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That is odd, though it's likely because he (Dick Rathmann) wanted that badly to finish the race, especially after what had happened on the opening lap the year before (when he and Ed Elisian tangled racing so hard to led the first lap of the '58 race, leading to that massive crash that was to take the life of Pat O'Connor). There had been times when a driver got out of a car on fire during a pit stop and then got back in, including Troy Ruttman when he won the race in 1952, but the Dick Rathmann situation late in the '59 race might have been the only known instance to date of a driver wanting to stay in the car while it was on fire, thinking that he could still finish the race, which a then-record 16 cars ended up completing the full distance in.

Hard to say, though the first year they ran the turbines, Andy Granatelli predicted the car's ultimate downfall, because he told the engineers that the bearing would break. Another overlooked factor is the rash of cautions in the 1967 race and the lengthy caution late in the 1968 race for Carl Williams' crash and stubborn fire on the backstretch, and that so much time spent running under caution might have also affected the gearboxes of those cars. Granted, they didn't slow down that much back then (the PACER light system, which marked the first time the really slowed the cars under caution, didn't exist until 1972), but the fact that they were running slower could have affected those cars late in both the 1967 and '68 races.

Granted, it was a sloppy race. What about driver Parnelli Jones attempting to pass on the inside and coming into contact with Lee Roy Yarbrough's car. Could the Turbine car have suffered any slight damage that may have affected it later in the race?

@@deanmarkoshan2129 Not likely. A bigger concern, which didn't turn out to be much of a concern, would have been the result of the end of that first pit stop, when Parnelli left his pit before the fuel hose was completely disconnected. Two years later, a similar miscue took Lloyd Ruby completely out of the race. But Parnelli was able to make his second pit stop without incident, and while they were concerned about fuel near the end of the race, even with all the time spent under caution, that had nothing to do with why his car failed at the end.

Thank you for the detailed explanations.

It was A.J. Foyt that was climbing the fence. Actually, that resulted in the only injury anyone suffered from that melee at the start, because A.J. cut his hand climbing the fence (Brock Yates mentions that in the open for this race, which came from the old SpeedVision program "Faces of Victory, Memories of Indy").

Ok, why was he climbing the fence?

@@mackydog99 Because there was a tremendous fear of fire in those days, and with as many cars involved in that huge wreck as there were, there was a fear that one or more of them would catch fire. Remember that this was just two years after that horrific tragedy, when Dave MacDonald's and Eddie Sachs' cars exploded in that lap 2 catastrophe, and Ronnie Duman was also badly burned in that crash, and then later on in the race, the fuel tank aboard Parnelli's car exploded after the first pit stop, forcing him to dive from his car while it was still moving to avoid more serious burns than he got. Foyt was climbing the fence to avoid any fire that may have arisen from that huge crash, but fortunately, there wasn't any.

Thank you. Good information. Much appreciated. Been an Indy 500 fan for over 60yrs but some of these old videos I've never seen or heard. Thanks again.

As far as I know (and that's a lot less than the official historians), the only cars in this race that used the high-octane gasoline were the two Mickey Thompson cars, one of which was driven by Dave MacDonald, and the car driven by Eddie Sachs. I believe all the others were using methanol, including Parnelli Jones, who's on-board tank exploded after his first pit stop, and who had to dive out of the car for safety while it was still moving on pit road.

And that year's race was a textbook illustration of that, because first, that was Lloyd Ruby's race, as he dominated the middle portion of it (after Jim Clark spun twice in 22 laps), leading for 68 laps before being brought in, and eventually retiring with a cam housing stud failure. Ruby's problem handed the lead to Stewart, who was coasting to victory until his engine gave way, and that's how Hill inherited the lead, though many who were there that day thought he wasn't actually the leader, but with 20 laps remaining, USAC discovered that they had either credited Jim Clark with one lap too many or had not credited Hill with one lap, because that's when they first posted Hill as being ahead of Clark, and when Stewart's engine failed, that gave the lead to Hill, but Andy Granatelli's team, which had teamed with Colin Chapman's Lotus operation, urged Clark to also drive into victory lane, believing he had won for the second straight year.

@cjs83172 Poor Lloyd Ruby couldn't buy luck at Indianapolis if he had a billion in the bank. Worse than the Andretti curse. I say Jackie's race cause he was so damn close to the finish. And yes, there are still people that insist that Clark actually won. Controversy wasn't born with Paul Tracy, lol. I still consider Mario the rightful winner of 81, so I guess we all have our stories. But 66 was largely a heartbreak race. At least the early crash wasn't fatal like 64.

@@CarlosMedina-wu8ug Which was amazing, given the wheels and tires that were bouncing everywhere. The only injury was A.J. Foyt suffering a cut finger climbing the fence, which fortunately, kept all those flying tires and wheels from flying into the crowd. And Mario Andretti committed the exact same infraction at the exact same time Bobby Unser did in 1981. He just didn't pass as many cars (Mario passed three, but let the third car he passed go back ahead of him, while Bobby passed eight). With as many cautions that fell after that incident (the last 50 laps of that race were littered with cautions, usually for minor things), had both drivers been penalized at the time, given that Gordon Johncock, who was never involved in the controversy, eventually fell out with six laps remaining, the results would have been the same, with Bobby taking a fairly easy victory.

Or for that matter, the poles of the catch fencing or even the scoreboard, because of his car had not stopped tumbling, it could have wound up in the seating or even under the scoreboard they had there to inform the fans in the south short chute how the race stood, in terms of number of laps completed, average speed of the leader, and the top ten in the race. As it was, he ended up injuring his neck (hence the brace he was wearing after the crash) and never climbed into the cockpit of a race car again.

A cute follow-up on the Jones/Sachs incident is that the next morning in the motel they were staying at, Sachs had crafted a small black flag and stuck it in his mouth. That story came from Parnelli himself. One of the reasons they didn't flag Parnelli may have been that there was so much oil on the track from his and numerous other cars that, while Parnelli did lose oil courtesy of a crack in an external oil tank, so many other cars lost, or had been losing oil during that race they the officials couldn't be sure Parnelli's car was still leaking oil. Rodger Ward, who wound up fourth that day, summed it up best years later when he stated if a guy was leading the race, that you'd better be sure you're right if you're going to black flag him, and the USAC officials couldn't be sure it was Parnelli at that time, so they let him stay out.

I would paid money to see the confrontation J. C. Agajanian and Colin Chapman had with Harlan Fengler and Henry Banks by the start-finish line. Also interesting to speculate what the decision would have been, had Clark had been leading (and leaking) instead of Jones. One piece of irony was that Jim Hurtibise was black-flagged for leaking oil when he actually wasn’t. But since it was a Novi, something else would have probably knocked him out, anyway.

@@cjs83172 Come on man! The car was spewing oil - against the rules! Blatant cheating! EVERYBODY KNOWS THE YANKS WOULD NOT SUFFER THE HUMILIATION OF BEING BEATEN BY A ROOKIE SCOTSMAN, DRIVING A SILLY GREEN ENGLISH CAR WITH A SOUPED-UP SEDAN ENGINE IN THE BACK! The roadster stalwarts were totally humiliated, pissed off, and very embarrassed! Before the race AJ Foyt had told Chapman to take that piece of junk back to great Britian. Clark and Chapman were robbed. Ford did not protest; their marketing guys reasoning this would show FORD in a bad light with all the jingoistic Yank fans!

As it turned out, the qualifying races were more competitive than the 500 itself was that year, especially the second qualifying race, which had a Cinderella winner and numerous dark horses, including 1970 Daytona 500 winner and surprise front row qualifier Pete Hamilton, trading the lead. The first qualifier was a preview of the Daytona 500 itself, which was a Baker/Yarborough show for the first 150 laps, but as it turned out, both had run their cars so hard that neither of them finished, leaving the door open for King Richard to grab his fourth Daytona 500 victory. A 9-second stop with 10 laps remaining for fuel and, for some reason, a cleaning of the windshield, didn't help Buddy Baker's cause, as that put him far enough behind Petty that he was never likely to catch up, even if his engine hadn't failed.

Well after my takeover of Disney I will usher in the Make Disney Great Again era where the parks will return to these times and everything will be done by asking "What would Walt do?" again. Disney under me will not allow anyone woke to work at or visit the parks. The parks will be treated as private clubs.