1972 USAC Championship Car season

The 1972 USAC Championship Car season consisted of ten races, beginning in Avondale, Arizona on March 18 and concluding at the same location on November 4. The USAC National Champion was Joe Leonard and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Mark Donohue. Jim Malloy was killed at Indianapolis in practice; he was 40 years old.

After sponsoring the USAC Championship Trail in 1970–1971, Marlboro dropped out of the sport for 1972. After only two seasons as title sponsor, the company became angered when rival Viceroy was signed on to sponsor Vel's Parnelli Jones Racing, at the time dubbed the "super team" of the series. Without any exclusivity clause, managers at Marlboro deemed the situation "impractical and untenable," and abruptly quit. Marlboro would not return to Indy car racing until 1986.

Entrants (partial list)

TeamChassisEngineDriversRounds A.J. Foyt EnterprisesCoyoteFoyt A.J. Foyt 1, 3, 8–10Lola (4), Coyote (5, 8)Foyt Sam Sessions 4–5, 8 All American RacersEagleOffenhauser Bobby Unser All Andy GranatelliLolaFoyt Wally Dallenbach 3–10 Gene White RacingLolaFoyt Sam Sessions 3 GerhardtGerhardt (4, 7), Eagle (5–6, 8–10)Offenhauser Johnny Rutherford 4–10 Jerry O'Connell RacingEagleOffenhauser Bill Vukovich II All Leader Card RacingEagleOffenhauser Mike Mosley 1–4, 8–10 Lindsey Hopkins RacingKuzma (1–2, 4, 7, 9) Antares (3) McLaren (5–6, 8, 10)Offenhauser Roger McCluskey AllEagleOffenhauser Wally Dallenbach 1–2Eagle (1, 4–5, 8–10) Kuzma (2) Coyote (3, 6–7)Foyt (1–7) Offenhauser (8–10) Mel Kenyon All McLarenMcLarenOffenhauser Gordon Johncock 2–3, 5–9 Page RacingEagle (1–6, 9–10) McLaren (8)Offenhauser Mike Hiss 1–6, 8–10 Patrick RacingEagle (1–2) Brabham (3)Offenhauser Johnny Rutherford 1–3Eagle (1–4, 7) Brabham (5–6, 8–10)Offenhauser Swede Savage All Team PenskeMcLarenOffenhauser Mark Donohue 1–4, 9–10McLarenOffenhauser Gary Bettenhausen 1–7 Vel's Parnelli Jones RacingColt (1), Parnelli (2–10)Offenhauser Joe Leonard AllColt (1), Parnelli (2–10)Offenhauser Al Unser AllColt (1), Parnelli (2–10)Offenhauser Mario Andretti All

Schedule and results

All races running on Oval/Speedway.

Rnd Date Race name Track Location Pole position Winning driver 1 March 18 Jimmy Bryan 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona Bobby Unser Bobby Unser 2 April 23 Trentonian 200 Trenton International Speedway Trenton, New Jersey Bobby Unser Gary Bettenhausen 3 May 27 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana Bobby Unser Mark Donohue 4 June 4 Rex Mays Classic Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis, Wisconsin Bobby Unser Bobby Unser 5 July 16 Michigan 200 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan Bobby Unser Joe Leonard 6 July 29 Schaefer 500 Pocono International Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania Bobby Unser Joe Leonard 7 August 13 Tony Bettenhausen 200 Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis, Wisconsin Mario Andretti Joe Leonard 8 September 3 California 500 Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario, California Jerry Grant Roger McCluskey 9 September 24 Trenton 300 Trenton International Speedway Trenton, New Jersey Bobby Unser Bobby Unser 10 November 4 Best Western 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona Mark Donohue Bobby Unser

Originally scheduled for July 2, postponed because of rain.

In the fall of 1971, a tentative schedule held the possibility of returning road courses to the championship schedule. Races at Colorado, Brainerd, Bridgehampton, Road Atlanta, Mosport, as well as a return to Rafaela, Argentina, and a new "Florida 500" at the proposed "Florida International Raceway", were all part of an early press release. However, all road courses were ultimately left off, the Argentina race was discontinued, and the Florida race course was never built.

Final points standings

Note: Peter Revson is not eligible for points.

Pos Driver PHX TRE INDY MIL MIS POC MIL ONT TRE PHX Pts 1 Joe Leonard 5 4 3 5 1 1 1 15 3 DNQ 3460 2 Bill Vukovich II 20 18 28 4 11 4 2 3 4 15 2200 3 Roger McCluskey 7 2 24 7 8 11 19 1 8 6 1970 4 Al Unser 6 20 2 19 15 3 15 31 23 4 1800 5 Mark Donohue 17 19 1 2 2 16 1720 6 Mike Hiss 10 7 7 13 26 6 2 14 DNQ 1665 7 Johnny Rutherford 13 Wth 27 21 16 2 3 10 6 5 1620 8 Bobby Unser 1 17 30 1 14 20 Wth 24 1 1 1500 9 Sam Sessions 4 4 15 4 1440 10 Mike Mosley 3 13 26 DNQ 5 5 2 1250 11 Mario Andretti 2 22 8 8 12 7 11 27 28 3 1135 12 Gary Bettenhausen 4 1 14 3 24 19 DNQ 790 13 Wally Dallenbach Sr. 9 6 15 DNQ 2 14 DNQ 21 7 24 720 14 Salt Walther 11 33 DNQ 8 6 27 690 15 Lee Kunzman 22 17 18 5 9 4 26 12 23 670 16 George Snider 16 DNQ 11 23 6 21 18 8 10 10 517 17 Sam Posey 5 5 19 500 18 Lloyd Ruby 21 6 22 26 DNQ 17 18 7 490 19 Mel Kenyon 23 10 18 15 3 13 16 28 11 9 460 20 Art Pollard 14 Wth 7 9 11 450 21 Jimmy Caruthers 9 12 22 10 12 415 22 Gordon Johncock 3 20 9 22 22 13 20 360 23 Rick Muther DNQ 24 20 12 5 15 22 250 24 Jim Malloy 15 5 Wth 200 25 Swede Savage 19 16 32 6 17 23 9 20 19 19 200 26 Dick Simon 18 14 13 9 7 16 12 16 14 200 27 Bill Simpson 24 DNQ 13 24 24 9 17 200 28 Johnny Parsons 6 22 17 DNS 160 29 Cale Yarborough 10 DNQ 150 30 John Mahler 8 22 11 27 25 18 130 31 Jerry Grant 12 20 33 21 8 125 32 Tom Bigelow Wth 21 DNQ 7 13 120 33 Steve Krisiloff 12 21 18 32 14 11 15 18 120 34 John Hubbard 8 100 35 Al Loquasto 9 DNQ DNQ DNQ 80 36 A. J. Foyt 8 25 30 22 21 75 37 Bentley Warren DNQ DNQ 14 18 10 26 20 60 38 Lee Brayton DNQ 10 DNQ 17 DNQ 60 39 Jim McElreath DNQ DNQ 10 DNQ DNS 45 40 George Eaton 11 30 41 Jim Hurtubise 12 21 23 DNQ 23 DNQ 15 42 Greg Weld 33 DNQ 12 6 - John Martin 16 17 17 20 32 13 0 - Dee Jones 13 0 - Carl Williams 29 16 30 14 0 - Joe Tetz 15 23 0 - Larry McCoy DNQ 19 21 24 0 - Denny Zimmerman 19 25 25 0 - Peter Revson 31 31 23 0 - Gig Stephens 23 0 - Merle Bettenhausen DNQ 25 0 - Arnie Knepper DNQ 25 0 - Jerry Karl DNQ 28 29 0 - Bob Harkey DNQ 29 0 - George Follmer DNS 0 - Larry Dickson DNQ DNQ 0 - David Hobbs DNQ 0 - Eldon Rasmussen DNQ 0 - Bruce Walkup DNQ 0 - Jigger Sirois DNQ 0 - Bill Puterbaugh Wth 0 - Bud Tingelstad Wth 0 Pos Driver PHX TRE INDY MIL MIS POC MIL ONT TRE PHX 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 notparticipate(DNP) Not competing In-line notationBoldPole positionItalicsRan fastest race lap*Led most race laps Rookie of the Year Rookie

References

http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf (p. 228–229) https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1972.htm Retrieved July 30, 2025 https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1972/ Retrieved July 30, 2025

See also 1972 Indianapolis 500