1972 USAC Championship Car season

1972 American Championship Car season
Series  : USAC Championship Car
Champion : Joe Leonard
Previous: 1971	Next: 1973

The 1972 USAC Championship Car season consisted of ten races, beginning in Avondale, Arizona on March 18 and concluding at the same location on November 4. The USAC National Champion was Joe Leonard and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Mark Donohue. Jim Malloy was killed at Indianapolis in practice; he was 40 years old.

Schedule and results

All races running on Oval/Speedway.

Rnd	Date	Length	Race Name	Track	Location	Pole Position	Winning Driver
1	March 18	Jimmy Bryan 150	150 miles (241 km)	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Bobby Unser	Bobby Unser
2	April 23	Trentonian 200	201 miles (323 km)	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Bobby Unser	Gary Bettenhausen
3	May 27	International 500 Mile Sweepstakes	500 miles (805 km)	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	Bobby Unser	Mark Donohue
4	June 4	Rex Mays Classic	150 miles (241 km)	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Bobby Unser	Bobby Unser
5	July 16	Michigan 200	200 miles (322 km)	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Bobby Unser	Joe Leonard
6	July 29	Schaefer 500	500 miles (805 km)	Pocono International Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	Bobby Unser	Joe Leonard
7	August 13	Tony Bettenhausen 200	200 miles (322 km)	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Mario Andretti	Joe Leonard
8	September 3	California 500	500 miles (805 km)	Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario, California	Jerry Grant	Roger McCluskey
9	September 24	Trenton 300	300 Miles (483 km)	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Bobby Unser	Bobby Unser
10	November 4	Best Western 150	150 miles (241 km)	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Mark Donohue	Bobby Unser

Final points standings

Pos Driver PHX1 TRE1 INDY MIL1 MIC POC MIL2 ONT TRE2 PHX2 Pts 1 Joe Leonard 5 4 3 5 1 1 1 15 3 DNQ 3460 2 Bill Vukovich, Jr. 20 18 28 4 11 4 2 3 4 15 2200 3 Roger McCluskey 7 2 24 7 8 11 19 1 8 6 1970 4 Al Unser 6 20 2 19 15 3 15 31 23 4 1800 5 Mark Donohue 17 19 1 2 2 16 1720 6 Mike Hiss 10 7 7 13 26 6 2 14 DNQ 1665 7 Johnny Rutherford 13 DNQ 27 21 16 2 3 10 6 5 1620 8 Bobby Unser 1 17 30 1 14 20 Wth 24 1 1 1500 9 Sam Sessions 4 4 15 4 1440 10 Mike Mosley 3 13 26 DNQ 5 5 2 1250 11 Mario Andretti 2 22 8 8 12 7 11 27 28 3 1135 12 Gary Bettenhausen 4 1 14 3 24 19 DNQ 790 13 Wally Dallenbach 9 6 15 DNQ 2 14 DNQ 21 7 24 720 14 Salt Walther 11 33 DNQ 8 6 27 690 15 Lee Kunzman 22 17 18 5 9 4 26 12 23 670 16 George Snider 16 DNQ 11 23 6 21 18 8 10 10 517 17 Lloyd Ruby 21 6 22 26 DNQ 17 18 7 490 18 Mel Kenyon 23 10 18 15 3 13 16 28 11 9 460 19 Art Pollard 14 DNQ 7 9 11 450 20 Jimmy Caruthers 9 12 22 10 12 415 21 Gordon Johncock 3 20 9 22 22 13 20 360 22 Rick Muther DNQ 24 20 12 5 15 22 250 23 Jim Malloy 15 5 DNQ 200 24 Swede Savage 19 16 32 6 17 23 9 20 19 19 200 25 Dick Simon 18 14 13 9 7 16 12 DNP 16 14 200 26 Bill Simpson 24 DNQ 13 24 24 9 17 200 27 Johnny Parsons, Jr. 6 22 17 DNS 160 28 Cale Yarborough 10 DNQ 150 29 John Mahler 8 22 11 27 25 18 130 30 Jerry Grant 12 20 33 21 8 125 31 Tom Bigelow DNQ 21 DNQ 7 DNP 13 120 32 Steve Krisiloff 12 21 18 32 14 11 15 18 120 33 John Hubbard 8 100 34 Al Loquasto 9 DNQ DNQ DNQ 80 35 A. J. Foyt 8 25 Wth 30 22 21 75 36 Bentley Warren DNQ DNQ 14 18 10 26 20 60 37 Lee Brayton DNQ 10 DNQ 17 DNQ 60 38 Jim McElreath DNQ DNQ 10 DNQ DNS 45 39 George Eaton 11 DNQ 30 40 Jim Hurtubise 12 21 23 DNQ 23 DNQ 15 41 Greg Weld 33 DNQ 12 6 - Sam Posey 5 5 19 0 - John Martin 16 17 17 20 32 13 0 - Dee Jones 13 0 - Carl Williams 29 16 30 14 0 - Joe Tetz 15 23 0 - Larry McCoy DNQ 19 21 24 0 - Denny Zimmerman 19 25 25 0 - Peter Revson 31 31 23 0 - Gig Stephens 23 0 - Merle Bettenhausen DNQ 25 0 - Arnie Knepper DNQ 25 0 - Jerry Karl DNQ 28 29 0 - Bob Harkey DNQ 29 0 - George Follmer DNS 0 - Larry Dickson DNQ DNQ 0 - David Hobbs DNP DNQ 0 - Eldon Rasmussen DNQ DNP 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNQ 0 - Jigger Sirois DNQ 0 - Bud Tingelstad DNQ 0 - Bruce Walkup DNQ 0 - Parnelli Jones DNP 0 - Don Brown DNP 0 - Dennis Ott DNP 0 - Tom Sneva DNP 0 - Ned Spath DNP 0 Pos Driver PHX1 TRE1 INDY MIL1 MIC POC MIL2 ONT TRE2 PHX2 Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap * Led most race laps Rookie of the Year Rookie

Note: Sam Posey and Peter Revson not eligible for points.

References

• Åberg, Andreas. "USAC National Championship 1972". Driver Database. Archived

from the original on 2009-05-06. http://www.driverdb.com/standings/980-1972/. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 

• Harms, Phil; Ferner, Michael; Measures, Gerry; Brown, Allen. "Indy 500 and USAC racing (1971-1978)". OldRacingCars.com. Archived

from the original on 2009-05-06. http://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 

• "1972 USAC National Championship Trail". ChampCarStats.com. Archived

from the original on 2009-05-13. http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1972.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-11. 

• Harms, Phil. "1972 Championship Driver Summary". Motorsport.com. Archived

from the original on 2011-05-03. http://old.motorsport.com/stats/champ/data/1972sum.pdf. Retrieved 2011-05-03. 

• http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf (p. 228-229)

See also

• 1972 Indianapolis 500

This page uses some content from Wikipedia. The original article was at 1972 USAC Championship Car season. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Autopedia, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.