the race. Matsushita was 11 laps behind the leader at the drop of the checkered flag. By the time he retired in 1998, Matsushita had started 117 Champ Car races for Dick Simon Racing, Walker Racing, Arciero/Wells Racing and Payton/Coyne. He holds the record for most starts in American Championship Car Racing history without scoring a Top 5. In 2001, Matsushita competed in the Baja 1000 off-road race, in a Mitsubishi Montero. Racing record WCAR/SCCA Western Formula Atlantic Championship results IMSA Camel Lights results Toyota Atlantic Championship (pacific) results Lady Wigram Trophy results American open–wheel racing results Indy Lights CART 24 Hours of Le Mans results Nickname Matsushita earned the nickname "King Hiro" from Emerson Fittipaldi, who was complaining about Matsushita's reluctance to cede track position when getting lapped by the leaders. The nickname came about as a result of the voice-activated microphone ("vox") Roger Penske's team was using. Fittipaldi's epithet was said so quickly that the circuit cut off the first syllable of the first word he used. Fittipaldi, allegedly, had intended to say "Fucking Hiro!" Business career Away from the track, Matsushita owns Matsushita International Corp, a Real estate, Finance & Insurance Firm and Swift Engineering, an American engineering firm known for producing racing cars for a variety of open-wheel racing series, including Formula Ford, Formula Atlantic, the Champ Car World Series and Formula Nippon. He bought Swift Engineering in 1991. In 2018 Swift Engineering joint ventured with Kobe Institute of Computing called Swift Xi, located in Kobe, Japan. providing data, logistics, and operations of autonomous and robotic technologies. Private life Matsushita resides in San Clemente, California. Awards In 1998, Nov 2, Hiro Matsushita was awarded Champion Culbs during the CART Year End Banquet at the Century Plaza in Los Angeles, California. Matsushita family tree See also Konosuke Matsushita Panasonic Masaharu Matsushita Swift Engineering Swift Xi References External links DriverDatabase MOTORSPORT STATS NASCAR RacingSportsCars 1961 births Japanese racing drivers Living people Champ Car drivers Indianapolis 500 drivers Indy Lights drivers Atlantic Championship drivers Panasonic Sportspeople from Kobe 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Japanese IndyCar Series drivers Japanese businesspeople Walker Racing drivers Dale Coyne Racing drivers David Price Racing drivers