1973 USAC Championship Car season

1973 USAC Championship Car season
USAC National Championship Trail
Season
Races	16
Start date	April 7
End date	November 3
Awards
National champion	Roger McCluskey
Indianapolis 500 winner	Gordon Johncock
←  1972 1974  →

The 1973 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 16 races, beginning in College Station, Texas on April 7 and concluding in Avondale, Arizona on November 3. The first race of the season, in Avondale, Arizona on March 17, was postponed by rain and eventually cancelled due to infrastructure damage caused by the rain and scheduling conflicts. Bob Criss was killed in a private test at Phoenix before he could enter another event. He was 35 years old. The USAC National Champion was Roger McCluskey and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Gordon Johncock.

In this tragic season, two drivers were killed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Art Pollard died in an accident while practicing for the Indy 500 while Swede Savage, who crashed during the race, died by complications one month later. Another driver, Salt Walther, suffered serious burns surviving a crash at the start of the race. In response to those accidents, USAC revised the rules in time for the Pocono 500. The rear wing width was cut back from 64 inches to 55, fuel tank capacity was drastically reduced (from 75 gallons to 40) and the allowable fuel to be consumed in a 500-mile race was reduced from 375 gallons to 340.

Entrants

(partial list)

Team	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	Rounds
A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Coyote	Foyt	A.J. Foyt	1-4, 6-8, 11-15
All American Racers	Eagle	Offenhauser	Wally Dallenbach	4
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bobby Unser	1-8, 11-16
Bob Fletcher	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lee Kunzman	10-12, 14-16
Commander Racing Team	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lloyd Ruby	1, 4-8, 10-16
Andy Granatelli	Eagle	Offenhauser	Wally Dallenbach	1-2, 5-9, 11-12, 14-16
Gerhardt	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mike Hiss	1-9, 11-15
Jerry O"Connell Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bill Vukovich II	1-9, 11-16
Leader Card Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mike Mosley	1-8, 10-16
Lindsey Hopkins Racing	McLaren	Offenhauser	Roger McCluskey	1-9, 11-12, 14-16
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lee Kunzman	1-7
McLaren	McLaren	Offenhauser	Johnny Rutherford	1-2, 4-8, 10-16
Patrick Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Gordon Johncock	1-9, 11-12, 14-16
Team Penske	McLaren	Offenhauser	Gary Bettenhausen	1-8, 10-16
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	Parnelli	Offenhauser	Mario Andretti	1-8, 10-16
	Parnelli	Offenhauser	Al Unser	1-8, 10-12, 14-16
	Parnelli	Offenhauser	Joe Leonard	1-9, 11-16

Schedule and results

All races running on Oval/Speedway.

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Track	Location	Pole Position	Winning Driver
-	March 17 & 31 A	Phoenix 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Race postponed twice; eventually cancelled
1	April 7	Texas 200	Texas World Speedway	College Station, Texas	Bobby Unser	Al Unser
2	April 15	Trentonian 300 Heat #1	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Gordon Johncock	A. J. Foyt
3		Trentonian 300 Heat #2			A. J. Foyt	Mario Andretti
4	May 28, 29 & 30 B	International 500 Mile Sweepstakes	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	Johnny Rutherford	Gordon Johncock
5	June 10	Rex Mays Classic	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Bobby Unser	Bobby Unser
6	July 1	Schaefer 500	Pocono International Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	Peter Revson	A. J. Foyt
7	July 15	Michigan 200	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Bobby Unser	Roger McCluskey
8	August 12	Tony Bettenhausen 200	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Wally Dallenbach Sr.	Wally Dallenbach Sr.
9	August 26	California 500 Qualification Heat 1	Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario, California	Gordon Johncock	Wally Dallenbach Sr.
10		California 500 Qualification Heat 2			Johnny Rutherford	Johnny Rutherford
11	September 2	California 500			Peter Revson	Wally Dallenbach Sr.
12	September 16	Michigan Twin 125s #1	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Gordon Johncock	Bill Vukovich II
13		Michigan Twin 125s #2			Gary Bettenhausen	Johnny Rutherford
14	September 23	Trenton 200	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Gordon Johncock	Gordon Johncock
15	October 6	Texas 200	Texas World Speedway	College Station, Texas	Mario Andretti	Gary Bettenhausen
16	November 3	Arizona 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Gordon Johncock	Gordon Johncock

^A Postponed due to infrastructure damage, and again on March 28 due to continued flooding. Eventually cancelled due to scheduling conflicts.

^B Scheduled for 500 miles, stopped early due to rain. See 1973 Indy 500

Final points standings

Note: Sam Posey, Peter Revson, Mark Donohue, David Hobbs, Jerry Grant, John Cannon, Graham McRae and Bobby Allison are not eligible for points. The Rookie of the Year was not awarded, because every rookie was not eligible for points.

Further information: List of American Championship car racing point scoring systems

Pos Driver TWS TRE INDY MIL POC MIS MIL ONT MIS TRE TWS PHX Pts 200 150 500 150 500 200 200 Q-H1 Q-H2 500 125 200 200 150 1 Roger McCluskey 7 8 6 3 2 2 1 6 2 4 4 13 18 4 3705 2 Wally Dallenbach Sr. DNQ DNQ 24 4 29 6 1 1 1 23 3 6 2 2620 3 Johnny Rutherford 4 15 9 5 5 2 18 1 31 3 1 4 2 Wth 2595 4 Bill Vukovich II 15 3 2 2 22 24 3 3 12 24 1 15 6 20 3 2440 5 Mario Andretti 25 4 1 30 8 7 5 19 12 2 5 2 7 17 7 2400 6 Mike Mosley 3 9 8 10 24 4 10 2 5 3 18 14 23 20 2345 7 Gordon Johncock 23 2 21 1 18 14 9 17 5 32 16 1 7 1 2240 8 Gary Bettenhausen 2 6 17 5 3 27 24 20 2 19 2 8 24 1 6 2093 9 Lloyd Ruby DNQ 27 21 3 4 DNQ 8 28 6 4 8 4 11 1610 10 A. J. Foyt 11 1 11 25 1 13 25 10 13 14 20 10 1580 11 Lee Kunzman 8 11 9 7 6 20 12 3 13 20 10 3 5 1260 12 Bobby Unser 20 19 15 13 1 10 20 DNQ 7 10 16 2 15 18 1108 13 Al Unser 1 7 3 20 9 33 22 26 4 9 21 25 16 19 1080 14 Mike Hiss 22 14 13 17 10 6 25 5 3 27 9 3 21 11 1050 15 Joe Leonard 5 13 5 18 7 8 23 7 9 21 12 7 9 19 15 1018 16 Mel Kenyon 12 12 10 4 18 8 9 16 DNQ 9 940 17 John Martin 8 13 28 7 13 5 870 18 Steve Krisiloff DNS 18 6 16 22 18 21 6 12 7 6 11 8 21 845 19 Jim McElreath 23 11 11 4 6 20 5 16 650 20 Dick Simon 6 10 7 14 17 12 17 22 11 22 DNS 23 21 8 440 21 Jimmy Caruthers 21 16 21 12 16 19 8 4 15 8 9 22 DNS 9 408 22 Johnny Parsons DNQ 30 14 13 9 25 11 5 15 5 22 390 23 Bentley Warren 21 16 DNQ DNQ 16 7 8 DNQ 12 22 10 375 24 Swede Savage 13 5 4 22 330 25 Tom Bigelow DNQ 14 32 15 7 11 160 26 Lee Brayton 10 17 12 DNQ 15 DNQ 15 10 16 12 17 133 27 Sam Sessions 9 DNQ 28 13 11 23 DNQ 120 28 John Hubbard DNQ 19 DNQ 10 14 12 73 29 John Mahler Wth 8 26 50 30 Jerry Karl 26 23 26 11 18 DNQ 40 31 Tom Sneva  R  26 DNQ DNQ DNQ 21 14 10 17 19 14 30 32 George Snider 12 25 14 12 29 33 Larry Cannon DNQ DNQ 16 11 17 14 25 34 Jigger Sirois DNQ Wth 12 DNS 13 DNQ 20 - Sam Posey DNQ 9 11 6 0 - John Cannon 10 30 0 - David Hobbs 11 31 13 DNQ 0 - Bob Harkey 29 15 DNQ 13 0 - Eldon Rasmussen DNQ DNQ 13 0 - Larry McCoy 14 20 14 DNQ DNQ DNQ 26 15 22 26 24 0 - Bill Simpson DNQ 14 DNQ 26 0 - Mark Donohue 15 17 DNQ 29 0 - Al Loquasto DNQ DNQ DNQ 16 24 DNQ 19 18 0 - Salt Walther 16 22 33 0 - Graham McRae  R  16 DNQ 0 - Dee Jones 17 24 19 Wth 0 - Rick Muther 18 DNQ 19 DNQ DNQ 25 0 - Crockey Peterson 23 18 20 0 - Jerry Grant 19 33 0 - Art Pollard 19 DNQ Wth 0 - Joe Tetz DNQ 20 0 - Peter Revson 31 21 23 0 - Jim Hurtubise DNQ 23 DNQ 0 - Larry Dickson 24 Wth 0 - Bobby Allison  R  32 0 - Gig Stephens DNS 0 - Billy Shuman DNQ 0 - Arnie Knepper DNQ 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNQ 0 - Greg Weld DNQ 0 - Dan Murphy DNQ 0 - Benny Rapp DNQ 0 Pos Driver TWS1 200 TRE1 150 TRE2 150 INDY 500 MIL1 150 POC 500 MIS1 200 MIL2 200 ONT Q-H1 ONT Q-H2 ONT 500 MIS2 125 MIS3 125 TRE3 200 TWS2 200 PHX 150 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  RY  Rookie of the Year  R  Rookie

References

• Åberg, Andreas. "USAC National Championship 1973". Driver Database. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
• Harms, Phil; Ferner, Michael; Measures, Gerry; Brown, Allen. "Indy 500 and USAC racing (1971-1978)". OldRacingCars.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
• "1973 USAC National Championship Trail". ChampCarStats.com. Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
• Harms, Phil. "1973 Championship Driver Summary" (PDF). Motorsport.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 10, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
• http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (p. 225-227)
• http://www.champcarstats.com/drivers/CrissBob.htm
• https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1973.htm Retrieved August 9, 2025
• https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1973/ Retrieved August 9, 2025

See also

• 1973 Indianapolis 500