1988 Pocono 500

Rick Mears won his third Indianapolis 500 in May. Danny Sullivan won the Michigan 500.

The 1988 CART Season was dominated by the Ilmor Chevrolet Indy V-8 engine. The first nine races were won by the Chevrolet engine while Cosworth and Judd were winless entering the Pocono 500.^[2]

During practice on Thursday, August 18, Mario Andretti posted the fastest speed at 199.358 mph. Derek Daly was second fastest at 196.083 mph.^[3] Phil Krueger and Rich Vogler crashed in turn one in separate accidents but the cars were repaired. An estimated 10 tires were cut during practice, blamed on Pocono's boiler-plate metal wall that did not sit flush with the asphalt surface like a concrete wall. Debris was able to get under the wall and roll onto the track. Andretti was quoted as saying, "if you had a concrete wall, you wouldn't have that problem."^[4]

In Friday morning's practice, Rick Mears posted the fastest speed at 205.761 mph.

Early in the afternoon qualifying session, Danny Sullivan posted a speed of 203.358 mph. Sullivan's time was the fastest until Rick Mears went out late and took pole position with a speed of 204.564 mph. Bobby Rahal was third fastest at 202.520 mph.^[5] Rick Mears became the first driver to win the pole for all three 500 mile races in a single season.^[5]

1983 Pocono 500 winner, Teo Fabi, crashed on lap one of his qualifying run when he ran wide in turn three and hit the wall. He went to a backup car and qualified on Saturday. In Saturday's qualifying session, Phil Krueger posted a speed of 187.825 mph, but was disqualified due to the rear wing being set back too far. Krueger was allowed to start the race with a promoter's option.^[6]

Dale Coyne qualified at a speed of 167.835 mph. He was not allowed to start the race because his speed did not meet CART's rule that all qualifiers must be within 115% of the pole speed.^[7]

The 40 lap, American Racing Series event was held on Saturday.^[8] Jon Beekhuis led the first two laps. Tommy Byrne took the lead on lap three. Michael Greenfield, in a car co-owned by Chip Ganassi and Pat Patrick, took the lead on lap eight and led for the next 29 laps. A spin by Beekhuis and Mike Snow set up a four-lap run to the finish. On the restart, Byrne passed Greenfield entering turn one and pulled out to a sizable lead. On the final lap, Byrne caught a slow car in turn two and had to let off the throttle, allowing Greenfield to catch and pass him. It was Greenfield's first win in the series.^[9]

A 24-lap, 60 mile race for the SCCA RaceTruck Challenge was held on Saturday afternoon. 19 year-old actor, Jason Bateman, was making his second start in the series, driving a Mitsubishi Mighty Max. On lap one, polesitter, Richie Agresti spun in turn two.^[10] Agresti slid across the track and was hit hard by Bateman in the left front. Bateman's truck got airborne and landed on its roof. The impact pushed the left-front wheel back into the cockpit and broke Bateman's left ankle.^[11]

Driving a Jeep Comanche, Al Unser led the first seven laps before dropping back to 19th. Tommy Archer beat his brother Bobby by 0.06 seconds to win the race.^[10]

Sławomir Wałęsa, the 15-year-old son of Polish statesman Lech Wałęsa, delivered the command to start engines in Polish and English.^[12] The pace car was a custom Ferrari Mondial built at a cost of one million dollars as a gift to series sponsor, PPG. It was driven by Kevin Cogan who was missing the race due to a broken left forearm suffered at Toronto in July.^[13]

Polesitter, Rick Mears held the lead on the start. On lap two, the caution came out when Dick Simon's engine started smoking. On the restart, Danny Sullivan took the lead. Before one lap was completed, Arie Luyendyk crashed in turn three. He was hospitalized for a fractured right heel.

On lap 28, Michael Andretti blew an engine and brought out the third caution. Sullivan pitted after the restart, which gave the lead to Al Unser. Phil Krueger crashed after completing 42 laps. Rick Mears hit debris and damaged his suspension.^[14]

53 year-old A. J. Foyt took the lead on lap 87. It was the first time Foyt had led multiple laps in an Indy car race since Michigan in July 1984. Foyt led 14 laps before gearbox issues put him out after 132 laps. It was the last time he would lead an Indy car race.

On lap 117, Dick Simon and Mario Andretti collided entering turn three. Simon, who was 18 laps down, failed to see Andretti passing inside and cut him off. The two cars hit the wall, collecting Danny Sullivan who wrecked trying to avoid the debris. The 54 year-old Simon was heavily criticized by both Sullivan and Andretti, who suffered a bruised right thigh. "He was in the way all day," Andretti said. "He should be more concerned with the leaders. He should not be running, in my opinion."^[15]

Sullivan asked, "How many times does he have to cause something like this before someone realizes that something has to be done?"^[15] Simon only drove one more Indy car race before retiring.

During green flag pit stops on lap 168, John Andretti broke a half-shaft exiting the pits and crashed hard into an I-beam supporting the steel boiler-plate wall separating the pit road from the race track. The car split in half with the cockpit flipping several times. Andretti was extracted from the car and suffered only a fractured metatarsal bone in his left foot.

49 year-old Unser appeared headed to his first Pocono 500 win since 1978 until he suffered ignition failure while leading with 28 laps remaining. Unser had led a race-high 79 laps.^[16]

Bobby Rahal assumed the lead after Unser's retirement. He led the final 28 laps and beat Al Unser Jr. by 17 seconds. The race was slowed by 11 cautions for 65 laps. Rahal's average speed was 133.713 mph, the slowest average speed in 18 races at Pocono. It was the first and only Indy car win for the Judd engine. It was the only race in the 1988 CART season that the Ilmor Chevrolet Indy V-8 didn't win.^[17][18]

Criticism of the track conditions became more vocal in 1988.^[19] Drivers were upset with the bumpy and weathered asphalt and openly hoped that the track would be repaved. Race-winner Rick Mears said "this is a great place to come to race, provided they do resurface it. The drivers think it's a fun track, a great track."^[19] Danny Sullivan said, "It would be nice if they would resurface it like they're doing at Indianapolis now."^[19] Emerson Fittipaldi said, "If you want my opinion, we shouldn't run here. The surface is so rough, in one practice session, I missed my pit twice because I couldn't get the car stopped, it bounced."^[19]

While the race began at noon, NBC aired a delayed broadcast of the race at 4 p.m. that afternoon. Charlie Jones and Johnny Rutherford were the play-by-play announcers. Gary Gerould and Sally Larvick were the pit reporters.^[12]