[2] During race weekend, in the infield on Friday were concerts by Ronnie Milsap, Henry Paul Band, and Funky Communication Committee.

Saturday also was the Pocono 500 drivers meeting, hot air balloon demonstrations, and a custom van competition.

While some events switched allegiance to CART, the Triple Crown of 500 mile races comprising Indianapolis, Pocono, and Ontario maintained loyalty to USAC.

On April 19, the USAC board of directors voted unanimously to reject the entries for the 1979 Indianapolis 500 of six key teams: Penske, Patrick, McLaren, Fletcher, Chaparral, and Gurney.

"[3] USAC sent the owners a telegram informing them of the situation while they were participating in the CART race at Atlanta, the Gould Twin Dixie 125s.

[3] On May 5, judge James Ellsworth Noland issued the injunction, but restrained the teams from disrupting or interfering with the running of the event.

Knowing that the last place finisher was guaranteed at least $3,500, many teams rushed to find old Indy cars to enter in the race.

This led some to joke that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum would be closed while their classic inventory was raced at Pocono.

After Jerry Karl's crew discovered a mechanical problem, he requalified at 172.463 mph and retained his 23rd starting spot.

The cars were brought back onto pit road and the green flag was delayed by 30 minutes while the spectators were returned to the infield.

[16] George Snider's car suffered a cracked engine block after the pace laps and was unable to restart the race.

Eldon Rasmussen crashed badly on lap 75  when his rear wing fell off at the end of the frontstretch and he hit the turn one wall nearly head-on.

Under green flag pit stops, Foyt's crew added fuel only, while Ongais's team also changed tires.

While running third with 15 laps remaining, Gary Bettenhausen blew an engine in turn three and spun in the oil to bring out the seventh caution of the day.

[19] With three laps remaining, second place runner Larry Dickson entered the pits with a fuel pickup problem.

Due to the 1979 oil crisis, gas shortages in the Pennsylvania area also kept spectators from driving to the track.

[23] Eight days after the Pocono 500, Ontario Motor Speedway changed their sanctioning for September's California 500 from USAC to CART.

[24] On August 30, Pocono Raceway filed an antitrust lawsuit against CART seeking $6.3 million in damages.