BLOG: Bettenhausen Could’ve Been the Best of All Time

Gary Bettenhausen died on Sunday at the age of 72.

Having grown up with him racing around the Midwest, this is very sad. Had it not been for a fateful crash at Syracuse, N.Y. in 1974, he could have been bigger than Rick Mears in the Indy Car world, and had he stuck with Roger Penske, could have been the first Rusty Wallace, too.

He was that good.

Bettenhausen was the son of champion driver Tony Bettenhausen, out of Tinley Park, Ill. His father was killed in a crash during practice at Indianapolis in 1960, and he never won the 500. Gary tried to win it for him, and came close in 1972, only to break down near the finish after leading 138 laps. 

He made eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts too, finishing fourth at Michigan in one of Penske’s AMC Matadors. In fact, he led 35 laps of that race and had a shot to win, but lost out to David Pearson in 1974.

That year, though, was the last in which he was the Next Big Thing. Driving the USAC Silver Crown cars which were his signature, he crashed hard on the Moody Mile at the N.Y. State Fairgrounds. As a result, his left arm was crushed, and while he drove again and drove well, he was never the same.

Penske had to make a choice: he chose Tom Sneva, the former schoolteacher from Washington, and all he did was become the first man to eclipse the magic 200-mile-per-hour barrier at Indy.

To watch Bettenhausen on the dirt was magical. He and Larry Dickson formed the “Thunder and Lightning” in the USAC Sprint Car Series, waging war across the country. 

Not all was good for Gary, who lost his father at Indy and his brother Merle to a crash at Michigan in which Merle was gravely injured. His brother Tony was killed in plane crash after several years as an Indy Car team owner.