Official name Motor Trend 500 | ||
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Date January 18, 1970 (1970-January-18) Course Permanent racing facility2.700 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) | ||
The 1970 Motor Trend 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) event that was held on January 18, 1970, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California.
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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. 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. A.J. Foyt was the winner of the race in his 1970 Ford Torino; defeating Roger McCluskey by 3½ seconds. 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. Jim Cook was involved in a major accident that would leave him using a wheelchair for the rest of his life on lap 94. 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), Neil Castles, Friday Hassler, Jerry Oliver, and Dick Guldstrand. Motschenbacher would start in 31st place and finish the race in 40th.
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). There was a live attendance of 43,200 fans waiting to see 193 laps of action on a road course. 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. However, this event included yellow flags.
The winner's purse was considered to be $19,700 ($121,491.77 when adjusted for inflation) while the last-place finisher went home with a meager $800 ($4,933.68 when adjusted for inflation). After combining the prize winnings from all the races, the total amount of money offered at this event was $84,235 ($520,040.30 when adjusted for inflation).