1975 USAC Championship Car season

1975 USAC Championship Car season
USAC National Championship Trail
Season
Races	13
Start date	March 2
End date	November 9
Awards
National champion	A. J. Foyt
Indianapolis 500 winner	Bobby Unser
←  1974 1976  →

The 1975 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 13 races, beginning in Ontario, California on March 2 and concluding in Avondale, Arizona on November 9. The USAC National Champion was A. J. Foyt and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Bobby Unser.

Entrants

(partial list)

Team	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	Rounds
A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Coyote	Foyt	A.J. Foyt	1, 3-13
All American Racers	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bobby Unser	2-3, 6-9, 11
Bob Fletcher	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lee Kunzman	1, 3
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Pancho Carter	1, 3-4, 6-13
MVS	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lee Kunzman	6
Alex Morales	Eagle	Offenhauser	Jimmy Caruthers	2-4, 6, 8-12
Gerhardt	Eagle	Offenhauser	Gary Bettenhausen	1, 3-4, 7-10, 13
Grant King	King	Offenhauser	Bentley Warren	6, 8
	King	Offenhauser	Sheldon Kinser	6, 8
Jerry O"Connell Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bill Vukovich II	2-4, 6-11, 13
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mike Mosley	1, 3-10
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Al Unser	12
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mario Andretti	13
Joe Hunt	Eagle	Offenhauser	John Martin	13
Lindsey Hopkins Racing	McLaren (5) Riley (1, 3-4, 6-13)	Offenhauser	Roger McCluskey	1, 3-13
George Walther	McLaren	Offenhauser	Salt Walther	2-9, 11-12
Gerhardt	Eagle	Offenhauser	George Snider	9
Dick Simon	Eagle	Foyt	Dick Simon	2-13
Leader Card Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	George Snider	2-13
Al Loquasto	McLaren	Offenhauser	Al Loquasto	2-6, 8-9, 11-13
John Martin	McLaren	Offenhauser	John Martin	1, 3-12
McLaren	McLaren	Offenhauser	Johnny Rutherford	2-13
Patrick Racing	Eagle (3-4) Wildcat (1, 5-13)	Offenhauser (3-4) (DGS (1, 5-13)	Gordon Johncock	1, 3-13
	Eagle (1-5, 10) Wildcat (6-9, 11-13)	Offenhauser (1-5, 10) DGS (6-9, 11-13)	Wally Dallenbach	2-13
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Steve Krisiloff	2-13
Team Penske	McLaren	Offenhauser	Tom Sneva	1, 3-6, 8-13
	McLaren	Offenhauser	Bobby Allison	2-3, 6, 8-9
Vatis Enterprises	Finley	Offenhauser	Lee Kunzman	8
	Finley (1, 3-5, 7-12) Eagle (6)	Offenhauser	Johnny Parsons	1, 3-12
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mario Andretti	3, 6, 8
	Eagle (1, 3, 6, 8) Parnelli (13)	Offenhauser (1, 3, 6, 8) Cosworth (13)	Al Unser	1, 3, 6, 8, 13
Volstedt Enterprises	Volstedt	Offenhauser	Tom Bigelow	2-3, 6-10, 13

Schedule and results

All races running on Oval/Speedway.

Rnd	Date	Race name	Track	Location	Pole position	Winning driver
1A	March 2	California 500 Qualification Heat 1	Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario, California	A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
1B		California 500 Qualification Heat 2			Bobby Unser	Wally Dallenbach Sr.
2	March 9	California 500			A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
3	March 16	Bricklin 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Gordon Johncock	Johnny Rutherford
4	April 6	Trenton 200	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Tom Sneva	A. J. Foyt
NC	April 27	World Series of Auto Racing	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	A. J. Foyt	Johnny Rutherford
5	May 25	International 500 Mile Sweepstakes ^1	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	A. J. Foyt	Bobby Unser
6	June 8	Rex Mays Classic	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
7	June 29	Schaefer 500	Pocono International Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	Gordon Johncock	A. J. Foyt
8	July 20	Norton 200	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
9	August 17	Tony Bettenhausen 200	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	Johnny Rutherford	Mike Mosley
10	September 13	Michigan Grand Prix	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	A. J. Foyt	Tom Sneva
11	September 21	Trenton 150	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	A. J. Foyt	Gordon Johncock
12	November 9	Phoenix 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Gordon Johncock	A. J. Foyt

  Non-championship race

^1 Scheduled for 500 miles, stopped early due to rain.

Final points standings

Note 1: Bobby Allison and George Follmer are not eligible for points.
Note 2: Jerry Grant scored points at Ontario but competed with an FIA license.
Note 3: Bentley Warren scored 100 points at Pocono, but forfeited those points due to a rule violation.

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

Pos Driver ONT Q-H1 ONT Q-H2 ONT 500 PHX1 150 TRE1 200 WSE INDY 500 MIL1 150 POC 500 MIS1 200 MIL2 200 MIS2 150 TRE2 150 PHX2 150 Pts 1 A. J. Foyt 1 1 3 1 4 3 1 1 1 20 7 2 1 4920 2 Johnny Rutherford 2 17 1 2 1 2 3 6 6 13 2 3 11 2900 3 Bobby Unser 10 2 1 2 22 5 3 2489 4 Wally Dallenbach Sr. 1 10 6 5 3 9 4 2 19 4 16 5 12 2305 5 Bill Vukovich II 4 23 4 9 6 7 3 3 8 11 4 2080 6 Tom Sneva 9 6 7 6 7 22 29 2 3 1 13 2 1830 7 Roger McCluskey 8 13 DNQ 7 6 5 8 4 12 19 5 6 18 1675 8 Steve Krisiloff 3 3 5 4 5 11 17 28 8 5 DNQ 15 20 1630 9 Pancho Carter 2 19 8 4 6 24 4 14 8 DNQ 8 1345 10 Gordon Johncock 5 15 2 10 2 31 14 20 11 2 6 1 23 1280 11 John Martin 6 5 13 9 8 27 15 7 21 7 18 8 17 1180 12 Mike Mosley 10 11 9 3 26 5 31 13 1 1020 13 Jimmy Caruthers 5 21 DNQ 14 8 7 6 4 7 930 14 Gary Bettenhausen 11 14 10 15 9 5 DNS 6 745 15 Lee Kunzman 3 4 DNQ 17 740 16 Bill Puterbaugh 7 9 9 560 17 Al Unser 7 26 16 32 4 5 450 18 George Snider DNS 20 18 8 10 22 400 19 Al Loquasto 15 7 11 DNQ DNQ 12 14 17 14 16 380 20 Eldon Rasmussen 7 9 24 19 16 12 21 275 21 Salt Walther 12 8 17 13 33 DNP 33 DNQ 22 18 260 22 Dick Simon 13 24 14 8 11 21 13 23 9 17 15 11 13 220 23 Mario Andretti 28 28 25 3 210 24 Spike Gehlhausen  RY  10 10 15 19 10 14 165 25 Billy Scott 4 29 DNQ 120 26 Tom Bigelow 11 16 18 12 21 16 9 19 115 27 Johnny Parsons DNS 25 12 12 10 19 20 26 15 21 13 9 115 28 John Hubbard 14 Wth 21 10 10 16 DNQ 105 29 Larry Cannon DNQ 12 9 12 100 30 Jim McElreath 18 DNS 12 7 90 31 Tom Frantz  R  19 11 11 14 17 24 70 32 Sheldon Kinser  R  12 15 50 33 Lloyd Ruby 32 10 45 34 Jerry Karl 9 33 13 16 40 35 Billy Cassella  R  11 40 36 Bob Harkey DNS 30 16 10 30 21 15 14 - Bobby Allison 6 32 25 27 17 0 - George Follmer 8 DNQ Wth 0 - Bentley Warren 23 11 0 - Jerry Grant 16 12 20 14 18 DNS 0 - Rick Muther 27 DNQ 13 0 - Lee Brayton 14 22 0 - Chuck Gurney  R  15 15 Wth 18 0 - Mel Cornett 16 0 - Sam Sessions 17 0 - Larry McCoy 31 30 18 20 20 DNP 0 - Ed Finley  R  18 0 - Benny Rapp 19 0 - Frank Weiss  R  22 0 - Larry Dickson 22 0 - Mike Hiss 29 0 - Bill Simpson DNS Wth 0 - Dan Murphy DNP Wth 0 - Jim Hurtubise DNQ 0 - Graham McRae DNQ 0 - Bob Nagel Wth 0 - Jan Opperman DNQ 0 - Jigger Sirois Wth 0 - Jerry Sneva Wth 0 - Ken Nichols DNQ 0 - Jack Owens DNQ 0 - John Cannon DNP 0 - Michel Jourdain Sr. DNP 0 - Joe Leonard DNP 0 - Steve Chassey DNP 0 Pos Driver ONT Q-H1 ONT Q-H2 ONT 500 PHX1 150 TRE1 200 WSE INDY 500 MIL1 150 POC 500 MIS1 200 MIL2 200 MIS2 150 TRE2 150 PHX2 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 1975". Driver Database. Archived from the original on March 25, 2008. Retrieved May 4, 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 4, 2009.
• "1975 USAC National Championship Trail". ChampCarStats.com. Archived from the original on October 13, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
• Harms, Phil. "1975 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. 221-222)
• https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1975.htm Retrieved August 9, 2025
• https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1975/ Retrieved August 9, 2025
• https://www.racingyears.com/results/1975/USAC Retrieved August 9, 2025

See also

• 1975 Indianapolis 500