page_title: Hiro Matsushita
section_title: CART Champ Car
hierarchical_section_title: Hiro Matsushita / Racing career / CART Champ Car
caption_attribution_description: English: Hiro Matsushita in Toyota Atlantic Championship 1989
context_page_description: Hiroyuki "Hiro" Matsushita, is a former driver in the Champ Car, Formula Atlantic series who won the Toyota Atlantic Championship in 1989 as a first and only Japanese. He is the grandson of Konosuke Matsushita, founder of Panasonic. He is also the first Japanese driver to race at the Indy 500.His father Masaharu Matsushita who served as the second President of Panasonic for sixteen years beginning in 1961. His elder brother Masayuki Matsushita is the current Vice Chairman of Panasonic. His relationship has allowed him to receive financial backing from Panasonic throughout his racing career.
context_section_description: He graduated to Champ Car in 1990, scoring one point in his debut season. Inexplicably, he never showed the pace that took him to four Atlantic victories; instead, he quickly earned a reputation for being at the tail end of the grid, always outperformed by his teammates. Nonetheless, he became the first Japanese driver to race in the Indianapolis 500 in 1991, and followed that achievement with a top ten finish at Milwaukee. Matsushita missed the 1992 Indy 500 after suffering a broken leg during a practice crash. He was sidelined for several weeks and missed the next six events as well.
  At the Phoenix race in 1994, Matsushita endured a horrific crash in which his car was cut in half by Jacques Villeneuve's car traveling at full speed. He emerged from his destroyed car unscathed. The same year, he earned his best career finish of 6th position at the Marlboro 500 at Michigan International Speedway. This result was made possible by an extraordinarily high rate of attrition that saw only 8 cars finish the race. Matsushita was 11 laps behind the leader at the drop of the checkered flag.
  By the time he retired in 1998, Matsushita had started 117 Champ Car races for Dick Simon Racing, Walker Racing, Arciero/Wells Racing and Payton/Coyne. He holds the record for most starts in American Championship Car Racing history without scoring a Top 5.
  In 2001, Matsushita competed in the Baja 1000 off-road race in a Mitsubishi Montero.
caption: Hiro Matsushita in 1991
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