1978 Texas World 200

[TheCgraves]

What a piece of crap track. Put some money into the place. Make it a destination.

[HiVultage01]

They should bring this track back to Nascar. What's wrong with having 3 superspeedways and two tracks in Texas?

[Waffle613]

Balls. Real Balls.

[bretoff]

AJ knew this track, what you can't see is how bumpy the banks were, he knew how to set up the car & what lines to take for TWS

[vanderbilly]

Man those sound sweet

[agurobe6]

OH MY GOD!!! OH MY FREAKIN GOD !! I CANT BELIVE HOW GOOD THIS RACEING IS AND THE SOUND IS SOOO GOOD THEY NEED THIS AGIAN THE SOUND OH MY GOD I LOVE THE ENGINES ROAR WOW EVEN THE V8'S SOUND GOOD!!

[TheAntihero6212]

Tom Sneva won the USAC National Championship that year (the second of two straight) despite NOT WINNING A SINGLE RACE.

That'll never happen again.

[meganascarrocks]

a couple years ago greg biffle was testing here and went 220 and wrecked he said it was his worst wreck ever he almost died there if the cars were the cars from the 80s 70s he would have dided

[STP43FAN1]

Interesting that Texas World sports red and white pit wall striping in keeping with Winston - NASCAR tracks of the time all sported some form of red and white striping to identify Winston sponsorship.

[STP43FAN1]

@spudracer - basically USAC wanted to handicap the V8s because they had more HP with turbos than the V4s and somewhere along the way it didn't work and the V4s were weaker than the V8s.

[riverhippotuber]

They need to renew that track and make it big again. Until then... NASCAR can just watch their competitors test on the track...

[spudracer13]

so what was the protest / controversy about

[Nascarfan880]

the track is awesome... Wish they still raced their.

[vidEvWill]

Darrell Waltrip won the final race at Texas World, however people wondered why they returned there, there were about close to 17,000 attendance, way down than what they should be. A speedway from Texas returned to NASCAR in 1997.

[twonine3]

The look of the banking makes all the difference in the world.

[TeamAutoBots]

is this texas race track?

[Bazmeister2]

The circuit is located in or near College Station.

[txngasnguns]

yup. The one outside College Station. Not Fort Worth.

[Hectorson3]

Well constucted

[HappyJack01]

Location, Location Location! It was so far from anywhere that it was imposable to any local sponsors to help promote, hotels for fans and teams, etc. It was built as a twin to Michigan but had slightly more banking. Used for testing today. The grandstand was built on earth bank and was not stable and would need to be rebuilt.

[Ruddfan1997]

wow never knew Ken Squier did OW racing for CBS

[texn14]

AJ won this one, as he won most of the races we went to at TWS between 76-79.(Indycar and USAC stock cars) I think Sneva & JR may have won in that time as well.

[texn14]

Haha I was one of the few hundred that was at this race when I was a kid. Sitting in turn 4 by the big Coors can. I had no idea it was on TV! Thanks for posting it.

[2014cwajts71]

Who won this race, do you remember?

[Voiceof500]

I was on the Indy 500 from 1977 to 1987 as radio anchor and at ABC TV after that. 25 years total. Tomorrow I will be on the radio again.

[2014cwajts71]

Oh, I see. I'm talking to Paul Page. Nice to talk to you. I LOVE listening to the IMS Radio Network. Gotta stay in Dayton with my lawn buisness this weekend but the radio will be on in the garage as I do maintenence. I grew up in Plainfield, just down the road from IMS. I'll be listening for you, have a good day.

[doctorindy]

Funny, did Paul Page forget he was on the radio in 1974-1976 as a pit reporter too?

[2014cwajts71]

I don't know. He just mentioned being the anchor from '77 to '87 on the radio. You're right, he was a pit reporter from '74 to '76 along with Lou Palmer and Luke Walton I believe. All of who reported to Sid Collins of course.

[2014cwajts71]

How far away is this track from Texas speedway?

[jwcalla1]

wow... I see they got about as many fans back then as they do today.

[afannell]

That's way CART was formed!

[volly7405]

Yes we lost a great group of officials

[acidblister]

Ya have to wonder how different history may have been had the plane crash not decimated the hierarchy of USAC.

[2014cwajts71]

Yeah, that's one helluva "what if?".

[acidblister]

It absolutely is.  Sad to say.

[racermac1988]

Ah yes, 1978... the original CART/USAC war is alive and well.

[acidblister]

CART was not yet born at the time of this race, it was several month later -------"Nov 1978: Several team owners submit a proposal to USAC for a new 12-person board (6 reps from USAC and 6 from the teams) to govern Champ car racing. USAC rejects it. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) is formed by Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, and other team owners in response."

[jbracer86]

with some rennovations, this track can easily be raced on today and would produce some great racing action, tracks that are made now like the character and uniqueness like tracks from back in the day

[indyfan2]

Didn't I see Turn's 1&2 and 3&4 of the oval were paved earlier this year (2009)?

The track requires renovations, update the facilities and provide a bit more grandstands and completely fence the walls and require safer-barriers.

[2014cwajts71]

Kinda makes you wonder why they built an entirely new track in Texas a few years back.

[jazzbo1974]

was this cbs broadcast and whos with ken in the booth

[nflfan85]

this is a great race, do you have it from start to finish?

[gardenmaster1969]

Thanks for taking us back 30 years. tony has screwed this sport 6 ways to sunday.

[AaronApolloCamp]

Auto Racing in general isn't what it used to be.

[IndyandNascarsuck]

Looks like an earl race of 2008.

Thanks for fixing things FTG!!

Amagione that, a controversial race too!

[F1RusH]

30 years later the series is in the Hulman(USAC/IRL) hands again, and the stands are cleared out.... just like then.

[afannell]

Indy Cars need to go to turbos!

[v10mclaren]

those V8's sound so weird. i love it!

[VooDooRocketry]

Gotta love it! A motor controversy!! I loved the sounds of both the (cost effective) eights and the (high dollare) turbos, it's too bad all went down the dumper the next year. Sad really. But this is a wonderful piece of history to see again. IIRC sometime earlier JR was the first man to crash at over 200mph, and it was at TWS

[AutoRockinRacing94]

Ken Squier, doing USAC IndyCars, But that's how TWS looks like a banking, I wonder why Biffle went over 220 MPH!

[racingkid87]

Please tell me there is more of this or other footage from TWS. Thanks so much for this!

[n0vaca1n3]

Does anyone have footage of Greg Biffle testing here in recent weeks?

[jay157]

looks like this was a nice track. its funny this track is gone but the cookie cutter track texas motor speedway gets races and fans every year.

[GoFeri]

It's big like Michigan and Fontana but with steeper banking. Too dangerous

[JoeytheHDK]

Who is that in the booth with Ken Squier?

Fantastic video, btw.

[Voiceof500]

It was Ken Squire in the booth with Dan Gurney, I was the only pit reporter. A fight broke out in winner's circle after this race. This whole race was historic.

[2014cwajts71]

Were you ever at Indianapolis?

[brundlefly2084]

No wonder CART was formed USAC did a terrible job at promoting their races because you just have to look at how few people are at the race.How ironic 30 years later it's the same for the IRL.

[poko111]

cart fucked up indycar racing

[iAmRenegadeX]

Thanks for the vids.. awesome stuff.

Pretty friggen pathetic how 30-year old cars look 100x better than the crap IRL put on track, isn't it?

[Zadan]

@iAmRenegadeX Looks have nothing to do with speed retard.

[iAmRenegadeX]

@Zadan If I'm a retard, what are you? I never even mentioned the word 'speed' in my post.

[csampang1]

I grew up in the CART/CCWS era so I never was around for any of this...amazing footage! :D

[PaulZuppardo]

Man, this is some really fantastic stuff you've been uploading.  Please keep up the good work!!