1970 Motor Trend 500
The 1970 Motor Trend 500 was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on January 18, 1970, at Riverside International Raceway in Riverside, California. Race report. The Plymouth Superbird would make its first ever NASCAR appearance during this race. Six cautions slowed the race for 31 laps. A. J. Foyt was the winner in his 1970 Ford Torino; defeating Roger McCluskey by 3½ seconds. Parnelli Jones won the pole position but had to start far down in the field because NASCAR ruled that the Firestone tires that Jones and nine West Coast drivers used  in qualifying were "ineligible" as there were not enough of that particular compound available to other racers. Other drivers affected by this ruling included Ray Elder, who had qualified 9th; Jack McCoy, who qualified 13th; 1969 NASCAR PCLM champion Scotty Cain, and Dick Bown. After switching tires, the ten drivers were allowed to start behind other qualifiers in order of their qualifying speed. After nearly pulling out of the race in dispute, Jones started in 35th position and charged through the field. He gained 18 positions on the first lap. He took the lead on lap 80 and almost lapped  the entire field until his clutch broke on lap 160; giving him an 11th-place finish. Out of A.J. Foyt's seven Cup wins this was his only one that came on a road course. All of his other victories were on super speedways. USAC Stock Car champion McCluskey crossed over for his only NASCAR race of the 1970 season and raced his Superbird complete with popular Looney Tunes character the Road Runner painted on the door, and finished second. This was his only NASCAR "top five" finish. There were forty-four competitors in this race; 43 were from the  United States of America while (Lothar Motschenbacher) was from Cologne, West Germany. Veteran West Coast racer Jim Cook suffered a career ending accident, when his car collided with the end of the turn 9 crashwall on lap 94. His injuries would leave him in a wheelchair. The other finishers in the top ten were: LeeRoy Yarbrough, Donnie Allison, Richard Petty, Dan Gurney (who had 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. Sam Posey's lone NASCAR start ended spectacularly when the #6 Dodge's engine failed in fiery fashion. Considering that the passenger automobile engines of the 1960s and 1970s were never designed for these high speeds, innovations were made in subsequent decades for better performing engines that could perform under the pressures of high speed racing. The average speed of the race was while Dan Gurney earned the pole position with a qualifying speed of . There was an attendance of 43,200 fans to see 193 laps of action on the road course. This was the last start in NASCAR 's top series (then known as Grand National) for Southern California short track racer Frank Deiny. He would finish in 41st place in this event due to wheel bearing issues on lap 4. However, this event included yellow flags. Eight famous crew chiefs would participate in this race; including Banjo Matthews, Dale Inman, Jerry Hyde and Dick Hutcherson. The winner's purse was $19,700 ($ when adjusted for inflation) while the last-place finisher went home with $800 ($ when adjusted for inflation). The total amount of money offered at this event was $84,235 ($ when adjusted  for inflation).