Patrick Racing

Lore & Background

Patrick Racing was started by U.E. "Pat" Patrick in the 1970s. The team won the 1973 and 1982 Indianapolis 500 with Gordon Johncock, and the 1989 Indianapolis 500 with Emerson Fittipaldi. Johncock also won the 1976 USAC National Championship. The team was closely associated with STP sponsorship. In 1975, Patrick Racing started an in-house chassis project called the Wildcat, powered by the DGS engine. Pat Patrick was one of the founding owners of CART in 1979. The team had three distinct manifestations; the current-day Chip Ganassi Racing and Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing are direct spin-offs from the first and second Patrick Racing organizations, respectively.

In Their Own Story

The garage smells like hot rubber and brake fluid, the kind of thick, metallic tang that only builds up after a long qualifying session at the Speedway. Ed is still in his fireproof suit, sleeves rolled, arguing softly with his chief engineer about rear-wing angle. The crew chiefs are already running their pre-race checks, the pneumatic guns hissing in a rhythm that sounds almost musical. Outside, the grandstands are a slow tide of orange and white, and the air carries the distant, muffled roar of the engines warming up on the backstretch. Ed pulls off his gloves, sets them on the toolbox, and says nothing. He doesn't have to. Everyone in that garage knows what the next few hours will cost them, and everyone in that garage would do it again. That's the thing about a small team: nobody's watching from a boardroom. You're all in the dirt with each other, and that changes everything about how you fight.

Reader's Guide

Noteworthy drivers that competed for Patrick include Gordon Johncock, Wally Dallenbach, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Danny Sullivan, Roberto Guerrero, Scott Pruett, and Adrián Fernández. The team nearly won a fourth Indianapolis 500 in the controversial 1981 race, but after a protest and appeals process, Mario Andretti was placed second. Patrick recorded three runner-up finishes at Indy (1981, 1986, 1988) alongside their three wins. The team fielded its own cars from 1975 to 1983 under the name Wildcat, and on a couple of occasions fielded unique powerplants (the DGS and the Alfa-Romeo).

Did You Know?

• Patrick Racing won the 1973 Indianapolis 500 with Gordon Johncock, but the race was tragic as team driver Swede Savage died about a month after the race, and pit crew member Armando Teran was fatally injured by a fire tr
• In 1982, Gordon Johncock won the Indianapolis 500 by 0.16 seconds over Rick Mears, the closest finish in Indy history to that point.
• Emerson Fittipaldi won both the 1989 Indianapolis 500 and the 1989 CART championship driving for Patrick Racing.
• The team's first manifestation was sold outright to Chip Ganassi in 1990, forming Chip Ganassi Racing.