IROC Field Set

[Lars]

From the SCF Newsletter:

IROC Field Set: The 2002 True Value International Race of Champions [IROC]
officials confirmed the entire 2002 lineup which will consist of five NASCAR
Winston Cup drivers, five from the Indy Racing League, one from the Pennzoil
World of Outlaws and one from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series.
From Cup: Bobby Labonte, Dale Jarrett, Sterling Marlin, Tony Stewart and
Kevin Harvick.
From the IRL: Sam Hornish Jr., Buddy Lazier, Scott Sharp, Helio Castroneves
and Al Unser Jr
From the CTS: Jack Sprague(now in the BGN) and World of Outlaws champion
Danny Lasoski will round out the field, making his first appearance and the
first for an Outlaws driver since Steve Kinser ran in the 1996
series.(SpeedVision)(1-9-2002)

[Roselady3]

Looks like a decent line up-
Now let's get racing!

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by Lars
World of Outlaws champion Danny Lasoski will round out the field, making his first appearance and the first for an Outlaws driver since Steve Kinser ran in the 1996 series.(SpeedVision)(1-9-2002)

Woo Hoo! Danny is from my neck of the woods. Go Dude Go! It will be interesting to see how he fares against his boss Tony Stewart.

[gomick]

good to see the name helio castoneves there - should be interesting viewers for those who get to see these iroc races

[Lars]

Originally posted by gomick
good to see the name helio castoneves there - should be interesting viewers for those who get to see these iroc races

I'll get to see one in person...the one at Chicagoland this year!!!!

[Lars]

Has anyone heard why Ricky Rudd isn't running IROC? He was 4th in points, DJ 5th & B Labs was 6th. He has had back surgery but should be ready to go when the season starts.

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by Lars
Has anyone heard why Ricky Rudd isn't running IROC? He was 4th in points, DJ 5th & B Labs was 6th. He has had back surgery but should be ready to go when the season starts.

He is not testing the #28 car right now so I bet that is the reason why is not competing. See: http://www.nascar.com/2002/NEWS/01/0...ate/index.html

IROC has a dealine to get their field set so and he may have felt that he would be pushing it too much to compete in the first event. And in IROC, if you don't compete in all four events, they will not pay you and IROC wants the same field ideally at all four races.

[Lee]

Rudd had back surgery in the off-season, the same kind Mark Martin had a couple of years ago, so he was not ready for the test sessions.

As to IROC, It has, since it's very inception back in the mid 70s, been nothing but a canned, made for TV JOKE of a series! It always has been, is now, and always will be! This year will be no different!

[Roselady3]

Gheesh Lee- Why don't you just tell what you really think!

It's just a race! FAST cars, passing, RACING-
When I first saw Lars post this...I thought- well this will get Lee's goat! LOL. It did!

[Lars]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion...I personally like the IROC series but wish it wasn't always geared to the Nascar boys.

[Roselady3]

I totally agree!
About the races & opinions.

[Lee]

You know, I get quite tired of people saying that IROC is geared to NASCAR drivers. I keep having to listen to the road-racing and open wheel fans, ESPECIALLY the ones from cart, spouting their endless drival about how it takes so much more skill, talent and driver ability to drive a road-course, than it does to drive on an oval. How oval track racing is easy and require such a far lesser degree of skill, talent and driver ability. About how oval track racing requires only the minimal ability, to just drive the car into and around 4 similar left hand turns. How they, ESPECIALLY the cart types, are oh so far superior drivers to the NASCAR drivers. How they can, regardless of the type of car driven, "teach the NASCAR drivers how to really drive a race car, embarass the NASCAR drivers with their superior driving skills! If all this **** that the open- wheel and road-race fans, ESPECIALLY the ones from cart, keep constantly boasting about is so true, it doesn't matter one bit what type of track they run on, what type of cars are driven, by the very nature of the fact that they are so superior, as drivers, they should win every single IROC race, and should dominate the series! After all, open-wheel and road-racers are so "superior" to NASCAR drivers, the NASCAR drivers should just barely be able to drive a car around a track, and are so much inferior to the so much more superior open-wheel and road-racing drivers, it is questionable if they should even be allowed to walk on the garage area and pit road pavement with the "superior" open-wheel and road-racing, much less be allowed to actually drive a car on the same track with them!

[Crash Test]

I don't know about all of that...

If you get a good driver on a road circuit, he should be pretty good on an oval too. Look at blokes like Nigel Mansell (in my eyes one of the best, at least one of the smoothest drivers I've ever seen) who race on the flat and twisty all of their lives and become immediate successes on ovals (ok, forgeting Phoenix, but remembering Indy ). Same can go the other way, how a guy like Jeff Gordon can race on ovals 95% of the time then go and beat of the ring-ins at Watkins Glen etc. On the ovals a lot depends on how the driver and their engineer sets up their car. I don't know what sort of freedoms there are in this respect in the IROC, but if every day of the year you drive and set-up tin tops, you would expect to have no trouble adapting to a new car. Also, I would expect that a tin-top specialist would be slightly hindered at driving a open wheeler on an irregular schedule. I would also imagine that a slightly different style of race craft would be required for the two different forms of the sport (eg, drafting and passing).

[Lee]

Crash Test,

The drivers that race in the IROC series have no imput into the set-up of the cars. The only thing they have imput into is the seat, which is adjusted to each individual driver. The cars are set up by a team of drivers not racing in the series. Two that I know that set up the cars are Dave Marcus and Dick Trickle. The cars are set up as close as possible to identical. A driver can hop from one car to another and tell only the slightest, and negledgable bit of difference the cars.

[Adam43]

Setting the cars up the same sounds fair, but don't some drivers like their cars set-up differently due to different driving styles? Doesn't this give the advantage to people who like a car set-up most like Dave Marcus and Dick Trickle?

Just a thought?

[Lars]

The other drivers that set up the cars are Andy Hillenburg & Jim Sauter (father of Jay, Johnny & Tim)...that was in 2001.

Hmmmm? 3 out of 4 of them from Wisconsin. & all 4 of them stock car drivers.

Lee, just laugh at the "cart" boys...that's why their series is going in the crapper...'cuz of all the arrogance from top to bottom...just hope nascar's doesn't filter any lower than it already is.