Bottom post of the previous page:
Yup.@Everso Biggyballies
I still contend the first rear engine 500 win should have been in '63. At least two cars spun on Jones' leaking oil which should have seen him black flagged, as per the rules, allowing Jim to take the win. USAC didn't wave it.
USAC was comprised of dinosaurs that resented change. The turbines of '67 and '68 confirmed that (as Art Pollard acknowledged to me at Trenton in '68).....they too were not allowed to win the race. All three '67, lap 197, Jones a "gear box bearing failure"; '68, (Graham crashed just past half-way) Pollard, and Leonard who was leading, both having "fuel pump shaft failures" laps 188 and 191.....what a cincidence........
1969, the Lear steam car never showed due to "insufficient engine development".......not what I was told by insider. USAC said it would be allowed in the race unless it was "too slow" (duhhh, of course) and even though it met the rules, "if it was too fast".......(no, they didn't have BoPing twixt practice and the race back then.....like the ACO, they just ruled as they wished......