Gordon Eugene Smiley (April 20, 1946 – May 15, 1982) was an American race car driver who was killed in a single-car crash at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

When Smiley steered right to correct this, the front wheels gained grip suddenly, sending his car directly across the track and into the wall nose first at nearly 200 mph (320 km/h).

The impact shattered the March chassis, which completely disintegrated, causing the fuel tank to explode, and sent debris, including Smiley's exposed body, into the catch fence and then back onto the track, tumbling hundreds of feet across the short-chute connecting turns 3 and 4.

His death was the first at Indy since 1973 when Art Pollard and Swede Savage were killed and, to date, the last driver to die during qualifying.

CART medical director Steve Olvey, who was on staff at the time, discussed the crash in his 2006 autobiography, Rapid Response: My Inside Story as a Motor Racing Life-Saver: During an attempt to qualify for the Indy 500, Gordon Smiley, a cocky young driver from Texas, was determined to break 200mph or die trying.

While rushing to the car, I noticed small splotches of a peculiar gray substance marking a trail on the asphalt leading up to the driver.

"[5]Olvey later said in his book that in the aftermath of the wreck, he and the IndyCar paramedic team declared Smiley to have died at the scene.

In 2010, she recounted: They brought the remains of Gordon's car back to our garage, and the biggest piece was a little ball of engine.