1980 Pocono 500

After the controversial battle in 1979 between USAC and CART the landscape of Indy car racing was starting to settle into a more civilized fashion. During the offseason, USAC published their 1980 schedule, which featured such races as the Indianapolis 500, Talladega, and Charlotte.[2]

In the aftermath of the 1979 Pocono 500, Pocono Raceway was in bad financial shape. They filed an antitrust lawsuit against CART seeking damages in August 1979, but needed additional money. In February 1980, it was announced that Pocono would be rented by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the entire 1980 season and all of the races would be promoted by Indianapolis. The infusion of cash was necessary to pay off creditors. Pocono personnel would continue to work at the track but additional personnel from Indianapolis would come in.[3]

On Thursday morning, Mike Mosley posted the fastest practice speed at 185.682 mph and asserted himself as a favorite for the pole.[4]

Bobby Unser won the pole with an average speed of 185.491 mph. A.J. Foyt qualified second at an average speed of 184.729 mph. It was reported that Foyt's straightaway speeds were 20 mph faster than anyone else. Some competitors, including Bobby Unser, accused Foyt of using Nitrous Oxide, with Unser saying "You can't prove it, but he was cheating. He doesn't have to do that. It's a shame because he knocked Mike Mosley off the front row."[5][6]

Johnny Parsons suffered a hard crash during qualifying. Driving the same chassis that Janet Guthrie failed to qualify at Indianapolis with, Parsons cut a right-front tire on his second qualifying lap and hit the turn two wall. Parsons was uninjured but his car was demolished.[7]

At the start of the race, A.J. Foyt extended his lead. After one lap, Gary Bettenhausen fell out of the race with clutch problems. Three laps later, Gary's younger brother Tony Bettenhausen Jr. blew an engine and stalled on track, bringing out the first caution.[8]

On his final pitstop, Rutherford stalled the car leaving the pits with a blown clutch and the car had to be push started. Unser led the final 37 laps and won by a margin of 21 seconds over Rutherford.[9]

After the race, Mario Andretti accused AJ Foyt of cheating. "There was no way he could have pulled out and passed us the way he was doing it if everything was legal. No way, it's not in the car, my friends."[10] Andretti questioned whether Foyt had exceeded the legal level of turbo boost, saying, "there's no way he could be running with 48 inches."[11]

Foyt claimed his speed was due to aggressive engine tuning to keep up with ground-effects cars. "We knew it would be marginal. We were turning excessive RPMs, but we had to do that to keep up with the ground-effects racers. I knew it would be touch and go. I knew it would be a gamble, and the engine just broke."[12]