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RICH VOGLER AMONG 2010 INDUCTEES INTO MOTORSPORTS HALL OF FAME OF AMERICA
Rich Vogler, who compiled more feature victories during his career than any other USAC driver in history, is listed among the 2010 inductees into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and will be formally inducted during ceremonies at the Fillmore Detroit in Michigan on August 25.
Vogler joins fellow inductees Dale Armstrong, Joie Chitwood, Alan Kulwicki, Jeremy McGrath, Ken Squire and Jerry Titus as 2010 honorees.
In making the announcement of the inductees, Hall of Fame president Ron Watson’s cited Vogler’s true “Hall of Fame” credentials as an all-time leader in Sprint and Midget racing.
Vogler excelled in the 1980s, winning 134 USAC races and leading yearly USAC victory charts every year except 1987 and 1988. His 134 total USAC National victories (second only to A.J. Foyt’s 159) included 95 in Midgets, 35 in Sprints and four in championship cars. Including regional wins, his USAC victory total reached 171, nine more than Foyt’s 162 and his nine USAC championships are second only to Foyt’s 13. Rich won the National Midget title five times, the Sprint title twice and add two Indianapolis Speedrome Midget crowns.
His five Indianapolis 500 starts included an eighth-place finish in 1989. In 1980 Rich became the first driver to win the USAC Sprint and Midget titles in the same year. Major race victories in eight wins in the prestigious “Hut Hundred” Midget race and in 1987 he won the inaugural Chili Bowl Midget Nationals in Tulsa, Okla. In 1988 Rich finished 17th in his only NASCAR start at Rockingham, N.C. He tragically lost his life during a USAC Sprint race in 1990 at the Salem, Ind. Speedway, a race at which ironically he was posthumously proclaimed the winner!
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