1970 Motor Trend 500
| Race details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 of 48 in the 1970 NASCAR Grand National Series season | |||
Layout of Riverside International Raceway
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| Date | January 18, 1970 | ||
| Official name | Motor Trend 500 | ||
| Location | Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California | ||
| Course | Permanent racing facility 2.700 mi (4.345 km) |
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| 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) | ||
| Average speed | 97.450 miles per hour (156.831 km/h) | ||
| Pole position | |||
| Driver | Petty Enterprises | ||
| Most laps led | |||
| Driver | Parnelli Jones | Wood Brothers Racing | |
| Laps | 88 | ||
| Winner | |||
| No. 11 | A.J. Foyt | Jack Bowsher & Associates | |
| Television in the United States | |||
| Network | Untelevised | ||
| Announcers | None | ||
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.
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.
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.
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