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Sounds like many are saying USAC quit pavement racing. Maybe it's the other way around.
Even with support classes, it's tough for a promoter to pay the purse, let alone the other bills, if only 10 or 12 cars show up in the division.
Rear engine cars were outlawed in 1974 because it would have required two types of car. By 1977, the USAC championship was won by a team using two types of race cars. But, the roadster was OK because it was traditiional.
Whether it was the roadster or not, the numbers of pavement racing was dropping off when the tornado destroyed the stands at Salem Speedway, Dayton closed, IRP was bought by NHRA, leaving Winchester. Teams did not believe that was enough to support pavement race. When Salem rose from the weeds in 1987, the first "sprint race" was actually a super modified deal with a few old sprint cars thrown in for a non-USAC race.
When Salem reopened with a hodgepodge field of old pavement and dirt cars and its first USAC race in half a decade, the folks at ESPN saw an opportunity and the Thunder broadcasts were born with IRP, Salem and Winchester in the fold. That drove the USAC pavement division and new pavement cars. When ESPN signed major league baseball in the mid-1990s, it didn't need racing any more and pavement racing gradually fell off.
But, the real bottom line is the reason why Foyt and Hurtibise and Bettenhausen and Carter and Bigelow and most of the dozens of others drove the banks and other pavement tracks -- to get to the Indy 500 and the championship division. This was the best route to get there and the big money to be found there.
The last driver to follow that route was Ed Carpenter.
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