Pancho Carter

Duane C. "Pancho" Carter, Jr.
Nationality	United States
Born	June 11, 1950 (1950-06-11) (age 61) Racine, Wisconsin
Retired	1995
Related to	Duane Carter (father) Dana Carter (brother) Johnny Parsons (half brother)
American Championship Car
Years active	1974–1994
Teams	Morales Racing American Dream Racing Patrick Racing Galles Racing Leader Cards Racing Arciero Racing A. J. Foyt Enterprises
Starts	165
Wins	1
Poles	1
Best finish	3rd in 1981 (CART)
Previous series
1985–1995 1995	NASCAR Winston Cup NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
Championship titles
1972 1974, 1976	USAC Midget Car Championship USAC Sprint Car Championship
Awards
1990 1991	National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame National Sprint Car Hall of Fame

Pancho Carter
Born	June 11, 1950 (1950-06-11) (age 61) Racine, WI
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career
14 races run over 6 years
Best finish	38th- 1986 (Winston Cup)
First race	1985 Southern 500 (Darlington)
Last race	1995 UAW-GM Teamwork 500 (Pocono)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0

Duane "Pancho" Carter, Jr. (born June 11, 1950 in Racine, Wisconsin) is a retired American race car driver. He is most famous for his participation in CART races.

Contents 1 Background 2 Racing career 2.1 Midget cars 2.2 Sprint cars 2.3 Indycars 2.4 NASCAR 3 Seriously injured 4 Career awards 4.1 Indy 500 results 4.2 American Open-Wheel racing results 4.2.1 CART 5 References

Background

He is the son of Indycar racer Duane Carter. He was born while his parents were on the way to a race at the Milwaukee Mile. His father's nickname was "Pappy". Pappy referred to his wife's pregnancy as "little paunch," so they nicknamed the child Pancho.^[1] Carter is the half-brother of Johnny Parsons. His full brother, Dana Carter, also raced in USAC midgets, sprints and Silver Crown. He died of a heart attack in the early 1980s.^[2]

Racing career

Midget cars

His national career began while racing in a midget car. He won the 1972 USAC midget car championship. He won the 1972 and 1975 Hut Hundred. He had 23 midget car feature wins by the time that he left the series in 1978.^[1]

Sprint cars

He won the 1974 and 1976 national USAC sprint car championships. He was the first driver to win the two USAC championships – midgets and sprint cars. He has wins in three USAC divisions – midgets, sprints and Silver Crown (formerly known as Dirt Cars) On May 30, 1977, Carter won two USAC Midget features, one USAC sprint feature and finished second in the second USAC sprint feature at Salem Speedway on a day the temperatures were near 100 degrees. This was one day after he finished 15th in the Indianapolis 500.^[1] Carter ran well on dirt and pavement, but was exceptional on the paved high banks at Winchester and Salem, Ind., and Dayton, Ohio. He won the Joe James/Pat O'Conner Memorial race at the half-mile at Salem, Ind., on four consecutive occasions.

Indycars

He drove his first Indianapolis 500 in 1974. He finished seventh, and was awarded the Rookie of the Year. He finished third in the 1982 Indianapolis 500 behind the now-famous duel between Gordon Johncock and Rick Mears. In 1985, Carter drove the brand new Buick V6 engine to the pole position of the 1985 Indianapolis 500. He retired with mechanical problems after completing just six laps, becoming the first pole-sitter since Cliff Woodbury to finish dead-last. In more recent years, Carter has served as a spotter for Sam Hornish, Jr., Vitor Meira, Dillon Battistini, Dan Wheldon, Martin Plowman and Adrián Campos, Jr..

NASCAR

From 1985–1995 Pancho ran 14 NASCAR Winston Cup Series races for multiple owners including Elmo Langley. His first start was at Darlington Raceway in 1985, which was the Southern 500. The race was best known for Bill Elliott locking up the Winston Million, Carter finished in 22nd. At the 1986 Daytona 500, he and Kyle Petty were involved in a turn one accident, thus winding up in 34th place. Pancho's best finish in NASCAR was a seventeenth place finish at the Michigan International Speedway. In 1995, Pancho also raced two Craftsman Truck Series races.^[3]

Seriously injured

Pancho was seriously injured during a testing crash at Phoenix International Speedway in November 1977. The injuries left him with a permanent disability in one of his legs that hampered his ability to perform well on road courses. He still ran very well on ovals. He made his return to racing at the end of March in 1978, winning a USAC Sprint race at the paved five-eighths mile Indianapolis Raceway Park on Saturday night and at the high-banked half-mile Winchester, Ind., Speedway the next day – his first races back in the cockpit of a racecar.

Career awards

• He was inducted in the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame in 1990.^[1]
• Carter was inducted in the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in 1991.

Indy 500 results

Year	Chassis	Engine	Start	Finish
1974	Eagle	Offy	21st	7th
1975	Eagle	Offy	18th	4th
1976	Eagle	Offy	6th	5th
1977	Eagle	Offy	8th	15th
1978	Lighning	Cosworth	21st	24th
1979	Lighning	Cosworth	17th	20th
1980	Penske	Cosworth	8th	6th
1981	Penske	Cosworth	10th	28th
1982	March	Cosworth	10th	3rd
1983	March	Cosworth	14th	7th
1984	March	Cosworth	21st	19th
1985	March	Buick	1st	33rd
1986	Lola	Cosworth	14th	16th
1987	March	Cosworth	29th	27th
1988	March	Buick	Qualifying Crash
1989	Lola	Cosworth	32nd	22nd
1990	Lola	Cosworth	22nd	29th
1991	Lola	Buick	32nd	21st
1992	Lola	Buick	Failed to Qualify
1994	Lola	Chevrolet	Failed to Qualify

American Open-Wheel racing results

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	Morales	PHX Ret	ATL1 9	ATL2 11	INDY Ret	TRE1 10	TRE2 8	MIS1 7	MIS2 Ret	WGL Ret	TRE3 DNS	ONT Ret	MIS3 8	ATL3 Ret	PHX2 7				13th	452
1980	Morales	ONT Ret	INDY 6	MIL 4	POC 6	MDO 7	MIS1 3	WGL 7	MIL Ret	ONT2 7	MIS2 7	MEX Ret	PHX Ret						5th	1855
1981	Morales	PHX1 7	MIL1 Ret	ATL1 5	ATL2 5	MIS 1	RIV 10	MIL2 10	MIS2 Ret	WGL 15	MEX 6	PHX2 5							3rd	166
1982	Morales	PHX1 6	ATL 10	MIL1 Ret	CLE Ret	MIS1 Ret	MIL2 6	POC Ret	RIV Ret	ROA Ret	MIS2 Ret	PHX2 11							17th	47
1983	Morales	ATL Ret	INDY 7	MIL Ret	CLE 8	MIS1 6	ROA 7	POC 6	RIV 7	MDO 10	MIS2 15	CEA 6	LAG Ret	PHX 10					10th	53
1984	Galles	LBH	PHX1	INDY Ret	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	MIS1 6	ROA	POC 7	MDO	SAN	MIS2	PHX2 7	LS	LVG 11		21st	22
1985	Galles	LBG 13	INDY Ret	MIL 5	POR 13	MEA	CLE 16	MCH Ret	ROA	POC Ret	MDO	SAN 2	MCH 10	LAG	PHO 7	MIA			18th	33
1986	Galles	PHX	LBG	INDY Ret	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH 3	POC 3	MDO	SAN Ret	MCH	ROA	LAG	PHO	MIA	19th	28
1987	Machinists Union Racing	LBG	PHX	INDY Ret	MIL	POR	MEA	CLE	TOR	MCH Ret	POC 6	ROA 14	MDO 14	NAZ Ret	LAG 12	MIA Ret			25th	9
1988	Machinists Union Racing	PHX	LBH	INDY DNQ	MIL	POR	CLE	TOR	MEA	MIS	POC	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LS	MIA			NC	0
1989	Leader Card	PHX 7	LBH Ret	INDY Ret	MIL 9	DET 10	POR 9	CLE 14	MEA 13	TOR Ret	MIS Ret	POC Ret	MDO Ret	ROA 19	NAZ Ret	LS Ret			13th	18
1990	Leader Card	PHX 8	LBH	INDY Ret	MIL Ret	DET 9	POR Ret	CLE Ret	MEA Ret	TOR 18	MIS Ret	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LS		20th	9
1991	Arciero Racing	SRF	LBH	PHX	INDY Ret	MIL Ret	DET	POR	CLE	MEA	TOR	MIS 10	DEN	VAN	MDO	ROA	NAZ	LS	26th	3
1992	Gilmore Racing	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY DNQ	DET	POR	MIL	NHA 11	TOR	MIS Ret	CLE	ROA	VAN	MDO	NAZ	LS		31st	2
1994	McCormack Motorsports	SRF	PHX	LBH	INDY DNQ	MIL	DET	POR	CLE	TOR	MIC	MDO	NHA	VAN	ROA	NAZ	LS		NC	0

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} His biography at the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame
2. ^ Biography of Johnny Parsons, National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame, http://worthyofhonor.com/Inductees/Johnny_Parsons.htm 
3. ^ NASCAR biography, racing-reference.info, http://racing-reference.info/driver?id=cartepa01 

Sporting positions
Preceded by Graham McRae	Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year 1974	Succeeded by Bill Puterbaugh

Persondata
Name	Carter, Pancho
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 11, 1950
Place of birth	Racine, Wisconsin
Date of death
Place of death