1970 Motor Trend 500

1970 Motor Trend 500
Race details[1][2]
Race 1 of 48 in the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season

Layout of Riverside International Raceway
Date January 18, 1970 (1970-January-18)
Official name Motor Trend 500
Location Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California
Course Permanent racing facility
2.700 mi (4.345 km)
Distance 400 laps, 502 mi (808 km)
Weather Chilly with temperatures approaching 68.9 °F (20.5 °C); wind speeds up to 18.1 miles per hour (29.1 km/h)
Average speed 97.450 miles per hour (156.831 km/h)
Pole position
Driver
Petty Enterprises
Most laps led
Driver Parnelli Jones Wood Brothers Racing
Laps 88
Winner
No. 11 A.J. Foyt Jack Bowsher & Associates
Television in the United States
Network Untelevised
Announcers None

The 1970 Motor Trend 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Sprint Cup Series) event that was held on January 18, 1970, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.

NASCAR's then-humble organization made it affordable for many local, regional, and obscure sponsors to appear on the Grand National Level; including stock car automobile magazines aimed at a small group of hardcore NASCAR fans.[3] Sponsorship today is very expensive for the NASCAR Cup Series and many corporate brands like Kellog's, M&M's and DuPont have scaled back their sponsorship due to recent changes in the American economy.

Summary

The Plymouth Superbird would make its first ever NASCAR appearance during this race. Six cautions were handed out by NASCAR for 31 complete laps.[2] A.J. Foyt was the winner of the race in his 1970 Ford Torino; defeating Roger McCluskey by 3½ seconds.[2] USAC Stock Car champion McCluskey crosses over for his only NASCAR race of the 1970 season and races in his Superbird complete with the popular Looney Tunes character the Road Runner, home second. This was his only NASCAR "top five" and "top ten" finish he had.

There were forty-four competitors in this race; 43 were from the United States of America while one competitor (Lothar Motschenbacher) was from Cologne, West Germany.[2] Jim Cook was involved in a major accident that would leave him using a wheelchair for the rest of his life on lap 94.[2] The other finishers in the top ten were: LeeRoy Yarbrough, Donnie Allison, Richard Petty, Dan Gurney (who would become a mainstay at the track during the 1960s and would leave NASCAR after this year[3]), Neil Castles, Friday Hassler, Jerry Oliver, and Dick Guldstrand.[2] Motschenbacher would start in 31st place and finish the race in 40th.[2]

The average speed of the race was 97.045 miles per hour (156.179 km/h) while Dan Gurney earned the pole position with a qualifying speed of 112.006 miles per hour (180.256 km/h).[2] There was a live attendance of 43,200 fans waiting to see 193 laps of action on a road course.[2] The previous year's event was notable for being a "perfect race." This was the last Winston Cup start for road ringer Frank Deiny. He never finished higher than 30th in any of his races and would finish in 41st place in this event due to wheel bearing issues on lap 4.[4] However, this event included yellow flags.[2]

The winner's purse was considered to be $19,700 ($120,242.59 when adjusted for inflation) while the last-place finisher went home with a meager $800 ($4,882.95 when adjusted for inflation).[5] After combining the prize winnings from all the races, the total amount of money offered at this event was $84,235 ($514,693.21 when adjusted for inflation).[6]

Finishing order

  1. A.J. Foyt
  2. Roger McCluskey
  3. LeeRoy Yarbrough
  4. Donnie Allison
  5. Richard Petty
  6. Dan Gurney
  7. Neil Castles
  8. Friday Hassler
  9. Jerry Oliver
  10. Dick Guldstrand
  11. Parnelli Jones
  12. Kevin Terris
  13. Bobby Allison
  14. Dave Marcis
  15. Sam Rose
  16. Dave Alonzo
  17. David Pearson
  18. Dick Kranzler
  19. Paul Dorrity
  20. Joe Frasson
  21. Frank James
  22. Dick Bown
  23. Randy Dodd
  24. Ray Elder
  25. Jimmy Insolo
  26. Jim Cook
  27. Steve Froines
  28. Sam Posey
  29. Bobby Isaac
  30. Jack McCoy
  31. G.T. Dallas
  32. Les Loeser, Jr.
  33. Dick Brooks
  34. Buddy Young
  35. James Hylton
  36. Elmo Langley
  37. Carl Joiner, Jr.
  38. Don Noel
  39. Don White
  40. Lothar Motschenbacher
  41. Frank Deiny
  42. Scotty Cain
  43. Bob England
  44. Frank Warren

Timeline

References

  1. ↑ "1970 Motor Trend 500 weather information". The Old Farmers' Almanac. Retrieved 2012-08-04.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "1970 Motor Trend 500 information". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  3. 1 2 "Dan Gurney - Motor Trend 500". All American Races. Retrieved 2010-09-24.
  4. ↑ "1969 Motor Trend 500 racing results". Racing Reference. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  5. ↑ "1970 Motor Trend 500 information". Driver Averages. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
  6. ↑ "1970 Motor Trend 500 information". Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet. Retrieved 2012-09-04.
Preceded by
1969 Motor Trend 500		 Motor Trend 500 races
1964-71 		Succeeded by
1971 Motor Trend 500
Preceded by
1969 Texas 500		 NASCAR Grand National Series Season
1969 		Succeeded by
1970 Daytona 500
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