Gary Bettenhausen

[earntaz]

Gary Bettenhausen has died. He was 72. Bettenhausen was a member of a famous racing family and a veteran of open-wheel competition who drove in 21 Indianapolis 500s between 1968 and 1993. His best finish was third in 1980. He led 138 laps of the 1972 race and was the top qualifier in 1991.. RIP

[Mr70]

He was fun to watch &amp; always a name we recognized. <<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif

[Tommy Nolen]

Sorry to hear this, he came south in the seventies and ran a few NASCAR Sportsman races. I used to be involved with the NASCAR series and I remember him pitting next to us at Martinsville in the early seventies. I was impressed with him, seemed like just a regular guy. RIP

[DW31S]

I met Gary and Tony (RIP) at Indy and at the time is was still possible for &quot;normal&quot; guys to enter---maybe not make the show, but enter and run with the big boys. Gary had a bad arm from a wreck in Trenton many years ago, and literally drove Indy cars with one arm. His arm was caught in between the car and the catch fence in a sprint car crash. Gary was a likable and approachable fellow and was never pretentious or had the ego some of the other drivers had/have. Sad to hear of his passing.
Another little known fact about brother Tony is that after he stopped driving he sold new Oldsmobiles at Skillman Olds.