IROC down the hole?

[Crash Test]

Im not quite where i should post this, but the Nascar forum will do.

Whats the deal? Eddie Cheever winning? Shouldn't the nascar folk be pulling out their fingers?

By the way, where are the Cart folk?
Is IROC still as big as it once was?

Michigan Results and Series Points
IROC

2000-06-11


Michigan, June 10-Reaffirming the presence of open wheel champions in the True Value IROC series, Indy Racing Northern Light Series champion Eddie Cheever Jr., driving the red True Value IROC Pontiac Firebird, won his first True Value IROC race by .711 seconds in the third round of the 24th True Value IROC series at Michigan speedway.

Finishing 2nd was NASCAR Winston Cup Series driver Tony Stewart, who started in 8th position. According to Stewart, "You have to drive the cars here, and you'll have to drive them at Indy too. He (Cheever) drove the car today, it wasn't just that he had a better car. He held it wide open just like the rest of us did."

Third place went to first round True Value IROC Daytona champion, Dale Earnhardt who started in 12th position. According to Earnhardt, "I might of run too hard at the start, but Cheever was running hard at the start too. I'd like to win them all, but I like to see a mix (of open-wheel and stock car drivers win races)."

Cheever Jr. started the race from 2nd position and led the race for four laps until Dale Earnhardt and son, NASCAR rookie sensation Dale Earnhardt Jr, overtook him. According to Cheever , "I promised myself after my experience in Daytona and Talladega, of losing the draft, that if somebody got by me, I was going to get back in it as soon as I can. This series allows you to run real hard and that's what I enjoy about it. I'm real honored that they asked me to return."

On the 32nd lap, Cheever Jr. got back to the front and was able to regain the lead and distance himself from Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt who fell behind battling side by side. Cheever Jr. recalls, "Each time I got in front I could get a few car lengths ahead and they were fighting behind me and that's what allowed me to keep my margin." Cheever Jr. kept his lead all the way to the checkered flag.

Not since 1997 when Al Unser Jr. captured his 11th series victory in Daytona had an open wheel driver been victorious in a True Value IROC race. Cheever Jr. said, "It's a great honor to be racing against them (NASCAR Winston Cup drivers). I like the fact they don't gang up on you. I guess I always heard that they put a big 'X' on your car if you're an open-wheeled guy. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Also competing in the third race of their first True Value IROC series were Indy Racing League drivers Greg Ray and Mark Dismore. Dismore and Ray finished 10th and 11th respectively. Cheever Jr., Dismore and Ray were airlifted immediately after the race from Michigan Speedway to compete in the Indy Racing Northern Light Series in Texas.

The purse for the 2000 True Value IROC series totals of $760,000 with $225,000 awarded to the champion based on cumulative point standings at the end of the fourth race.

Remaining 2000 Schedule
Race Four
August 4, 2000
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
100 miles (40 laps) on
2.5-mile oval

Race three of the 24th True Value IROC will be rebroadcast on ESPN2 at 10:30p.m.(Eastern) on Sunday, June 11 2000.



IROC XXIV
Race Three - 50 Laps (100 Miles)
Saturday, June 10, 2000
Michigan Speedway, Brooklyn, MI
2.0-mile banked tri-oval
Fin St Driver Car Number Laps Times Laps Bonus Points Status
Color Led Led Points
1 2 Eddie Cheever Jr. Red 11 50 3 23 5 21 Running
2 8 Tony Stewart Lime 5 50 17 Running
3 12 Dale Earnhardt Med. Blue 1 50 3 15 3 14 Running
4 10 Mark Martin Green 3 50 1 9 2 12 Running
5 3 Dale Jarrett Rose 10 50 10 Running
6 11 Bobby Labonte Gold 2 50 9 Running
7 6 Jeff Gordon Violet 7 50 8 Running
8 7 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Aqua 6 50 2 3 7 Running
9 5 Rusty Wallace Yellow 8 50 6 Running
10 1 Mark Dismore Dark Blue 12 50 5 Running
11 4 Greg Ray White 9 44 4 Running
12 9 Jeff Burton Powder Blue 4 37 3 Over Heat

Average Speed 162.162
Time of Race 37 min. 0 sec.
Margin of Victory 0.711 sec.
Lead Changes 9 among 4 drivers
Cautions 1
Lap Leaders: Cheever 1-4, Earnhardt 5, Cheever 6, Earnhardt 7-10, Earnhardt
Jr. 11, Earnhardt 12-21, Martin 22-30, Earnhardt Jr. 31-32, Cheever 33-50

Driver Current Points Bonus Points Michigan Race Points TotalPoints
Dale Earnhardt 40 3 14 57
Mark Martin 31 2 12 45
Tony Stewart 26 0 17 43
Bobby Labonte 34 0 9 43
Eddie Cheever Jr. 12 5 21 38
Jeff Burton 29 0 3 32
Dale Jarrett 14 0 10 24
Jeff Gordon 15 0 8 23
Dale Earnhardt Jr. 16 0 7 23
Rusty Wallace 15 0 6 21
Greg Ray 14 0 4 18
Mark Dismore 6 0 5 11

*Tie-Breaker Rule: In the event that two or more drivers are tied for bonus
points, the bonus points will be awarded according to the finishing positions
of the race.

Prize Money: The total True Value IROC purse of $760,000 will be paid upon
conclusion of the series based on point standings. The series Champion will
earn $225,000.

ESPN: Live 12:00 p.m. (Eastern Time)

Next Race: The True Value IROC XXIV finale will take place on Friday, August
4, 2000 at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

[Heeltoe6]

The official reason for cart drivers not participating is scheduling conflicts. And unlike the irl drivers, who I don't think missed any practice, cart drivers were going to miss the 2nd qualifying sesion at lb to particpate in the talladega iroc race. BUt the real reason is that the series is a joke and basically a "nascar-lite" It was amazing for cheeever to pull off the win, but note it was at MIS, not dis or dega. Look at the schedule. DID, dega, MIS, and IMS. ALl of big long tracksw which rely heavily on drafting (mot so much at ims, but it's still a factor). Handling comes into play at mis and ims, but still, they are in stock cars and nascar runs at all 4 of the tracks, irl only 1 and cart only 1. The series si so lopsoided towards nascar, and has been for some time. CART dirvers just eventually got tired and figured it wasn't worth risking injury or worse in a series which is pretty meanigless. I mean, it was bad enough hen they dropped the road courses (wgi, mid ohio, cleveland) but now there aren't any short ovals either (naz, darlington, even cms). All big oval tracks where the open wheel guys are at a huge disadvantage, so why bother?

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by Heeltoe6
The series is so lopsoided towards nascar, and has been for some time. CART dirvers just eventually got tired and figured it wasn't worth risking injury or worse in a series which is pretty meanigless. All big oval tracks where the open wheel guys are at a huge disadvantage, so why bother?

Al Unser Jr. stated last year in a USA Today article that NASCAR drivers had no advantage over the open wheel drivers in IROC. The cars have more downforce due to a bigger rear spoiler and less horsepower than a Winston Cup car. Keep in mind that Al used to win at least one race a year when he ran in IROC, and he won on ovals too. So what has changed with the open wheelers? Talent maybe? At anyrate, it was a good win for Eddie as he was able to accomplish something that quite a few "top" open wheelers (Zanardi, Vasser, Moore, Fernandez, Brack, Ray, R Gordon, Luyendyk) were never able to accomplish in IROC. I think Eddie Cheever is and was in other series, a better driver than quite a few people gave him credit for.

[Heeltoe6]

Well, I don't take anything lil Al syas with any credence anymore. But when he was running the series, except for his last year in 98, they still ran the short ovals, no road courses, but still darlingotn was in there in the early 90s. Really though, what rationale is there (other than attracting fans) for having both dis and dega on the schedule, they require the exact same skils. At least in the late 90s, even when they dropped the short ovals, you had cms and fontana on instead of dega, so drafting wasn't that important. Open wheelers are tauhgt to avoid the slip stream so going in iroc and having to draft is a huge disadvantage, I don't care what lil Al says. That's a good point about the talent though. Even though most of them didin't come up through the ovals, it seemed like the "old guard" of cart guys could compete better on the ovals (lil al, al sr, rahal, sullivan) than the new generation of cart drivers (zanardi, franchitti). But i think it's just because of the specialization involved which are increased exponentially over the last ten years, because the invitees from cart do all right on ovasl in open wheelers except franchitti.

[Crash Test]

I dont want to start this one again....

Its not a question of talent, it would be good to see IROC races with open wheelers on road tracks...

Wouldnt it be good if they could find some sort of in between cars to use. Like a sports car or roadster or somthing...not a stock car, not an open wheeler..

[Heeltoe6]

Yes Crash Test, I agree. They started off with Porsches after all. There's no reason to keep the firebirds they have now since gm pulled the plug on sponsorship $$. They should pursue Dodge and see if they are willing to put some money up to run some Vipers. Another option is to have some sort of touring car, front wheel drive, which no one has experince in, everyone having rwd. In my perfect world, iroc would consist of 5 races, 2 road courses, 3 ovals. I think they should run the Daytona road course (no one has an advatage here, unless they do a one-off in the 24 hrs as papis did, plus it put iroc at Nascar's HQ but combines drafting and road racing), Darlington (short, tight, historic oval, nascar), MIS (high banked superspeedway, drafting, cart/nascar), IMS (history, high speed, but a hadnling track, irl/nascar, old timers in cart), and WGI (the long course, of course, no one would have experieince on that....nascar guuys would know part of the course, but not the boot, and I don't think they are any guys who ran it in imsa who'd be picked for iroc). Anyways, that's what I would do to bring the series back to a respectable level.

[kmchow]

No Heeltoe is onto something really good--a touring car-ish series with a variety of tracks from ovals/road courses/endurance!! Now THAT would certainly be a "race of champions"!!!

[Jay]

How about Go-Karts?

Can't get more even than that. And does it matter that they're not driving a big fat machine that cost more than my house?

[Crash Test]

That would be a good idea....the indoor races in Europe with big time stars are always very popular...

[EERO]

I like Heelandtoes idea-good ideas spring from the Bat State

[Heeltoe6]

You know it EERO!

[EERO]

OOPS: Typo, make that "Bay State"