1974 USAC Championship Car season

1974 USAC Championship Car season
USAC National Championship Trail
Season
Races	14
Start date	March 3
End date	November 2
Awards
National champion	Bobby Unser
Indianapolis 500 winner	Johnny Rutherford

The 1974 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 14 races, beginning in Ontario, California on March 3 and concluding in Avondale, Arizona on November 2. The USAC National Champion was Bobby Unser and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Johnny Rutherford. Due to the events of the 1973 Indianapolis 500 significant improvements were made to the cars for safety concerns. Wings were reduced in size, and pop-off valves were added to the turbocharger plenums in order to reduce horsepower and curtail speeds.

Entrants

(partial list)

Team	Chassis	Engine	Drivers	Rounds
A.J. Foyt Enterprises	Coyote	Foyt	A.J. Foyt	1, 3-14
All American Racers	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bobby Unser	1, 3-14
Richard Beith	Eagle	Offenhauser	Steve Krisiloff	2-3
Bob Fletcher	Eagle	Offenhauser	Jimmy Caruthers	2-14
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Jerry Grant	2-3, 5-8
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Pancho Carter	6, 8-14
Gerhardt	Eagle	Offenhauser	Jim McElreath	1, 3-8, 14
Jerry O"Connell Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Bill Vukovich II	1, 3-12, 14
Leader Card Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Mike Mosley	1, 3-12, 14
Lindsey Hopkins Racing	McLaren (1, 3-4, 9-10) Eagle (6-8, 11-14)	Offenhauser	Roger McCluskey	1, 3-4, 6-14
McLaren	McLaren	Offenhauser	Johnny Rutherford	2-14
Patrick Racing	Eagle	Offenhauser	Gordon Johncock	1, 3-14
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Wally Dallenbach	1, 3-14
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Steve Krisiloff	6-8, 10, 12-14
Team Penske	McLaren	Offenhauser	Gary Bettenhausen	2-8
Unlimited Racing Team	Eagle	Offenhauser	Lloyd Ruby	1, 3-12
Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing	Parnelli (2-3, 5, 7) Eagle (4, 6, 8-11, 14)	Offenhauser	Mario Andretti	2-11, 14
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Al Unser	2-14
	Eagle	Offenhauser	Joe Leonard	2-3

Schedule and results

All races running on Oval/Speedway.

Rnd	Date	Race name	Track	Location	Pole position	Winning driver
1	March 3	California 500 Qualification Heat 1	Ontario Motor Speedway	Ontario, California	A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
2		California 500 Qualification Heat 2			Johnny Rutherford	Johnny Rutherford
3	March 10	California 500			A. J. Foyt	Bobby Unser
4	March 17	Phoenix 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Al Unser	Mike Mosley
5	April 7	Trentonian 200	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	Mario Andretti	Bobby Unser
6	May 26	International 500 Mile Sweepstakes	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	A. J. Foyt	Johnny Rutherford
7	June 9	Rex Mays Classic	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	A. J. Foyt	Johnny Rutherford
8	June 30	Schaefer 500	Pocono International Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	Bobby Unser	Johnny Rutherford
9	July 21	Michigan 200	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	Bobby Unser	Bobby Unser
10	August 11	Tony Bettenhausen 200	Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway	West Allis, Wisconsin	A. J. Foyt	Gordon Johncock
11	September 15	Norton 250	Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	A. J. Foyt	Al Unser
12	September 22	Trenton 300 Heat #1	Trenton International Speedway	Trenton, New Jersey	A. J. Foyt	A. J. Foyt
13		Trenton 300 Heat #2			A. J. Foyt	Bobby Unser
14	November 2	Bobby Ball 150	Phoenix International Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	Johnny Rutherford	Gordon Johncock

Final points standings

Note 1: Jim Hurtubise, Skip Barber, David Hobbs, Sam Posey and Evan Noyes are not eligible for points.

Note 2: Jerry Grant did not obtain a USAC license until after the Ontario event, making him ineligible for points for the first two races of the year.

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 INDY 500 MIL1 150 POC 500 MIS1 200 MIL2 200 MIS2 250 TRE2 150 TRE3 150 PHX2 150 Pts 1 Bobby Unser 2 1 2 1 2 21 5 1 4 3 2 1 2 4870 2 Johnny Rutherford 1 27 7 6 1 1 1 4 5 9 4 7 7 3650 3 Gordon Johncock 14 26 4 2 4 16 3 3 1 14 11 2 1 3050 4 Al Unser 5 2 18 10 18 5 22 2 9 1 6 5 5 2430 5 Jimmy Caruthers 2 4 19 4 23 20 2 11 13 18 7 9 8 2065 6 Bill Vukovich II 10 21 8 3 3 3 8 5 10 19 18 6 1925 7 Lloyd Ruby 3 5 9 8 9 9 6 DNQ 7 21 DNQ 1580 8 A. J. Foyt 1 30 3 Wth 15 6 27 13 2 24 1 4 4 1510 9 Wally Dallenbach Sr. 7 6 6 13 30 15 10 6 3 11 3 11 18 1445 10 Steve Krisiloff 3 24 22 11 4 23 5 3 22 1130 11 Pancho Carter  RY  7 15 9 12 2 9 6 9 1040 12 Mike Mosley 6 7 1 7 29 10 21 8 18 15 17 DNQ 945 13 Jim McElreath 4 15 10 18 6 7 23 10 700 14 Mario Andretti 9 25 5 9 31 17 17 18 8 10 3 655 15 John Martin 6 9 11 16 12 16 6 600 16 Roger McCluskey 5 8 16 16 18 28 16 6 13 10 16 19 555 17 Tom Sneva 13 12 15 11 20 14 13 10 14 5 8 8 24 550 18 Mike Hiss 31 14 7 4 420 19 Jerry Grant 13 3 5 10 13 DNQ DNP 350 20 Bentley Warren 12 13 11 17 DNQ 7 17 DNQ 340 21 Dick Simon 8 28 13 33 4 29 21 11 15 270 22 Gary Bettenhausen 11 20 14 DNQ 32 2 31 260 23 Bob Harkey 15 17 14 8 26 250 24 Tom Bigelow 9 10 12 DNQ 19 22 23 240 25 Eldon Rasmussen DNQ DNQ 9 20 22 DNQ 200 26 Al Loquasto 18 12 DNQ 11 14 11 12 160 27 Dan Murphy  R  DNQ 19 23 22 7 13 15 DNQ 150 28 Karl Busson 8 12 13 21 140 29 George Snider 10 11 17 28 25 16 130 30 Joe Leonard 4 19 120 31 Salt Walther 8 22 12 17 DNP 20 DNQ 15 10 20 115 32 Bill Simpson 14 14 13 8 18 19 11 105 33 Jerry Karl 7 29 19 12 32 16 75 34 Larry McCoy 16 DNQ 12 15 20 17 Wth 50 35 Mel Kenyon DNQ 12 25 36 Lee Brayton 11 DNS DNQ 14 DNS 20 20 37 John Cannon 12 16 DNS 19 DNQ DNP 10 - David Hobbs 5 DNP 0 - Sam Posey 13 0 - John Hubbard 22 DNQ 19 15 23 DNQ 14 0 - Sam Sessions DNQ 30 14 0 - Billy Scott  R  14 0 - Skip Barber  R  15 32 0 - Max Dudley 15 0 - Benny Rapp  R  DNQ 16 0 - Johnny Parsons 33 26 DNQ DNQ 17 17 0 - Mel Cornett  R  21 0 - Jan Opperman  R  21 23 33 0 - Rick Muther 23 27 DNQ 0 - Jim Hurtubise DNQ 25 24 0 - Larry Rice  R  DNQ Wth 24 0 - Larry Cannon 24 DNQ 0 - Evan Noyes  R  25 0 - Jigger Sirois DNS DNQ 0 - Denny Zimmerman DNS DNQ 0 - Bud Tingelstad DNS 0 - Bruce Jacobi DNQ 0 - John Mahler DNQ 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNQ 0 - Brett Lunger DNQ 0 - Steve Durst DNP 0 Pos Driver ONT Q-H1 ONT Q-H2 ONT 500 PHX1 150 TRE1 200 INDY 500 MIL1 150 POC 500 MIS1 200 MIL2 200 MIS2 250 TRE2 150 TRE3 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 1974". 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. Retrieved May 4, 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
• "1974 USAC National Championship Trail". ChampCarStats.com. Archived from the original on October 25, 2008. Retrieved May 11, 2009.
• Harms, Phil. "1974 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. 223-224)
• https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1974.htm Retrieved August 9, 2025
• https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1974/ Retrieved August 9, 2025
• https://www.racingyears.com/results/1974/USAC Retrieved August 9, 2025

See also

• 1974 Indianapolis 500