacer posted: 03.19.2010 - 2:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) What a month! Rick and Mario battling for top speed the first week of practice (even worrying Rick's then wife Chris). All Penske front row. Jim Crawford's heroic return to racing after smashing his legs in a head-on crash trying to qualify for the '87 race. He leads 8 laps and was originally scored 2nd before the scoring was settled (back when it took all night to go thru timing and scoring and race films). Roberto Guerrero returns to the track that nearly killed him in a testing crash the previous September when a tire smashed him on the head and knocked him into a 17 day coma. He only made it to turn 2 before Scotty Brayton (who 8 years later would lose his life in almost the exact same location) spun and collected Roberto. A tire bounced precariously close to Roberto's head before settling between he and Scotty's cars. 5. MegaRacer posted: 03.19.2010 - 3:01 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Another note on Crawford: he was still in obvious pain when May '88 rolled around and had to use a cane to walk around. On race day, his then wife Sheila was VERY pregnant with their son Geoffrey. He was born just days later. 6. RaceFanX posted: 04.05.2011 - 3:22 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Penske cars all had wheels with a fancy flush shiny metal cover on the hubs for this race. While it looked great Mears' Pennzoil car didn't handle right with the hubs so his crew took them off. His car was a rocket after that and he'd come back from a lap down to go on to win. He'd pass Al Unser for the win in traffic and cruise to victory. Danny Sullivan had the best car in the field until the Miller High Life ride broke and he ended up in the turn 1 wall. After Sullivan was gone Al Unser took the lead, Big Al led long enough to became Indy's all-time lap leader but Mears was took quick and a fifth win wasn't in the cards for defending Indy champion Unser. A late caution for debris, likely off Michael Andretti's 4th place Kraco #18, meant this race was the first time in 40 years the 500 ended under yellow. 7. Unser1 posted: 04.05.2011 - 3:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Rick Mears' pole run was the track's first qualifying effort above 220 MPH 8. Indycar1 posted: 12.06.2012 - 8:16 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Cautions for this race Laps 1-5 Car #2, 16, 91 Accident Turn 2 Laps 34-39 Car #81 Accident Turn 4 Laps 58-63 Car #14 Accident Turn 2 Laps 64-70 Car #71 Accident Turn 4 Laps 82-88 Car #35 Accident Turn 4 Laps 93-95 Debris Laps 102-106 Car #9 Accident Turn 1 Laps 109-111 Dead Rabbit On Track Laps 117-120 Car #17 Accident Turn 1 Laps 140-145 Car #6 Stopped On Track Laps 160-163 Car #23 Stopped On Track Laps 167-170 Car #48 Blew An Engine Laps 175-179 Car #29 Accident Turn 3 Laps 198-200 Debris 9. Eric posted: 04.15.2013 - 9:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) "Laps 109-111 Dead Rabbit On Track" Poor rabbit As for the race itself, another Rick Mears beatdown-fest, much like 1984 once his main challengers dropped out (in '84 it was Tom Sneva and Little Al, in '88 it was Danny Sullivan and Big Al) or had problems that cost them a lap. 10. Unser1 posted: 11.13.2014 - 6:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQ cars: John Jones- #12 Labatt's (owned by Frank Arciero) Johnny Parsons- #12, 14, 36 Labatt's, Copenhagen, Mergard / Conseco (owned by Frank Arciero) Ed Pimm- #27 Los Angeles Drywall Pancho Carter- #28, 82 Hardee's (owned by Machinist Union Racing Team) Harry Sauce- #36 Mergard / Conseco Dale Coyne- #39 Dale Coyne Racing (owned by Dale Coyne) Gary Bettenhausen- #46 Scheid Tire Centers Gordon Johncock- #50 RMR / STP Oil Treatment Scott Atchison- #55 Otter*Pops (owned by Machinist Union Racing Team) Tom Bigelow- #77 Performers, Inc. Spike Gehlhausen- #87 Indiana Carbon George Snider- #84 Calumet Farms (owned by A.J. Foyt) 11. Unser1 posted: 11.13.2014 - 6:31 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Al Unser hit the rabbit on the backstretch while leading and flung the poor thing backward where Rick Mears also ran it over. One hopes it didn't suffer. 12. Unser1 posted: 11.13.2014 - 7:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) DNQ Correction (found another picture: Gordon Johncock- #60 STP / Diamond Head Ranch (not that #50 previously listed) 13. Schroeder51 posted: 06.14.2015 - 10:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) First Indy 500 starts for Billy Vukovich III, Rocky Moran, Dominic Dobson, Tero Palmroth, and John Andretti. Last Indy 500 starts for Phil Krueger, Dick Simon, Howdy Holmes, Johnny Rutherford, and Steve Chassey. 14. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 02.01.2016 - 1:27 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Qualifying results: 1. Rick Mears-219.198 MPH 2. Danny Sullivan-216.214 MPH 3. Al Unser-215.270 MPH 4. Mario Andretti-214.692 MPH 5. Al Unser, Jr.-214.186 MPH 6. Arie Luyendyk-213.611 MPH 7. Scott Brayton-212.624 MPH 8. Emerson Fittipaldi-212.512 MPH 9. Derek Daly-212.295 MPH 10. Raul Boesel-211.058 MPH 11. Jim Crawford-210.564 MPH 12. Michael Andretti-210.183 MPH 13. Dominic Dobson-210.096 MPH 14. Randy Lewis-209.774 MPH 15. A. J. Foyt-209.696 MPH 16. Roberto Guerrero-209.632 MPH 17. Kevin Cogan-209.552 MPH 18. Tom Sneva-208.659 MPH 19. Stan Fox-208.579 MPH 20. Billy Vukovich III-208.545 MPH 21. Bobby Rahal-208.526 MPH 22. Johnny Rutherford-208.442 MPH 23. Tony Bettenhausen, Jr.-208.342 MPH 24. Phil Krueger-208.212 MPH 25. Tero Palmroth-208.001 MPH 26. Steve Chassey-207.951 MPH 27. John Andretti-207.894 MPH 28. Dick Simon-207.555 MPH 29. Teo Fabi-207.244 MPH 30. Ludwig Heimrath, Jr.-207.214 MPH 31. Rocky Moran-207.181 MPH 32. Rich Vogler-207.126 MPH 33. Howdy Holmes-206.970 MPH 15. JRacingFast posted: 05.25.2016 - 8:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Currently airing on ESPN CLASSIC It is also Paul Paige's first time calling the Indy 500 for ABC Sports 16. FordFanatic68 posted: 12.31.2016 - 7:29 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) 15 out of the 33 starters would finish the 500. First time the Delta Force theme was used for the intro (technically, it was first used in Time Trials). 17. Jolly Mean Giant posted: 03.22.2017 - 12:30 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First alternate: Gordon Johncock Second alternate: Rich Vogler (his backup car) Third alternate: Scott Atchison 18. RaceFanX posted: 05.16.2018 - 1:11 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Danny Sullivan's #9 in this race was the first Roger Penske-backed car entered at the Indianapolis 500 to have green as part of its paint scheme. Green has a bit of a reputation as a bad luck color in American racing so the Captain always resisted it until Miller asked him to include green pin striping as part of Sullivan's car here as was standard for their mostly gold-and-white Miller High Life entries. Sullivan of course ran great but the car broke and crashed out. While that was a bit of bad luck the success of other green race cars over the years has taken much of the stigma out of the color. 19. RaceFanX posted: 05.16.2018 - 1:20 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) An iconic racing brand makes its Indianapolis debut as Porsche, hot off winning seven 24 Hours of Le Mans in a row, comes to the Indianapolis 500 for the first time seeking to add of racing's ultimate jewels to its crown. Porsche's dreams of Indy glory quickly started turning into a nightmare right from the start of testing. The Stuttgart brand initially planned to enter a car with both its own chassis and engine design but after a few test runs with the Porsche chassis in late 1987 the team had to give up on the goal of a pure factory entry when the chassis turned out to be a total dog. Instead the team fielded a March chassis for its lone entrant, the Quaker State-backed #8 of former Indianapolis polesitter Teo Fabi as the Italian racer returned to the Brickyard for the first time since 1984 following a stint in Formula 1. The Porsche qualified mid-pack and wasn't a factor after an incident in the pits early in the race saw the car lose its left rear wheel and spin out, causing enough damage the #8 was retired shortly thereafter. Adding insult to injury two weeks after this race Porsche's Le Mans victory streak was snapped when their factory team was beaten by Jaguar. 20. RaceFanX posted: 10.20.2019 - 1:55 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Bump day for this 500 was dramatic as always with Scott Atchison surviving three attempts to bump him from the field before Ludwig Heimrath, Jr. put him on the trailer. Johnny Parsons, who didn't get in with his earlier attempts, was a late addition to A.J. Foyt's team but his effort to put one of Foyt's backup cars in the field ended in a crash while practicing it. Atchison almost got one last shot to qualify, with Heimrath's backup car, but the deal fell apart and he missed the grid. Late in the season Rich Vogler was on the bubble with two-time 500 winner Gordon Johncock trying to bump in. Johncock succeeded and bumped Vogler from the grid before Vogler ran over and jumped in his backup car. As the clock ticked down Gary Bettenhausen went out to qualify but couldn't find the speed and waved off on his final lap. With the clock ticking down Vogler was next out with Pancho Carter, now driving a hastily-renumbered Scott Brayton backup car, waiting in the wings. In a controversial move with four minutes left on the clock Vogler proceeded to run a very slow warm up lap to assure he'd run out the clock and strand Carter on the outside looking in. At the last possible moment Vogler took off, the 6 p.m. gun going off during his last attempt, and he'd successfully bump Johncock out to get back into the field for the race itself even if he made few friends with how he did it. 21. Canadianfan posted: 11.29.2019 - 4:54 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Church of Scientology sponsored Guerrero. They stuck their Dianetics logo on the side of the #2. 22. SweetRich posted: 02.26.2020 - 10:34 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Commentators For The Race Were Paul Page, Bobby Unser And Sam Posey. The Pit Road Reporters Were Jack Arute And Brian Hammons. 23. RaceFanX posted: 04.19.2020 - 6:05 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Porsche put out an entire video tape titled "Project 2708: Porsche's Quest for Indy" that talked all about its plans to come and race at Indianapolis, starting with this race, so it could be the the first "pure factory car" to win at the 500 in more than half a century. The video starts off with Bobby Unser talking about how Porsche is great at racing but that the company was unlikely to ever win at Indy when starting everything from scratch. The irony is rich that Bobby was right, as shown when the Porsche chassis later failed to perform in 1987 even in the capable hands of his brother Al Unser. Even after switching to a more conventional March chassis the Porsche effort ultimately was never a real threat to win at Indianapolis here or in the years that followed. 24. JSPorts posted: 04.19.2020 - 7:16 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) I think it would be cool if Porsche came back to IndyCar. A 3rd manufacturer would really shake things up. 25. Canadianfan posted: 04.19.2020 - 8:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @24 IndyCar met with Porsche last year early in the year however they decided not to pursue a program engine or otherwise around the time of the Long Beach race and is only focusing their open wheel efforts in Formula e. 26. RaceFanX posted: 08.19.2020 - 11:48 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pancho Carter failed to qualify for this race but you can't say he didn't go down swinging. On Saturday he crashed his primary car during a qualifying run so he jumped in his backup and then crashed that car too practicing as he prepared for another run. As noted above he then bought his way into Scott Brayton's backup car on Bump Day but never got a chance to go for it after Vogler's warmup lap antics. 27. Rich posted: 12.23.2020 - 6:39 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Along with being the play by play announcer, Paul Page was the studio host. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: