The 1978 USAC Championship Car season consisted of 18 races, beginning at Phoenix on March 18 and concluding at the same location on October 28. The USAC National Champion was Tom Sneva and the Indianapolis 500 winner was Al Unser. This was the last year before the first USAC/CART "Split". By winning the Indianapolis 500, Pocono 500, and California 500, Al Unser swept the Indy car "Triple Crown", the only driver in history to do so.

The 1978 season is also statistically noteworthy. Danny Ongais won the most races (5), and Al Unser swept the triple crown races, but it was Tom Sneva (who did not win a single race) who won the championship title. Sneva had six 2nd place finishes, and twelve top 5s, and seven poles (including Indianapolis and Ontario), and experienced more consistent finishes. Sneva became the second driver to win the USAC championship without winning a race during the season, the last being Tony Bettenhausen in 1958. Sneva's "winless" championship was not without its critics, however, a statistician calculated points results using contemporary points tables from other major racing series, and concluded that Sneva would have still won the title in nearly every scenario.

The 1978 season was also a break-out year for future champion Rick Mears. Mario Andretti was running the full Formula One season (of which he would be World Champion). Andretti was running a partial Indy car schedule for Penske Racing, and Roger Penske hired the young Mears to fill in for Andretti the weekends he was overseas. Mears, who had spent two years in lesser-funded rides, jumped at the opportunity to drive for Penske, even though it was only a part-time ride. Mears won Co-Rookie of the Year at Indy, won three races, and despite running only 11 of 18 races, finished 9th in points. Entrants (partial list)

TeamChassisEngineDriversRounds A.J. Foyt EnterprisesCoyote (1-11, 13, 16-17) Parnelli (12, 14-15, 18)Foyt (1-11, 13, 16-17) Cosworth (12, 14-15, 18) A.J. Foyt All All American RacersLightning (1-4) Eagle (5-13, 16-18)Cosworth Bobby Unser 1-13, 16-18 Chapparal RacingChapparal (1-2, 6-18) Lola (3, 5)Cosworth Al Unser 1-3, 5-18 Bob FletcherLightningOffenhauser Pancho Carter 5-11, 13-15, 18 Interscope RacingParnelliCosworth Danny Ongais All Jerry O"Connell RacingMcLaren (1-14, 16-18) Lightning (15)Cosworth Wally Dallenbach 1-7, 9, 12-14 Leader Card RacingEagle (1-4) Watson (5-18)Offenhauser Tom Bagley All Lindsey Hopkins RacingLightningOffenhauser Johnny Parsons 1-15, 18 McLarenMcLarenCosworth Johnny Rutherford All Patrick RacingWildcatDGS Gordon Johncock AllWildcatDGS (1-13, 15, 18) Offenhauser (14, 16-17) Steve Krisiloff All Team PenskePenskeCosworth Tom Sneva AllPenskeCosworth Mario Andretti 2-5, 7, 13-15, 18PenskeCosworth Rick Mears 1, 5-7, 9-13, 16-17

Schedule and results

Rnd Date Race name Track Location Pole position Winning driver 1 March 18 Jimmy Bryan 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona Danny Ongais Gordon Johncock 2 March 26 Datsun Twin 200 Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario, California Tom Sneva Danny Ongais 3 April 15 Coors 200 Texas World Speedway College Station, Texas Danny Ongais Danny Ongais 4 April 23 Gabriel 200 Trenton International Speedway Trenton, New Jersey Tom Sneva Gordon Johncock 5 May 28 International 500 Mile Sweepstakes Indianapolis Motor Speedway Speedway, Indiana Tom Sneva Al Unser 6 June 11 Molson Diamond Indy Mosport Park Bowmanville, Ontario Danny Ongais Danny Ongais 7 June 18 Rex Mays Classic Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis, Wisconsin Danny Ongais Rick Mears 8 June 25 Schaefer 500 Pocono International Raceway Long Pond, Pennsylvania Danny Ongais Al Unser 9 July 16 Norton Twin 200 Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan Tom Sneva Johnny Rutherford 10 July 23 Gould Twin Dixie Atlanta International Raceway Hampton, Georgia Tom Sneva Rick Mears 11 August 6 Texas Grand Prix Texas World Speedway College Station, Texas Tom Sneva A. J. Foyt 12 August 20 Tony Bettenhausen 200 Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway West Allis, Wisconsin Danny Ongais Danny Ongais 13 September 3 California 500 Ontario Motor Speedway Ontario, California Tom Sneva Al Unser 14 September 16 Gould Grand Prix Michigan International Speedway Brooklyn, Michigan Johnny Rutherford Danny Ongais 15 September 23 Machinist Union 150 Trenton International Speedway Trenton, New Jersey A. J. Foyt Mario Andretti 16 October 1 Daily Express Indy Silverstone Silverstone Circuit Silverstone, England Danny Ongais A. J. Foyt 17 October 7 Daily Mail Indy Trophy Brands Hatch (Indy Circuit) Fawkham, England Al Unser Rick Mears 18 October 29 Miller High Life Bobby Ball Memorial 150 Phoenix International Raceway Avondale, Arizona Danny Ongais Johnny Rutherford

Final points standings

Note: Janet Guthrie is not eligible for points.

Pos Driver PHX1 ONT1 TWS1 TRE1 INDY MOS MIL1 POC MIS1 ATL TWS2 MIL2 ONT2 MIS2 TRE2 SLV BRH PHX2 Pts 1 Tom Sneva 22 2 2 3 2 4 15 3 2 8 5 15 23 2 3 3 2 16 4153 2 Al Unser 10 3 Wth 1 12 8 1 17 14 17 5 1 17 4 10 15 5 4031 3 Gordon Johncock 1 19 3 1 3 DNQ 22 14 19 7 7 3 3 3 14 4 11 3 3548 4 Johnny Rutherford 16 13 19 10 13 8 2 2 1 2 2 8 11 13 11 5 3 1 3067 5 A. J. Foyt 3 4 17 2 7 16 19 8 16 4 1 4 28 5 19 1 4 2 3024 6 Wally Dallenbach Sr. 14 9 4 11 5 11 3 4 3 9 4 7 10 11 6 14 5 6 2966 7 Steve Krisiloff 2 14 8 5 4 3 4 32 14 5 3 6 7 15 5 6 DNQ 8 2874 8 Danny Ongais 12 1 1 4 18 1 16 19 6 21 DNS 1 12 1 15 15 9 4 2662 9 Rick Mears 5 23 2 1 22 1 9 2 9 2 1 2171 10 Pancho Carter 24 15 21 10 DNQ 11 11 2 18 7 9 1206 11 Tom Bagley 8 17 10 12 27 17 7 26 12 6 16 DNS 4 6 12 13 14 14 1188 12 Bobby Unser 18 16 13 20 6 19 17 20 5 3 8 20 13 8 13 11 1122 13 Larry Dickson 17 5 14 22 5 5 5 11 1121 14 Johnny Parsons DNS 18 11 17 10 9 9 22 4 20 18 19 15 7 2 DNQ 978 15 George Snider 8 6 15 DNS 27 11 8 20 766 16 Tom Bigelow 15 7 12 8 21 14 6 15 8 10 4 18 764 17 Mario Andretti 15 5 13 12 23 DNS 20 1 7 681 18 Dick Simon 4 6 19 18 30 13 18 6 21 14 12 7 22 670 19 Jim McElreath 6 7 20 25 7 13 12 12 20 9 DNQ 12 573 20 Salt Walther 13 11 7 15 28 7 11 13 18 29 7 6 DNQ 562 21 Cliff Hucul 7 33 10 17 DNQ 21 9 8 13 519 22 Lee Kunzman DNQ 33 DNQ 18 5 513 23 Sheldon Kinser 6 8 15 14 32 12 DNQ 17 19 11 17 8 10 19 495 24 Mike Mosley 17 DNQ 14 7 DNQ 13 DNQ 16 8 10 483 25 Roger Mears 6 DNQ 400 26 Bobby Olivero 9 10 9 6 Wth 360 27 Al Loquasto DNQ 13 12 9 10 19 13 19 321 28 Joe Saldana 15 21 9 10 10 DNQ 10 DNQ 16 10 314 29 Gary Bettenhausen 21 12 19 16 6 DNQ 29 22 9 21 294 30 Spike Gehlhausen 20 23 16 18 29 DNQ 13 31 20 22 14 16 21 16 17 9 12 17 188 31 Larry Cannon DNQ 10 11 DNQ 15 17 22 19 DNQ DNQ 184 32 Larry Rice DNQ 9 11 DNQ DNQ 180 33 Jerry Karl 11 21 21 22 14 18 DNS 20 104 34 Jerry Sneva 31 16 DNQ 16 25 14 18 DNQ 62 35 Roger McCluskey 19 20 20 21 25 24 13 61 36 Phil Threshie 30 18 20 24 21 DNQ 30 45 37 Todd Gibson 15 14 16 15 34 38 Vern Schuppan 18 16 20 26 39 Bob Harkey 22 DNQ 18 26 40 Bill Vukovich II DNQ 28 26 20 41 Eldon Rasmussen DNQ DNQ 12 DNQ 15 42 Roger Rager DNQ DNQ DNQ DNQ 12 15 43 John Mahler 26 10 44 Bubby Jones Wth 27 10 45 Chuck Gurney DNQ 24 6 - Janet Guthrie 9 0 - Ed Finley DNQ 0 - Tom Gloy DNQ DNQ 0 - Jim Hurtubise DNQ 0 - Gary Irvin DNQ 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNQ 0 - John Martin DNQ 0 - Graham McRae DNQ 0 - Frank Weiss DNQ 0 - Mike Hiss QL 0 Pos Driver PHX1 ONT1 TWS1 TRE1 INDY MOS MIL1 POC MIS1 ATL TWS2 MIL2 ONT2 MIS2 TRE2 SLV BRH PHX2 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. 214-216) https://www.champcarstats.com/year/1978.htm Retrieved August 9, 2025 https://www.oldracingcars.com/indy/1978/ Retrieved August 9, 2025 https://www.racingyears.com/results/1978/USAC Retrieved August 9, 2025

See also 1978 Indianapolis 500