Tony Bettenhausen, Jr.

Tony Lee Bettenhausen, Jr. (October 30, 1951, Joliet, Illinois – February 14, 2000) was a Champ Car team owner and driver who died in a 2000 plane crash. He was the son of former 14-time Indianapolis 500 competitor Tony Bettenhausen and the brother of 21-time Indy racer Gary Bettenhausen. The family holds the dubious distinction of the most combined starts in the famous race without a victory. Another brother, Merle Bettenhausen, was maimed in his only Indy Car start.

Career

As a driver, he started 11 Indianapolis 500 races, scoring a best finish of 7th his rookie year in the 1981 race. He took his trademark #16 into team ownership in 1985, initially using March and Lola chassis, then purchasing year-old Penske chassis and then entering and qualifying two new Penskes for the 1993 race. One, number 76, was driven by himself, the other by former Formula One driver Stefan Johansson. A number of successful drivers passed through Bettenhausen's Alumax car, including Johansson for the first few years as well as three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves and former IndyCar rookie of the year Patrick Carpentier.

Bettenhausen also competed in 33 Sprint Cup Series series events in his career, most coming in 1974 when he scored a career best 7th place effort at Richmond International Raceway.

A difficult 1999 plagued by a lack of sponsorship and a series of pay-drivers saw the team take on a new look in 2000 with the hiring of Michel Jourdain, Jr. and his Herdez sponsorship.

Death

Bettenhausen never got to see that happen following a light plane crash en route from Indianapolis to Homestead, Florida that went down on Ann Milton Adams' farm in Harrison County Kentucky. Bettenhausen's wife Shirley, the daughter of former Indianapolis racing star Jim McElreath, as well as business associates Russ Roberts and Larry Rangel were also killed. His legacy of the team lived on under the ownership of former Pacific Racing F1 team owner Keith Wiggins and was renamed Herdez Competition in 2001, with the legendary #16 replaced by Herdez's preference for the #55 early in 2002. The team has subsequently gone through additional changes in ownership, was once Paul Stoddart's Minardi Team USA, and is now Wiggins' HVM Racing competing in the IndyCar Series.

He is buried at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

CART

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Rank	Points
1979	McElreath	PHX	ATL1	ATL2	INDY DNQ	TRE1	TRE2	MIS1	MIS2	WGL	TRE3	ONT	MIS3	ATL3	PHX2				NC	0
1980	Medlin Racing	ONT	INDY DNS	MIL DNQ	POC 32	MDO DNS	MIS1	WGL DNQ	MIL	ONT2	MIS2	MEX	PHX						63rd	5
1981	Provimi Veal	PHX1 12	MIL1 7	ATL1 11	ATL2 2	MIS DNS	RIV 14	MIL2 10	MIS2 8	WGL 8	MEX 11	PHX2 19							6th	107
1982	Provimi Veal	PHX1 12	ATL 19	MIL1 12	CLE	MIS1 10	MIL2 20	POC 5	RIV 18	ROA 7	MIS2 4	PHX2 6							10th	80
1983	Provimi Veal	ATL 10	INDY 17	MIL 10	CLE 18	MIS1 18	ROA 12	POC 10	RIV 8	MDO 14	MIS2 9	CEA 21	LAG 14	PHX 18					17th	19
1984	Provimi Veal	LBH DNQ	PHX1 22	INDY 26	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MIS1 15	ROA	POC 16	MDO	SAN	MIS2	PHX2	LS	LVG		NC	0
1985	Skoal Bandit	LBG	INDY 29	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MCH	ROA	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	LAG	PHX	MIA			NC	0
1986	Bettenhausen Racing	PHX	LBG	INDY 28	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH	POC	MDO	SAN	MCH	ROA	LAG	PHX	MIA	NC	0
1987	Bettenhausen Motorsports	LBG 11	PHX 15	INDY 10	MIL DNQ	POR	MEA 13	CLE 20	TOR DNQ	MCH 11	POC 22	ROA 15	MDO 25	NAZ	LAG	MIA			29th	7
1988	Bettenhausen Motorsports	PHX 6	LBH DNQ	INDY 33	MIL 19	POR	CLE 15	TOR 17	MEA 8	MIS 4	POC 15	MDO 16	ROA 16	NAZ 13	LS 26	MIA			17th	25
1989	Bettenhausen Motorsports	PHX	LBH	INDY DNQ	MIL DNQ	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MIS	POC 26	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LS			NC	0
1990	Bettenhausen Motorsports	PHX	LBH DNQ	INDY 26	MIL 13	DET 16	POR 17	CLE 12	MEA 10	TOR 26	MIS 22	DEN 24	VAN	MDO 20	ROA DNS	NAZ 22	LS		24th	4
1991	Bettenhausen Motorsports	SRF 10	LBH 12	PHX 18	INDY 9	MIL 12	DET 13	POR 13	CLE 13	MEA 21	TOR 11	MIS 5	DEN 10	VAN 18	MDO 18	ROA 13	NAZ 10	LS 16	14th	27
1992	Bettenhausen Racing	SRF 13	PHX 11	LBH 15	INDY DNQ	DET	POR 21	MIL 18	NHA	TOR	MIS 9	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LS		24th	6
1993	Bettenhausen Racing	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY 20	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	NHM	ROA	VAN	MDO	NZR	LS		47th	0
1994	Bettenhausen Motorsports	SRF	PHX	LGH	INDY Wth	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIS	MDO	NHM	VAN	ROA	NZR	LS		NC	0

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1979	Eagle	Offy	Failed to Qualify
1980
1981	McLaren	Cosworth	16th	7th
1982	March		27th	26th
1983			9th	17th
1984			17th	26th
1985	Lola		29th	29th
1986	March		18th	28th
1987			27th	10th
1988	Lola		24th	33rd
1989			Failed to Qualify
1990		Buick	13th	26th
1991	Penske	Chevrolet	20th	9th
1992			Failed to Qualify
1993			22nd	20th

External links

• NASCAR Statistics from Racing-Reference.info