People forget that Rahal set a race lap record on the LAST lap of this race! He didn’t just pass Cogan at the green flag with two to go. He then proceeded to smash the race lap record by over 4 mph on the next lap. And that race lap record stood for two years until Rick Mears broke it in 1988. Wow!!

When I was a kid, one of my uncles, a car guy, asked me what my favorite kind of car was and I said "racing cars." It took a bit of further questioning for my uncle to figure out that I meant open-wheel cars of a kind you'd see in Indy or Formula 1. To this day, I still love the aesthetic of mid-to-late-80s open-wheel cars more than any other. Always fun to watch these old races.

I was selling electronics while this was broadcast and watched the race on about 100 TVs with a prospective customer. When it ended, he bought one. I had forgotten about that boneheaded attempt to interview Cogan with 3 laps to go. He reply was more polite than *mine* would have been!

Great race!! Thanks for the upload. Jim Trueman died 11 days later. :-( R.I.P., Jim Trueman

This is the year that started my love for this race. I was 3 and watched it with my mom. This year I'm going and I wish I'd gone sooner!

Rest in peace, Mr. James Trueman!😢

Just a smashing race.There were four or five cars within a straightaway of each other virtually all day.Only in 1982 did the top half dozen or so stay that close.The finish was one of the most exciting in history (especially at that time) but there was a strong opinion in H Grandstand that the race was going to end under the yellow....As the safety crew began pushing Luyendyk's car away everyone in our seats and across the track in the infield bleachers began screaming "Go!" "Go!' "Go!" in unison...It was and is a great memory.I believe the estimate of about 325,000 in attendance is correct.We waited a couple hours after the race and still were stuck in The Coke Lot on Georgetown Road for awhile after the race.NOTHING like walking down Georgetown Road with empty coolers after having seen a great race!

What a great year for him in 1986,,he opened up lotts of car dealerships !

RIP James Robert Trueman.

My favorite Indy 500 of all time

Rahal at the peak of his career was awesome!

Hasselhoff reminds you of why you would rather hear Jim Nabors sing. Looking at Cogan struggling with his handling after making the late pass of Rahal suggests he couldn't have held on to win, even if the race had stayed under green all the way through to the end. He showed his hand with about a half tank of fuel, and then struggled to keep the car from hitting wall shortly after that. Rahal was closing with a more capable car than Mears had four years earlier. He most likely passes Cogan if the race stays under green. Rahal lucks out with the spin by Luyendyk in 4 resulting in no major impact with a wall, followed by a time consuming debris clean up. In the end the driver with the best car after 500 miles wins it.

RIP Jim Trueman. Went to heavens a happy man

I was there! Parked in the infield and there was a party going on during the race! Lol Side note: my dad has been a spotter (between turns 1 & 2) for 35+ years!

wow, pit road was bumpy as hell ! Amazing their rear wings didn't get loose with those bumps. I was there, along the main straight, on the outside. I had planned our wedding to be that day, lol. Even put on the invitations "Don't worry, the race will be over". We delayed the ceremony to 7pm, and joined our sunburned guests for a checkered flag-themed reception. Was happy that Rahal beat the Penske guys !!!

I remember watching this race. I never missed the Indianapolis 500. I was 14 in 1986. Became a Bobby Rahal fan after this win. He was my favorite Indy driver until he retired. Love all forms of Motorsports. I live in NASCAR country and was a Huge Dale Sr. Fan. Miss watching a lot of these guys race. Mears, Andretti, Rahal, Unser, Foyt etc. All legends.

no other race on earth can compare too these days Indy 500 will always be the crown jewel

Bobby was a damn good driver.

The fans were slightly less the heroes than the drivers. The drivers are always heroes.

The 1986 Indianapolis 500 was the very first live flag-to-flag coverage of the Granddaddy of Them All in Motorsports that was broadcasted by the American Broadcasting Company on May 31, 1986. It was also the very first American Open Wheel Race to be aired in Asia, as it marked the beginning of the Greatest Spectacle in Auto Racing on Philippine Television that was broadcasted live, nationwide, and via-satellite by the Radio Philippines Network on June 1, 1986. It was hosted by the late Harry Gasser from the RPN-9 NewsWatch with the late Pinggoy Pengson and Zal Marte as the commentators, alongside Loren Legarda as the Pit Reporter

1986. My favourite Indianapolis 500 of all time apart from many others.

Nice to see European soccer fans showed up to see the race!!!

ABC Sports, USAC, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway averted a major embarrassment, because every time they showed the standings near the end of the race, they showed Roberto Guerrero as being one lap behind the leaders, when in fact, he was on the same lap with the leaders, and in fourth place (Michael Andretti was actually running fifth place late in the race when he was in front of the three leaders). In fact, Guerrero was even credited with leading the 166th lap, which was run under caution, proving that he was with the leaders on the same lap in that final run to the finish without anyone knowing it.

Good old Emerson Fittipaldi getting the hang of it. Three years later he would get his first Indy 500 win.

Kevin Cogan was so close to winning this race. As a fan of Cogan’s in 1986 it was very disappointing. It would have been his 2nd career win in just a few months and made him the new star of racing at the time taking the place of Danny Sullivan. Hard to believe the Dana 200 in Phoenix would end up being his own career Indy car win. The interview with him at the end of race is a nice one.

Many years ago I had a dream that Kevin Cogan won the Indianapolis 500, beating Mario Andretti who, in my dream, was driving for Roger Penske again. After the race, Andretti and Penske got into a fist fight and killed each other. It was fucking glorious.

I just wanted to say thank you Andrew for all your videos. I started watching this race in 1987 so it's really cool to see the races from before then. I appreciate it

I love 3:40:17 . Start watching from there and you get the great perspective of Rahal, Cogan and Mears cross the finish line and Debi Rahal's reaction and you see Jim Trueman sitting on a chair.

Among so many things enjoyable about watching these classic runnings of the Indy 500, I truly enjoy the excellent commentary of one of the all time greats, Jim McKay. A great slice of Americana. Edit: (Oh, as I'm getting further in to the broadcast, less of McKay than I'm used to on the older races, but he's still a treasure on the parts he does cover).

Only 5 cars on the lead lap at 100 laps - a blistering pace !!!

"I'm kinda busy right now Sam I'll talk to you later." Yikes!

It is interesting to see the parallels of Formula1 over here and Indycars on a timerail. For me it was rather more thrilling to watch and listen to Joe Leonard and Lloyd Ruby on the occasion of the '69 500 than following a computer game in the making while this rendition. Even if I feel also our times could use a good knock "at the alingnment shop" we cannot go back. It is as simple as that. 🌹;)

Randy Lanier was carrying weed over seas to the US while finishing 10th in this Indy 500!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this!!!!! The great CART years, and great coverage from ABC

Wow Hasselhoff does a good job with the national anthem

And Sam Posey: "Rarely do you get a race with 2 drivers who could win, let alone 3." WE Do NOT know how good we race fans have it today hahahaha.

Gran carrera de mi favorito , el Bobby . Una lástima que dos semanas después murió Jim Trueman

That start is jacked up.

Ours It rained in the 500 miles of Indianapolis in 1986 that's why they put the race on Saturday May 31, 1986 well On the opening day of the 1986 World Cup in Mexico 🇲🇽 between Italy 🇮🇹 X Bulgaria 🇧🇬 in Mexico City and Formula Indy and the World Cup were two major Sporting Events that Saturday And the 1986 Indianapolis 500 Mile was won by Bobby Rahal who won the 1986 Formula Indy Championship.

no speed limit in the pit lane back then apparently. Cool !

Jim Lampley is curiously stilted in his commentary. I have not seen him on other types of coverage, but I always get the feeling he is more interested in himself and his own career than sharing this huge sports/folk/symbolic icon of an event with all and sundry. I knew a car owner in the days of the Watson Roadsters, and he was a small-time operation, but he knew everything and everybody, and his love for the sport was completely infectious. He caused me to become and IndyCar fan for life. Jim Lampley does nothing of the kind. Sam Posey, although he talks a lot, is much more effective conveying the Indy mystique.

The coverage drastically changed this year of 86. Not only being live, but the "let's meet the driver" pieces were gone and we actually got to see racing around the track. The announcing was way better. Weirdly this was when I pulled away from Indy Car and started watching Nascar on espn and tnt.

Dublin lad ! Always liked Bobby fellow buckeye..

3:34:10 Durante a entrevista do saudoso Jim Trueman, Steve Horne passa a direita da imagem. Nos anos 90 ele ia fundar a simpática equipe Tasman, no qual o também saudoso André Ribeiro correu.

Bobby and Jim Truman have done more for Indy Car racing than damned near anyone else.

46:27 Watch driver Ed Pimm react to Tom Sneva's spin in front of him on the parade lap. As he is rubbernecking, you can hear him say in his own head "What the fu*k?!" .

This was the very first Indy 500 to be shown live in its entirety, a far cry from 1971-'85 when the race was shown in edited form on same-day tape and an even further far cry from before that when the race was shown 10-15 days later as a segment of "Wide World of Sports." They were unable to get the race in Sunday 5/25 (the originally scheduled race day) nor Monday 5/26. Rather than have a potential repeat of what happened in 1973 (the worst Indy 500 of all time when a bad crash after the start following a long rain delay happened followed by not being able to go on Tuesday and many crews having to scramble to find replacements when it finally was run on Wednesday 5/30/'73 which may have led to the crash involving Swede Savage that eventually killed him along with the death of Armando Teran in the pits), coupled with the possibility ABC would not have televised the race had they simply delayed it to Tuesday 5/27 AND a possibility of empty stands had it been run that day, a deal was reached where they postponed this race to the following Saturday, May 31, the first time it had been contested in any form on May 31 since the 1967 Indy 500 had to be finished on 5/31 after having to be suspended after running 18 laps the prior day due to weather. This involved delaying the then-traditional week-after-Indy race, the Rex Mays 200 at the Milwaukee Mile by one week from June 1 to June 8 to accommodate a rescheduled Indy 500 (that race was last run as the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 in July 2015, moved off the week after Indy after 2006). Following a further delay, the actual race turned out to be to that point the fastest in terms of actual time in history as it only took two hours and 55 minutes to complete, the first Indy 500 to be run in less than three hours.

The reason why we ain’t invited David Hasselhoff back to sing the national anthem. That was BAD! 😂😂😂

From what I recall about the televised coverage of the 1986 race, and subsequent research bears this out: This was the first Indy 500 televised live by ABC. Previous "500s" from the 1970s to '85 were tape delayed and broadcasted during the primetime evening hours. I agree with other commenters, Lampley was about the worse I've heard with regards to the main announcer for the ABC-TV coverage of this race.

You could see Cogan's car understeering on the exists in the closing stages. He was pretty spectacular because he was really flirting with the wall at almost every turn. The commentary team didn't seem to pick it up until after he passed Rahal..

I really enjoyed the whole video, thanks. Probably my favorite is 19:00 and Hasselhoff doing the national anthem.

"I'm kind of busy right now Sam, I'll talk to you later," said Kevin Cogan under yellow with 2-3 lap left. Why bother him in the first place?

Back when the activities in the infield impacted coverage of the race. I remember those days. Cars & couches on fire, beer cans on the track. I guess they had no choice but to try and tame it down.

It's staggering that even by 1986 the Sneva pit crew would go 15 minutes without any idea what happened to their car. Nobody bothered to tell them the whole left side was smashed in.

thank you

Who did Jim Lampley know or FCK to get that gig🤣

3:16:11 overtake,3:28:10 winning overtake

Peppy rendition of “Back Home Again In Indiana.”

great reporting. It took over a minute to know that a car crashed.

Kevin Cogan is SO Relaxed and Quiet for ANY Racecar driver. Let alone one who Just Lost the Indy 500.

A great race. Terrible restart by Cogan at the end. His career would have been much different had he pulled this one off.

I was at this race in '86 sitting in the top row of seats at or near the start/finish line in the outside grandstands. My personal opinion that the finish of this race was very anti-climactic. Rahal was catching Cogan but it would have been far more exciting to see if Cogan could have held him off under the green flag until the end of the race. My question that has always run through my mind since and every race in a similar situation is, wtf was Luyendyk doing racing his car so hard that it even had the possibility of spinning out? Who was he racing on track that was so important to upset Cogan's chance for the win and us fans a monumental race as it was pretty much boring until the very end and then that was ruined? The pass Rahal made was far easier than it would have been if it had to happen in the final couple laps at full speed on track instead of getting a better restart which 2nd place is more likely to do anyway. What a real finish it could have been. It's worse to see a race end this way than to see it end under the yellow. Think Johncock/Mears snd Fittipaldi/Unser jr. races a few years before and a few years after this race.

''I'm Kinda Busy Right Now, Sam! Can I Talk To You Later?" Yes! Kevin! We Are Going To Ask You, "How Does It Feel, To Lose?"😳😯😲🙄😅😂🤣🤓😎

The crowds were not big on Non-Jim Nabors performances of Back Home Again

What commitment prevented Jim Nabors from being at the Speedway this day?

03:15:46 battle 1th place

Wow! David Hasslehoff sings the national anthem! Days when TV show, Knight Rider, was still on TV!

Poor Cogan...How would have history looked on him (outside of the '82 wreck) had Luyendyk not crashed???

Hard to believe...........Mario got one win here, Michael was close a number of times, but no wins.

iwas there as well as the 85 had to go home cancellation

If Luyendyk hadn’t crashed, I’m pretty sure Cogan wins. Imagine how much different his career would have been if he had managed to hold on.

right to live animals!

Bobby Rahal wins with 2-lap dash to the finish over Kevin Cogan and Rick Mears in third. Sloppy race coverage with new host in Jim Lamphley over the great Jim McKay, with Sam Posey, color commentator having too much to say. To Andrew Sopher: Little tough in latter stages watching the video. Not sure if it's my browser or quality of footage. With that said, I have watched your videos of the 500 over the last half dozen races -- awesome!!!

i want a pair of those david clarke headphones to wear to to the race and use with my scanner and radio. thats my goal some day to find a pair

The fuel truck is great lol

first 500 for me

David Hasselhoffs singing of the National Anthem was absolutely horrendous!

No mention of Chuck Yeager driving the pace car?

Interesting watching them drink the milk back then compared to now. Today is like "I'VE GOT THE MILK" it seems better to them than Champagne LOL

what the hell is that crew member sitting on mears suspenison arm!

It looks like Cogan got a little high on the restart. Seems maybe that his car got a little loose and he had to back off. That's probably how Rahal got around him

If Michael Knight was allowed to sing the National Anthem why wasn't KITT allowed to race?

Kevin Kogan the pin ball

2:27:53 im leaving this timestamp where i left the video......

Really bad mojo for green cars. Just look at Roberto Guerrero in 92.

I only came here to see hasselhoff do a horrible rendition of the national anthem. Some lady claimed it made her black out and she miscarried her baby.

48:00 ABC coverage and "emotion." Early days before the wife cams took over. There's a race going on somewhere?

Coogan wasn't all that...

Seems like someone flung a beer can at 3:22:03 is that right?

Is there any way that the sinking of the Titanic could be related to the red smoke bomb on the backstretch?

CART!!!!

Kooogan..

O booby rahal tomou leite e refrigerante também

I think the smoke bomb is to signalise that an incident happen that the officials can cancel the start

Who 1:21:03?

1:47:39

jaques villeneuve was only 15 year old.... it's weird

So much drama before lap 1

3:29:39

3:32:04