Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 90 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 15, 30 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
15 Years Ago — 2009
News: Calling it one of the “biggest days in IndyCar Series history,” IZOD was unveiled as the sponsor of the IRL IndyCar Series amid considerable fanfare at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The clothing company introduced its six-year title sponsorship of IndyCar with an impressive runway that included models dressed in IndyCar and IZOD clothing before culminating with Mike Kelly, the executive vice president of marketing for Philip Van Heusen, announcing that from this point forward it will be the “IZOD IndyCar Series.”
The six-year sponsorship package includes $100,000 per car up to 24-25 cars given to the team owner in the series.
Winners: The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series season wrapped up with a little bow Saturday
night as the season concluded at the third annual World Finals at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
The series’ most dominant driver was in victory lane and its most consistent driver celebrated
his fourth-consecutive championship.
Joey Saldana took the lead from Dale Blaney on lap 15 and paced the remainder of the 30-lap feature for his 20th points-paying triumph of the season and 21st overall in WoO competition.
Meanwhile, a ”nervous” Donny Schatz finished sixth and defeated third-place finisher Jason Meyers by 19 markers to earn his fourth title in as many years. It was the closest point margin in the series’ history.
30 Years Ago — 1994
News: Coast to coast, the battle for dominance at the race track ticket box office is mounting. Just as CART and IRL are feinting for position, so too — and as intensely — is the battle among track promoters.
In the latest cannon blast, Long Beach Grand Prix President Chris Pook announced that his closely held Automotive Safety & Transportation Systems, Inc. had acquired Gateway Int’l in St. Louis.
While Pook was closing the deal on Friday, however, Charlotte and Atlanta Motor Speedway owner Bruton Smith was in a helicopter surveying the St. Louis area for a 600-1,000-acre plot for his envisioned $75 million superspeedway mega-palace.
On the West Coast, announced ovals for Victorville, Fontana, Long Beach, and Hanford pit benevolent power broker Cary Agajanian against Roger Penske’s juggernaut street circuit,
operator extraordinaire Chris Pook and Bill Huth, owner of Willow Springs Int’l Raceway.
Winners: Having won at Charlotte County Speedway earlier this summer, David Steele was familiar with the three-eighths-mile oval.
The 20-year-old Steele used his experience at the track to his advantage to win the Florida 500 sprint car event worth $10,000.
60 Years Ago— 1964
News: Ned has finished the 1965 season the second winningest driver for a single season in NASCAR Grand National stock car racing history.
Jarrett’s victory in Sunday’s 100-mile season finale at Jacksonville Speedway was his 15th of the year, ranking him second only to Tim Flock, who won 17 late model events ·in 1955.
Jarrett’s Ford was more than a lap ahead of Richard Petty’s Plymouth at the finish.
Winners: Freddie Fryar, 29, won the 200-lap Florlda State Late Model Stock Car Championship before a turn-away crowd of 6,000 fans at Golden Gate Speedway Sunday.
Fryar was given the checkered flag ln a somewhat confused finish that left many of the fans believing that Dave Mcinnis, the defending champion, was a repeat winner.
The flag was waved over his roof and he did not see starter Johnny Hicks wave him through as the victor.
“I didn’t see the flag,” he said later in the pits. “ln fact, I wasn’t sure I was leading. I was even disappointed when the checkered didn’t come out. I saw them give the white flag (last lap) to someone behind me.”