IRL boys enter world of Winston Cup in IROC
ESPN.com news services
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Eddie Cheever Jr. learned several valuable lessons in last year's True Value International Race of
Champions series event at Daytona International Speedway. He hopes to
apply that knowledge Friday in his return to the all-star series.
The field of 12 driver gathered Wednesday for the IROC draw for starting order. Cheever is one of three Indy Racing League drivers in the field. The rest are all Winston Cup stars, putting the open-wheel trio at an imediate disadvantae on the high banks of Daytona.
"These guys are tough," said Cheever, the 1998 Indianapolis 500 winner. "I went for every possible hole that was there at the start of the race last year (at Daytona). I went from the front to the back then into the wall in seven laps."
And he took Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- son of seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt -- with him.
"I was very happy it was the little Earnhardt, not the big Earnhardt, I had the accident with because I had visions of leaving Daytona with 120,000 mad racing fans chasing me out," said Cheever with a laugh. "It"s an honor to be
here. It's a highlight of anybody's career. Racing against the best in the
world is fun."
Dale Earnhardt, the defending champ in the IROC series, will start from the pole. Earnhardt won three of four races in the all-star series last year on the way to his third IROC title. He has 10 race wins, trailing career series leader Al Unser Jr. by one.
"Last year, I played it a little patient here and waited until the right time at the end," said Earnhardt, who led only the final
lap of the 40-lap, 100-mile race at Daytona International Speedway. "Hopefully, we can get it done again this year."
Unser, a longtime open-wheel star, is not driving in the series this year. The CART drivers are also unable to compete because of a schedule conflict.
The top 1999 Winston Cup rookie Tony Stewart will start
alongside Earnhardt in the front row on Friday, with two-time
NASCAR Busch Series champion and Winston Cup rookie Dale Earnhardt
Jr. third.
Cheever will start fourth, followed by Bobby
Labonte and Jeff Gordon, defending IRL champion Greg Ray and fellow
IRL racer Mark Dismore.
Four-time IROC champion Mark Martin will start ninth, with the
lineup completed by fellow NASCAR stars Dale Jarrett, Jeff Burton
and Rusty Wallace.
Both Ray and Dismore, who earned his first IRL victory last year,
are making their first IROC appearance.
"As an open-wheel driver, I'm very proud to be here and part of IROC," said
Ray, who drives for Team Menard. "This is a series I've watched for many,
many years on TV, and certainly the drivers I'm competing against I look
very much up to. I feel like a sheep running with the wolves a little bit.
They have a little bit of an advantage."
Dismore has logged more laps over Daytona"s
2.5-mile, high-banked tri-oval than any other driver during Speedweeks. He's trying to absorb as much information in the shortest amount of time as possible.
"I've done about 500 miles in practice since I got here," said Dismore. "I'm like the first kid in class here every day. There's a group of guys here that are going to kick my butt, but it's going to be a lot of fun.
"I have all the respect in the world for these guys. I'm here to learn. I'll try to latch on to somebody who knows what they're doing and follow them
all day. When we get to Indianapolis, maybe I can race hard. The kind of
racing I do is a whole lot different from this."
Cheever expects Ray and Dismore to hold their own against the field, which
includes nine Winston Cup drivers.
"Mark acts like he's going to lay down, but he's not going to lay down for
anybody," said Cheever. "Ray is a heck of a racing driver. He's cocky,
arrogant. He'll do good."
Stewart may now race in Winston Cup, but he's a past IRL champion. Stewart won the 1997 league crown and competed in the 1998 IROC.
"It's nice to be back," said Stewart. "Two years ago I got my feet wet.
Everything I learned in IROC helped me with the Winston Cup cars."
