R.I.P. Gary Bettenhausen

(Photo: Vern Atkins/The Star)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Bettenhausen nearly won the 1972 Indy 500.

Race car driver Gary Bettenhausen, who died Sunday, could have been an Indy-car legend, but he preferred driving anything and everything that was great in his era.

The son of racing great Tony Bettenhausen, he was one of Roger Penske's earliest Indy-car drivers, nearly winning the 1972 Indianapolis 500 after leading 138 laps. He still finished 14th after ignition failure knocked him out after 182 laps.

But Bettenhausen, among the most talented drivers of his generation, never became one of Penske's 500 winners like Rick Mears, the Unsers or Helio Castroneves because he continued racing the short-track cars he loved so much.

In a violent dirt car crash in Syracuse, N.Y., in 1974, Bettenhausen badly injured his right arm. Penske, who was against Bettenhausen racing in sprints, midgets and dirt cars, fired him.

Bettenhausen's brother, Merle, noted that Frank Sinatra's classic "My Way" was not only his favorite song but his life motto.

"That's the way he lived, and that's the way he raced," Merle said.

Gary Bettenhausen in 1996. (Photo: Star File Photo)

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Bettenhausen continued to compete in the 500 with various teams through 1993, finishing as high as third in 1980. He ran his final race, in CART's inaugural U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway in 1996, at age 54. The car was fielded by Bettenhausen Motorsports, which was owned by his youngest brother, Tony.

The longtime Monrovia, Ind., resident died unexpectedly at his home. He was 72.

Originally from Tinley Park, Ill., Bettenhausen was the oldest of the three racing sons. Tony, an 11-time 500 starter, along with his wife, Shirley, and two Indianapolis businessmen were killed in a 2000 airplane crash in Kentucky.

The patriarch of the family, Melvin "Tony" Bettenhausen, a two-time national champion, died in a 1961 practice-day crash at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Bettenhausen had his father's championship pedigree. He won four titles with USAC, an Indianapolis-based sanctioning body: Ttwo each in sprint cars (1969 and '71) and the championship dirt cars (1980 and '83). His first USAC race was in a stock car at Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1963. He finished 14th.

Three-time 500 starter Steve Chassey remembers first meeting Bettenhausen in 1968 when Bettenhausen borrowed the sprint car owned by Chassey's father at Clovis (Calif.) Speedway.

Chassey said Bettenhausen drove as hard as anyone then or now.

"He was a gunfighter, that's for sure," Chassey said. "I don't think there are anymore (drivers) like him. His dad and him; they were the last of that kind."

Bettenhausen is survived by his wife, Wavelyn, and sons Gary, Cary and Todd, brother Merle and sister Sue. Services are pending.