1982–83 USAC Championship Car season explained

The 1982–83 USAC Championship Car season consisted of four races, beginning in Springfield, Illinois, on August 14, 1982, and concluding in Speedway, Indiana, on May 29, 1983. The USAC National Champion and Indianapolis 500 winner was Tom Sneva.

By this time, the preeminent national championship season was instead sanctioned by CART.

Schedule and results

All races were run on Oval/Speedway courses.

Rnd	Date	Race Name	Length	Track	Location	Type	Pole Position	Winning Driver
1	August 14	Tony Bettenhausen 100	100miles	Illinois State Fairgrounds	Springfield, Illinois	Dirt	Sheldon Kinser	Bobby Olivero
2	September 6	Ted Horn Memorial	100miles	DuQuoin State Fairgrounds	Du Quoin, Illinois	Dirt	Gary Bettenhausen	Gary Bettenhausen
3	December 4	Nazareth 100	100miles	Nazareth National Speedway	Nazareth, Pennsylvania	Dirt	Bob Cicconi	Keith Kauffman
4	May 29	Indianapolis 500-Mile Race	500miles	Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	Paved	Teo Fabi	Tom Sneva

Final points standings

Note: Drivers who failed to enter the Indy 500 were not eligible for points.

Pos Driver SPR DQSF NAZ INDY Pts 1 Tom Sneva 1* 1000 2 Al Unser 2 800 3 Rick Mears 3 700 4 Geoff Brabham 4 600 5 Mark Alderson 4 7 5 DNQ 560 6 Kevin Cogan 5 500 7 Joe Saldana 2 8 30 DNP 422 8 Gary Bettenhausen 1 24 DNQ 406 9 Howdy Holmes 6 400 10 Ken Schrader 8 12 4 DNQ 360 11 Larry Rice 6 6 DNQ 320 12 Pancho Carter 7 300 13 Rich Vogler 20 19 3 DNQ 296 14 Sheldon Kinser 3 20 DNS DNQ 288 15 Bobby Olivero 1 3 26 DNQ 284 16 Chip Ganassi 8 250 17 Al Unser Jr. 10 150 18 Steve Chassey 2 19 11 100 19 George Snider 15 9 32 95 20 Chris Kneifel 12 50 21 Mike Mosley 13 25 22 Gordon Johncock 14 25 23 Dick Simon 15 25 24 Michael Chandler 16 25 25 Tony Bettenhausen Jr. 17 20 26 Bill Whittington 18 20 27 Derek Daly 19 20 28 Bobby Rahal 20 20 29 Jerry Nemire 21 18 19 DNP 16 30 Danny Ongais 21 15 31 Johnny Parsons 22 15 32 Mario Andretti 23 15 33 Josele Garza 25 10 34 Don Whittington 27 10 35 Roger Mears 28 10 36 Gary Irvin 22 6 37 Steve Krisiloff 29 5 38 A. J. Foyt 31 5 39 Roger Rager 26 DNQ 4 - Keith Kauffman 18 16 1 0 - Bill Engelhart 9 4 2 0 - Rick Hood 7 5 0 - Ron Shuman 5 24 12 0 - Paul Koch 6 0 - Steve Siegel 7 0 - Gary Hieber 8 0 - Scott Brayton 9 0 - Mike Peters 11 9 0 - Jerry Weeks 10 28 0 - Walt Kennedy 10 0 - Danny Frye Jr. 10 0 - Steve Kinser 11 17 0 - Tracy Potter 11 0 - Dana Carter 12 21 23 0 - Joe McCarthy 13 16 0 - Ron Burke 13 0 - Ed Angle 13 0 - Bob Cicconi 23 14 22 0 - Doug Wolfgang 14 0 - Bobby Allen 14 0 - Larry Dickson DNQ 15 0 - Arnie Knepper 15 0 - Elvin Felty 16 0 - Chuck Amati 17 21 DNS 0 - Mike Gregg 17 0 - Smokey Snellbaker 18 0 - Mike Winblad 19 0 - Manny Rockhold 20 0 - Duke Cook 22 0 - Barry Camp 23 0 - Emmitt Hahn 24 0 - Dennis Firestone 24 0 - Steve Cannon 25 27 0 - Tom Bigelow 25 DNQ 0 - Brian Seidel 25 0 - Teo Fabi 26 0 - Patrick Bedard 30 0 - Chet Fillip 33 0 - Bill Alsup DNQ 0 - Jim Buick DNQ 0 - Phil Caliva DNQ 0 - Larry Cannon DNQ 0 - Steve Chassey DNQ 0 - Chuck Ciprich DNQ 0 - Dick Ferguson DNQ 0 - Bob Frey DNQ 0 - Amber Furst DNQ 0 - Spike Gehlhausen DNQ 0 - Pete Halsmer DNQ 0 - Bob Harkey DNQ 0 - Doug Heveron DNQ 0 - Herm Johnson DNQ 0 - Jerry Karl DNQ 0 - Phil Krueger DNQ 0 - Bob Lazier DNQ 0 - Greg Leffler DNQ 0 - Al Loquasto DNQ 0 - Harry MacDonald DNQ 0 - John Mahler DNQ 0 - Mack McClellan DNQ 0 - Graham McRae DNQ 0 - John Paul Jr. DNQ 0 - Dave Peperak DNQ 0 - Teddy Pilette DNQ 0 - Johnny Rutherford DNQ 0 - Jerry Sneva DNQ 0 - Bill Tempero DNQ 0 - Bill Vukovich II DNQ 0 - Desiré Wilson DNQ 0 - Jorge Koechlin DNP 0 - Lee Kunzman DNP 0 - Dave McMillan DNP 0 - Chip Mead DNP 0 - Bill Puterbaugh DNP 0 - Harry Sauce DNP 0 Pos Driver SPR DQSF NAZ INDY Pts

Color Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green 4th & 5th place Light Blue 6th-10th place Dark Blue Finished (Outside Top 10) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Brown Withdrawn (Wth) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Blank Did not participate (DNP) Not competing In-line notation Bold Pole position Italics Ran fastest race lap *|style="background:#F2F2F2;" align=center|Led most race laps|-|style="background:#FDE910;" align=center colspan=2|Rookie of the Year|-|style="background:Orange;" align=center colspan=2|Rookie|}|}|} References Web site: USAC National Championship 1983 . Åberg, Andreas . Driver Database . 2009-05-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080728235459/http://www.driverdb.com/standings/980-1983/ . 2008-07-28 . live . Web site: 1982-83 USAC Gold Crown Championship . ChampCarStats.com . 2009-05-11 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080908043937/http://www.champcarstats.com/year/1982-83.htm . 2008-09-08 . live . http://media.indycar.com/pdf/2011/IICS_2011_Historical_Record_Book_INT6.pdf (p. 195-197) See also 1983 Indianapolis 500 1982 CART PPG Indy Car World Series 1983 CART PPG Indy Car World Series ]