William John Vukovich II (born March 29, 1944 in

Riverside, California Riverside is a city in and the county seat of Riverside County, California, United States, in the Inland Empire metropolitan area. It is named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It is the most populous city in the Inland Empire an ...

) is a former driver in the championship car division of USAC and

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed tr ...

series. He was named the

1968 Indianapolis 500 The 52nd International 500 Mile Sweepstakes was held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana on Thursday May 30, 1968. For the second year in a row, one of Andy Granatelli's STP Turbine-powered machines was leading late in the race ...

Rookie of the Year, a result of his seventh-place finish. Vukovich raced in the 1965–1982 seasons, with 158 combined career starts, including the

Indianapolis 500 The Indianapolis 500, formally known as the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race, and commonly called the Indy 500, is an annual automobile race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indi ...

in 1968–1977, 1979–1980. He finished in the top ten 85 times, with one victory in 1973 at Brooklyn. He also had 23 National

midget car Midget cars, also speedcars in Australia, is a class of racing cars. The cars are very small with a very high power-to-weight ratio and typically use four cylinder engines. They originated in the United States in the 1930s and are raced on most ...

victories in his career, and drove for part of his career in J. C. Agajanian's midget car.Biography
at the

National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame The National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame is an American Hall of Fame and museum for midget cars. The Hall of Fame is located at Angell Park Speedway Angell Park Speedway has a 1/3 mile () dirt racetrack located in Sun Prairie, Wiscons ...

, Retrieved January 11, 2007

Award

*He was inducted in the

in 1998.

Racing family

Bill II is the son of two-time Indianapolis 500 winner

Bill Vukovich William John Vukovich Sr. (; December 13, 1918 – May 30, 1955) was an American automobile racing driver of Serbian descent. He won the 1953 and 1954 Indianapolis 500, plus two more American Automobile Association National Championship races, ...

and the father of

Billy Vukovich III William John Vukovich III (August 31, 1963, Fresno, California, United States – November 25, 1990, Bakersfield, California, United States) was an American race car driver. He was a three-time starter of the Indianapolis 500. The grandson of ...

, both of whom were killed in racing accidents.

Complete USAC Championship Car results

Complete PPG Indy Car Series results

Indianapolis 500 results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vukovich, Bill 2 1944 births American people of Serbian descent American racing drivers Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indianapolis 500 Rookies of the Year Living people Sportspeople from Riverside, California Racing drivers from California USAC Silver Crown Series drivers A. J. Foyt Enterprises drivers