SPEED SPORT has been reporting on and covering motorsports happenings from all over the world for 85 years, so we thought it would be fun to take a look back in the archives to see what happened 10, 25 and 50 years ago each week.
So check out what SPEED SPORT was covering 10, 25 and 50 years ago this week in Looking Back!
10 Years Ago (June 24, 2009): Kasey Kahne survived multiple restarts to post a victory in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition at Infineon Raceway. Kahne, who’d never finished higher than 23rd at the track before, led the final 34 laps of the 113-lap event and held off road course aces Tony Stewart and Marcos Ambrose to post the first victory for the revamped Richard Petty Motorsports program.
Other Happenings: Chevrolet, facing a chapter 11 bankruptcy, confirmed to Chevrolet NASCAR teams that funding was going to be slashed; Dario Franchitti won the Indy Racing League event at Iowa Speedway; Sebastian Vettel was the class of the field during the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone Circuit.
25 Years Ago (June 22, 1994): Rusty Wallace survived a shootout with Dale Earnhardt and Mark Martin to win the Miller Genuine Draft 400 in front of the largest crowd ever to witness a race at Michigan Int’l Speedway. Wallace’s third-straight NASCAR Winston Cup Series victory pushed his career NASCAR earnings above the $10 million mark.
Other Happenings: USAC lowered the turbocharger boost pressure for purpose-built two-valve pushrod engines in a move that adversely affected the Mercedes-Benz Ilmor engine that won the 1994 Indianapolis 500; Paul Grosso and Dave Inness were killed in separate racing accidents in California and New Jersey; Dale Blaney and Ed Lynch Jr. earned two All Star Circuit of Champions victories each during Western Pennsylvania All Star Sprint Speedweek while Frankie Kerr won the week-long title.
50 Years Ago (June 25, 1969): Bobby Unser ended a 19-race winless drought in Indy car competition with a $50,000 victory at Langhorne Int’l Motor Speedway. The race originally began on June 15, but was postponed by rain until the following Sunday. Unser led 101 laps on the paved oval, finishing 10 seconds clear of Art Pollard to take home the victory.
Other Happenings: A.J. Foyt beat Don White to win the Indiana Classic 100-miler for stock cars in Indianapolis; Richard Petty and Bobby Isaac split a pair of NASCAR Grand National events at Kingsport Speedway and Greenville-Pickens Speedway; Pete Hamilton won the Norris Friel 400 at Beltsville (Md.) Speedway after it was shortened to 300 laps; Jim Shampine ended a dry spell of more than a year with a victory at Oswego Speedway.