1978 USAC Championship Car Season
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1978 USAC Championship Car Season
The 1978 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 18 races, beginning at Phoenix on March 18 and concluding at the same location on October 28. The USAC National Champion was Tom Sneva and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Al Unser. This was the last year before the first USAC/CART "Split". By winning the Indianapolis 500, Pocono 500, and California 500, Al Unser swept the Indy car "Triple Crown", the only driver in history to do so. The 1978 season is also statistically noteworthy. Danny Ongais won the most races (5), and Al Unser swept the triple crown races, but it was Tom Sneva (who did not win a single race) who won the championship title. Sneva had six 2nd place finishes, and twelve top 5s, and seven poles (including Indianapolis and Ontario), and experienced more consistent finishes. Sneva became the second driver to win the USAC championship without winning a race during the season, the last being Tony Bettenhausen in 1958. Sneva's "winless" championship was not without ...
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1978 In Sports
1978 in sports describes the year's events in world sport. Alpine skiing * Alpine Skiing World Cup ** Men's overall season champion: Ingemar Stenmark, Sweden ** Women's overall season champion: Hanni Wenzel, Liechtenstein American football * January 15 − Super Bowl XII: the Dallas Cowboys (NFC) won 27−10 over the Denver Broncos (AFC) ** Location: Superdome ** Attendance: 76,400 ** co–MVPs: Harvey Martin, DE and Randy White, DT (Dallas) * The Holy Roller Game – Oakland Raiders vs San Diego Chargers * Cotton Bowl (1977 season): ** The Notre Dame Fighting Irish won 38–10 over the Texas Longhorns to win the college football national championship Artistic gymnastics * World Artistic Gymnastics Championships – ** Men's all-around champion: Nikolai Andrianov, USSR ** Women's all-around champion: Elena Mukhina, USSR ** Men's team competition champion: Japan ** Women's team competition champion: USSR Association football * Football World Cup – Argentina wins ...
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Tony Bettenhausen
Melvin Eugene "Tony" Bettenhausen (September 12, 1916 – May 12, 1961) was an American racing driver, who won the National Championship in 1951 and 1958. Bettenhausen was nicknamed the "Tinley Park Express" in honor of his hometown. He was nicknamed "Tunney" after heavyweight boxing champion Gene Tunney. "Tunney" later became "Tony." Bettenhausen was part of the midget car " Chicago Gang" with Emil Andres, Cowboy O'Rourke, Paul Russo, Jimmy Snyder, and Wally Zale. They toured tracks in the Midwest and East Coast of the United States. Racing career Midget cars Bettenhausen won the track championship at the Milwaukee Mile in 1942, 1946, and 1947. He was the Chicago Raceway Park champion in 1941, 1942, and 1947. In October 1950, he was involved in a race in Sacramento, California, when his car locked wheels with another racer's car, causing a crash through the guard rail, resulting in fatal injuries to spectator Peter Bernard Stuberak, and injuries to two other spectator ...
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American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, California, on Riverside Drive, directly across the street from Walt Disney Studios and adjacent to the Roy E. Disney Animation Building. The network's secondary offices, and headquarters of its news division, are in New York City, at its broadcast center at 77 West 66th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Since 2007, when ABC Radio (also known as Cumulus Media Networks) was sold to Citadel Broadcasting, ABC has reduced its broadcasting operations almost exclusively to television. It is the fifth-oldest major broadcasting network in the world and the youngest of the American Big Three television networks. The network is sometimes referred to as the Alphabet Network, as its initialism also represents the first three letters of the ...
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Gordon Johncock
Gordon Johncock (born August 5, 1936) is an American former racing driver. He won the Indianapolis 500 twice, and was the 1976 USAC Marlboro Championship Trail champion. Early career Johncock began racing at Berlin Raceway in Marne, Michigan. Johncock began his USAC and CART/IndyCar career in 1964 when he drove for Weinberger Racing. He ran four races in 1964, and then went full-time in 1965. Johncock's first USAC victory was scored at the Milwaukee Mile in August 1965. In 1966, he went winless in nine starts out of 16 races, so he left Gerhardt Racing at the end of the year, to form his own team, Johncock Racing. His primary sponsor became Gilmore Broadcasting and Johncock was the only other "owner-driver" in IndyCar other than A. J. Foyt. Although Johncock's team won six races in a three-year period (1967-1969), things went downhill when Johncock lost the Gilmore sponsorship at the end of 1970. Between 1970 and 1973, Johncock went winless, his team shuttered operations, and Joh ...
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Arizona
Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Four Corners region with Utah to the north, Colorado to the northeast, and New Mexico to the east; its other neighboring states are Nevada to the northwest, California to the west and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California to the south and southwest. Arizona is the 48th state and last of the contiguous states to be admitted to the Union, achieving statehood on February 14, 1912. Historically part of the territory of in New Spain, it became part of independent Mexico in 1821. After being defeated in the Mexican–American War, Mexico ceded much of this territory to the United States in 1848. The southernmost portion of the state was acquired in 1853 through the Gadsden Purchase. Southern Arizona is known for its desert cl ...
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Avondale, Arizona
Avondale is a city in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, adjacent to Phoenix. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 89,334, up from 76,238 in 2010 and 35,883 in 2000. Avondale, incorporated in 1946, has experienced rapid residential and commercial growth in the years since 1980. Once primarily a sparsely populated farming community with many acres of alfalfa and cotton fields, Avondale has transformed into a major bedroom suburb for Phoenix. Phoenix Children's Hospital has a satellite facility (the Southwest Valley Urgent Care Center), at the corner of Avondale Boulevard and McDowell Road. Geography Avondale is located at (33.435322, −112.349758). It is bordered to the west by Goodyear, to the north by Litchfield Park, and to the east by Phoenix and Tolleson. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which , or 0.54%, are water. The Gila River crosses the southern part of the city, joined from the north by th ...
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XM Satellite Radio Indy 200
The Desert Diamond West Valley Phoenix Grand Prix was an IndyCar Series race held at the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Arizona, United States. USAC moved the fall race and added a spring race to the newly built Phoenix International Raceway in 1964. The race became a CART event in 1979, and joined the Indy Racing League in 1996. It was held continuously through 2005. After a hiatus of eleven years, the race was revived by the IndyCar Series in 2016. It was held on Saturday night under the lights. Long considered a popular Indy car track, Phoenix saw the final career victory for Mario Andretti (1993). History During its time on the USAC Championship Car circuit, Phoenix International Raceway typically held two races annually, one in the spring, and one in the fall. During the CART years, two races were scheduled through the mid-1980s, but the track dropped down to one race per year starting in 1987. In many years, Phoenix served as the CART season opener. After a feud between the t ...
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Indianapolis 500 Rookie Of The Year
The Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year is an annual award "presented to the driver who has performed with the most distinction among first-year drivers in the Indianapolis 500." Criteria includes "on-track performance in practice, qualifying and the race, media and fan interaction, sportsmanship and positive influence on the Indy 500." Sportsmanship is a drivers' relationship to fellow racers and fans, and media interaction is their availability to spectators and the press during the event. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) guidelines encourage balloters to consider all the criteria "as the same as any other." Leeway is provided to competitors who outperform in their equipment during qualifying and the race, and those who led laps but retired. The accolade is thus not necessarily awarded to the highest-finishing rookie, and it is not presented should there be no rookie entrants. Its past sponsors include Stark and Wetzel, American Fletcher National Bank, Bank One, Chase, and ...
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Penske Racing
Team Penske (formerly Penske Racing) is an American professional auto racing organization, competing in the NTT IndyCar Series, NASCAR Cup Series, and the FIA World Endurance Championship. Debuting at the 1966 24 Hours of Daytona, the organization has also competed in various other types of professional racing such as Formula One, Can-Am, Trans Am, IMSA and Australian Supercars. Altogether, Team Penske has earned over 500 victories and over 40 championships in all of auto racing. Team Penske is a division of Penske Corporation, and is owned and chaired by Roger Penske. The team president is Tim Cindric. IndyCar Series Team Penske currently fields three cars: the No. 2 Hitachi Dallara/Chevrolet for Josef Newgarden, the No. 3 DEX Imaging Dallara/Chevrolet driven by Scott McLaughlin, and the No. 12 Verizon Dallara/Chevrolet driven by Will Power. Notable past drivers include 4-time Indianapolis 500 winners Al Unser, Rick Mears, and Helio Castroneves. Prior to the 2022 race, Team ...
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List Of Formula One World Drivers' Champions
Formula One, abbreviated to F1, is the highest class of open-wheeled auto racing defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), motorsport's world governing body. The "formula" in the name refers to a set of rules to which all participants and cars must conform. The Formula One World Championship season consists of a series of races, known as , held usually on purpose-built circuits, and in a few cases on closed city streets. The World Drivers' Championship is presented by the FIA to the most successful Formula One driver over the course of the season through a points system based on individual Grand Prix results. The World Championship is won when it is no longer mathematically possible for another competitor to overtake their points total regardless of the outcome of the remaining races, although it is not officially awarded until the FIA Prize Giving Ceremony held in various cities following the conclusion of the season. Michael Schumacher and Lewis Ha ...
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1978 Formula One Season
The 1978 Formula One season was the 32nd season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1978 World Championship of F1 Drivers and the International Cup for F1 Constructors,''World Championship of F1 Drivers 1978'' & ''International Cup for F1 Constructors 1978'', 1979 FIA Yearbook, Grey section, pages 86–87 contested concurrently over a sixteen race series which commenced on 15 January and ended on 8 October. The season also included the non-championship BRDC International Trophy. Mario Andretti won the Drivers' World Championship, driving for JPS-Lotus. He remains the last American driver to win the World Championship. His victory at the Dutch Grand Prix is also the last for an American driver. Ronnie Peterson was awarded second place in the Drivers' standings posthumously, having died from medical complications after an accident at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. JPS-Lotus won the International Cup for F1 Constructors. Championship defendants Niki Lauda and F ...
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Mario Andretti
Mario Gabriele Andretti (born February 28, 1940) is an Italian-born American former racing driver. One of the most successful drivers in the history of motorsports, Andretti is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, the World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR (the other being Dan Gurney). He has also won races in midget car racing and sprint car racing. During his career, Andretti won the 1978 Formula One World Championship, four IndyCar titles (three under USAC sanctioning, and one in CART), and IROC VI. To date, he remains the only driver ever to win the Indianapolis 500 ( 1969), Daytona 500 ( 1967) and the Formula One World Championship, and, along with Juan Pablo Montoya, the only driver to have won a race in the NASCAR Cup Series, Formula One, and an Indianapolis 500. As of 2021, Andretti's victory at the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix is the last Formula One win by an American driver. Andretti had 109 career wins on major circuits. Andretti had a long ...
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