The 1978 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 18 races, beginning at

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on March 18 and concluding at the same location on October 28. The USAC National Champion was

Tom Sneva Thomas E. Sneva (born June 1, 1948) is a retired American race car driver who won the Indianapolis 500 in 1983. He primarily raced in Indy cars, and was named to the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2005. A former math teacher from Spokane ...

and the

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winner was

Al Unser Alfred Unser (May 29, 1939 – December 9, 2021) was an American automobile racing driver, the younger brother of fellow racing drivers Jerry and Bobby Unser, and father of Al Unser Jr. He was the second of four men ( A. J. Foyt, himself, Rick ...

. This was the last year before the first USAC/CART "Split". By winning the

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, 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.

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won the most races (5), and Al Unser swept the triple crown races, but it was

(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

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and

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), 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 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 n ...

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. Sneva's "winless" championship was not without its critics, however, a statistician calculated points results using contemporary points tables from other major racing series, and concluded that Sneva would have still won the title in nearly every scenario. The 1978 season was also a break-out year for future champion

Rick Mears Rick Ravon Mears (born December 3, 1951) is a retired American race car driver. He is one of four men to win the Indianapolis 500 four times (1979, 1984, 1988, 1991) and is the current record-holder for pole positions in the race with six (197 ...

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, t ...

was running the full Formula One season (of which he would be

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

). Andretti was running a partial Indy car schedule for

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, and Roger Penske hired the young Mears to fill in for Andretti the weekends he was overseas. Mears, who had spent two years in lesser-funded rides, jumped at the opportunity to drive for Penske, even though it was only a part-time ride. Mears won Co-Rookie of the Year at

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, won three races, and despite running only 11 of 18 races, finished 9th in points.

Schedule and results

Final points standings

Note: Janet Guthrie is not eligible for points.

References

* * * * * http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf (p. 214-216)

Schedule and results

Final points standings

References

See also