1938 AAA Championship Car season

1938 AAA Championship Car season
1938 AAA Championship Car season
AAA National Championship Trail
Season
Races	2
Start date	May 30
End date	September 10
Awards
National champion	Floyd Roberts
Indianapolis 500 winner	Floyd Roberts
	← 1937 1939 →

Last updated October 24, 2025

The 1938 AAA Championship Car season consisted of two races, beginning in Speedway, Indiana on May 30 and concluding in Syracuse, New York on September 10. There were also two non-championship events. The AAA National Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was Floyd Roberts.

Schedule and results

All races running on Dirt/Brick Oval. In IZOD IndyCar Series 2011 Historical Record Book, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is, from 1911 to 1938, listed as a "brick track" type circuit. (page 73)

Rnd	Date	Race name	Track	Location	Type	Pole position	Winning driver
1	May 30	International 500 Mile Sweepstakes	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	Brick	Floyd Roberts	Floyd Roberts
NC	August 20	Springfield 100	Illinois State Fairgrounds	Springfield, Illinois	Dirt	Rex Mays	Tony Willman
NC	August 28	Milwaukee 100	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Dirt	Mauri Rose	Chet Gardner
2	September 10	Syracuse 100	New York State Fairgrounds	Syracuse, New York	Dirt	Jimmy Snyder	Jimmy Snyder

Non-championship race

Final points standings

Note: Drivers had to be running at the finish to score points. Points scored by drivers sharing a ride were split according to percentage of race driven. Starters were not allowed to score points as relief drivers, if a race starter finished the race in another car, in a points scoring position, those points were awarded to the driver who had started the car.
The final standings based on reference.^[1]

Pos	Driver	INDY	SYR	Pts
1	Floyd Roberts	1*	DNQ	1000
2	Wilbur Shaw	2		825
3	Chet Miller	3	DNQ	675
4	Ted Horn	4	4	660
5	Chet Gardner	5		450
6	Billy Devore	8	10	310
7	Duke Nalon	11	3	260
8	Joel Thorne	9	DNQ	225
9	Herb Ardinger	6		213
10	Jimmy Snyder	15*	1*	200
11	Harry McQuinn	7		188.1
12	Frank Wearne	10	13	175
13	Rex Mays	28	2	165
14	Mauri Rose	13	5	90
15	George Connor	19	6	75
16	George Bailey	12		75
17	Floyd Davis	DNQ	7	65
18	Russ Snowberger	25	8	45.1
19	Tommy Hinnershitz RY		9	45
20	George Robson R		11	25
21	Bill Cummings	24	8	9.9
-	Kelly Petillo	22	12	0
-	Ronney Householder	14		0
-	Billy Winn	14		0
-	Frankie Bailey		14	0
-	Louis Meyer	16		0
-	Tony Gulotta	17		0
-	Al Miller	18	DNQ	0
-	Cliff Bergere	20		0
-	Henry Banks	21		0
-	Louis Tomei	23		0
-	Babe Stapp	26		0
-	Tony Willman	27	DNQ	0
-	Emil Andres	29	DNQ	0
-	Ira Hall	30		0
-	Frank Brisko	31	DNQ	0
-	Al Putnam	32		0
-	Shorty Cantlon	33	DNQ	0
-	Frankie Beeder	DNQ	DNQ	0
-	Johnny Sawyer	DNQ	DNQ	0
-	Charles Crawford	DNQ		0
-	Fred Frame	DNQ		0
-	Ralph Hepburn	DNQ		0
-	Deacon Litz	DNQ		0
-	Tazio Nuvolari	DNQ		0
-	Jack Petticord	DNQ		0
-	Johnny Seymour	DNQ		0
-	Doc Williams	DNQ		0
-	Walt Brown		DNQ	0
-	Al Cusick		DNQ	0
-	Miny Dugatta		DNQ	0
-	Henry Guerand		DNQ	0
-	Bill Holland		DNQ	0
-	George Huss		DNQ	0
-	Doc Keim		DNQ	0
-	Hans Koehler		DNQ	0
-	Mark Light		DNQ	0
-	Jack Moon		DNQ	0
-	Leslie Owen		DNQ	0
-	Charlie Rogers		DNQ	0
-	Jack Russell		DNQ	0
-	Bud Walker		DNQ	0
-	Buster Warke		DNQ	0
-	Lou Webb		DNQ	0
Pos	Driver	INDY	SYR	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

References

1 2 "1938 AAA National Championship Trail".

Åberg, Andreas. "AAA National Championship 1938". Driver Database. Archived from the original on September 10, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
"1938 AAA National Championship Trail". ChampCarStats.com. Archived from the original on October 10, 2008. Retrieved May 23, 2009.
Harms, Phil. "1938 Championship Driver Summary" (PDF). Motorsport.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2012. Retrieved April 20, 2011.
http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (p. 73)

v t e American Championship car racing (Indy car) seasons
AAA	1905 1906–1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
USAC	1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95
CART	1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
CCWS	2004 2005 2006 2007 ~~2008~~
IRL	1996 1996–97 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
IndyCar	2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
Years marked in italics are not official championship years or upcoming seasons.

v t e AAA Championship Cars (1905–1955)
Seasons	1905 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
Indianapolis 500s	1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 ~~1942~~ 1943–1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955
National Champions	Billy Arnold Henry Banks Tony Bettenhausen Jimmy Bryan Bob Carey Gaston Chevrolet Bill Cummings Pete DePaolo (twice) Sam Hanks Harry Hartz Eddie Hearne Ted Horn (three times) Rex Mays (twice) Louis Meyer (three times) Tommy Milton Jimmy Murphy (twice) Barney Oldfield Johnnie Parsons Kelly Petillo Dario Resta Floyd Roberts Mauri Rose Louis Schneider Wilbur Shaw (twice) Chuck Stevenson Bob Sweikert
AAA Contest Board Years marked in italics are not official championship years.

1938 AAA Championship Car season

Contents

Schedule and results

Final points standings

References

See also