1974 was the first year that the California 500 was held in March, making the Pocono 500 the final leg in IndyCar's Triple Crown of 500 mile races.

Scoring the most points in the three races carried a $1000 prize and a ring presented at an awards ceremony.

Leonard said he hoped his sport's Triple Crown would soon be as prestigious as horse racing's established salute.

And it won't until auto racing cares enough to promote what could be an exciting attention getter."

[4] Peter Revson, polesitter for the 1973 Schaefer 500, was killed in a testing crash ahead of the 1974 South African Grand Prix in late March.

[7] Friday's practice began at 9 a.m. Dick Simon, Larry McCoy, and Sammy Sessions were the first three cars on track.

Shortly after Simon posted a speed of 173.021 mph, it began to thunder and heavy rain fell.

On his second lap, Foyt burned a piston, significantly slowed, and was waved back into the pits by his crew.

Foyt hit a patch of oil on the track and spun in turn two which resulted in a broken universal joint, causing more repair time.

Cars were forced to run less turbo boost pressure than allowed in order to improve the fuel economy to be able to make all 500 miles.

[15] At the start of the race, third place starter, Wally Dallenbach, took the lead ahead of Bobby Unser.

[16] After climbing from 29th to 12th in 20 laps, defending Pocono 500 champion, AJ Foyt, brushed the wall in turn two and fell out of the race with a damaged suspension.

On lap 25, third-place Al Unser ran out of fuel and a caution was thrown to tow him back to the pits.

Leading the race on lap 78, Gordon Johncock ran out of fuel and brought out another caution to be towed in.

[18] On lap 133, Bill Simpson blew an engine entering turn one and dropped oil on track.

One lap later, rookie Tom Sneva hit the turn one wall and brought out the sixth and final caution.

Unser had led a race high 74 laps, but was forced to run a low powered fuel setting to make the finish on the USAC limit of 280 gallons.

[20] Shortly after the restart, Wally Dallenbach passed Unser for the lead and appeared in control of the race.

With 13 laps remaining, Dallenbach fell out of the race with a blown engine and handed the lead to Rutherford.