Rodger Ward - Championship Cars

Championship Cars

He won the 1951 AAA Stock Car (later USAC Stock Car) championship. The championship gave him an opportunity for a rookie test at the 1951 Indianapolis 500. He passed the test and qualified for the race. He finished 34 laps before his car suffered a broken oil line. He finished 130 laps in the 1952 Indianapolis 500 before the oil pressure failed. His 1953 Indianapolis 500 ended after 170 laps, and his 1954 Indianapolis 500 ended after his car stalled on the backstretch. He completed all of the laps for the first time in 1956, finishing eighth.

In 1959 he joined the Triple W team with owner Bob Wilke and mechanic A. J. Watson. Ward won his first Indianapolis 500. He won the AAA National Championship with victories at Milwaukee, DuQuoin and the Indy Fairgrounds. His 1959 season ended by competing in the only United States Grand Prix held at Sebring Raceway.

Ward battled Jim Rathmann for the lead in the 1960 Indianapolis 500. In one of the epic duels in Indy 500 history, Ward and Rathmann exchanged the lead 14 times before Ward slowed on lap 197 to nurse his frayed right front tire to the finish. Rathmann, also struggling with worn-out tires after such a furious pace, took the lead on lap 197 and the two drivers limped home in what is still regarded as one of the greatest duels for the win in Indianapolis 500 history.

Ward took the lead at the 1962 Indianapolis 500 at lap 126 and led the rest of the race. He won the season championship that year, which had changed to USAC sanction in the interim.

He had difficulties getting comfortable in the car he drove at Indianapolis in 1965, failing to qualify by the slimmest of margins. His professional pride would not let him end his career in such an ignominious manner, and he returned for a final time in 1966, finishing fifteenth. At the victory banquet that evening, Ward tearfully addressed the group. "I always said I would quit racing when it stopped being fun," he said. "Today it wasn't fun anymore." He had 26 victories in his 150 starts between 1950 and 1964, and he finished in the top ten in more than half of his starts. He retired to be a commentator for ABC's Wide World of Sports for NASCAR and Indycars from 1965 to 1970 then he quit full time to retire in Tustin, California. In later years, he served as public relations director for the new Ontario Motor Speedway, and later managed the Circus Circus unlimited hydroplane team. He died on July 5, 2004 aged 83.