In wet conditions, Hunt held off a late charge from Mario Andretti in the Lotus-Ford to take his second consecutive Watkins Glen victory.

Jody Scheckter was third in the Wolf-Ford, while Niki Lauda clinched his second Drivers' Championship by finishing fourth in his Ferrari.

Brabham teammates Hans-Joachim Stuck and John Watson were a quarter of a second back, followed by Andretti, Ronnie Peterson and the Ferraris of Carlos Reutemann and Lauda.

Before the warmup, however, it began to drizzle, and by the five-minute signal, it had picked up enough that only John Watson was willing to gamble on starting with slicks.

Stuck quickly jumped ahead of Hunt, and after one lap, they were followed by Andretti, Reutemann, Peterson, Lauda, Scheckter, Jacques Laffite and Gunnar Nilsson.

The McLaren pit had not informed him how close the Lotus was until the start of the final lap, when Teddy Mayer gave him a frantic wave to pick up the pace.