The 1938 AAA National Championship was contested over only two official points-paying races, reflecting a period of transition and contraction in American championship racing. The season opened with the Indianapolis 500 on May 30, where Floyd Roberts delivered a dominant performance to score his lone career Indy victory, earning a decisive points advantage under AAA’s heavily weighted scoring system. The second and final championship event was the Syracuse 100 on September 10, won by Jimmy Snyder, but the reduced points allocation for shorter races left Snyder unable to overcome Roberts’ Indianapolis total. As a result, Roberts was crowned the 1938 national champion, with Wilbur Shaw finishing second and Chet Miller third in the final standings. The unusually short championship schedule resulted from a combination of lingering economic effects of the Great Depression, the near-total collapse of board-track racing, rising operational and insurance costs, and shifting AAA sanctioning priorities, which together limited the number of venues capable of hosting championship events. Consequently, the Indianapolis 500 assumed overwhelming importance, effectively determining the championship outcome. The 1938 season stands as one of the most abbreviated and historically distinctive AAA campaigns, illustrating the challenges faced by American championship racing during the late pre-war era.
May 30, 1938
