We fail to take into consideration some of the great little moments we get to see in modern motorsports. As much as we herald the past as the golden era with drivers regularly competing in multiple disciplines, we fail to notice when it happens under our nose in the present.
In IndyCar, a four-time Supercars champion from Australia is competing against a seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion while a six-time IndyCar champion, who is also now has the second most victories in series history, and a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, is also on the circuit.
In a few weeks at Watkins Glen, a past Formula One World Drivers' Champion will be competing in the NASCAR Cup Series and he will only be the second past World Drivers' Champion to compete in the Cup Series this season. There will also be an overall Le Mans winner in that race.
Endurance races bring together plenty of decorated drivers.
We see these race occurrence all the time, but do not properly acknowledge them, probably because we do not step back and appreciate the moment.
But what if there was an entire series full of some of the greatest drivers ever?
That is what the International Race of Champions was known for from the 1970s through its final season in 2006. There were many great IROC seasons, one of which was highlighted in this forum last year. As great as IROC XIV was in 1990, the year before gathered arguably one of the greatest collection of names in American motorsports and perhaps the world.
Today marks the 33rd anniversary of the IROC XIII season finale. What made it so special?
It was A.J. Foyt vs. Richard Petty vs. Rick Mears vs. Dale Earnhardt vs. Al Unser, Jr. vs. Hurley Haywood, and that was only half the field.
At this point in time, Foyt was a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner. Mears had just won his third. Richard Petty was a seven-time Cup champion and had 200 Cup victories. Earnhardt had three Cup titles. Unser, Jr. was still emerging in IndyCar, but had already won two IROC championships, including the year prior. Haywood was the reigning Trans-Am champion, a two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, tied for the most 24 Hours of Daytona victories with four, and a two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner.
And those six drivers do not include the defending NASCAR and IndyCar champions, Bill Elliott and Danny Sullivan respectively. Elliot also had two Daytona 500 victories and Sullivan had won the Indianapolis 500 four years prior. Geoff Brabham and Scott Pruett were both IMSA champions the year before, Brabham in GTP and Pruett in GTO.
Rounding out the field was Terry Labonte, who had won the 1984 NASCAR Cup championship, and Rusty Wallace, the runner-up in the 1988 Cup championship after winning four of the final five races, bringing him 24 points shy of topping Elliott.
Race One - Daytona
The build up to this race was Foyt vs. Petty, two drivers that had competed together in their fair share of Cup competition, but both were clearly on the tail end of their careers. At the start of this IROC season, Petty was about four and a half years removed from that 200th Cup victory, which had come at Daytona International Speedway. It was also the tenth anniversary of Petty's seventh, and final, championship.
Foyt had not won an IndyCar race since 1981. Like Petty, it was ten years since Foyt's seventh, and final, IndyCar championship. Both drivers were over 50 years old and Sam Posey was even asking at the top of the Daytona race broadcast if they had lost their competitive edge and risked their careers entering IROC, where the cars were equal and if a driver finished last, he had no one to blame but himself.
Daytona was the 50th IROC race. Mears and Foyt shared the front row ahead of Elliott and Sullivan. Labonte and Petty were on row three while Earnhardt and Pruett started on row four. Rounding out the top ten were Haywood and Unser, Jr. Brabham and Wallace occupied the final row.
Mears led the opening lap, but Petty took the top spot on lap two. Petty led three laps before Earnhardt took the lead. Wallace was a big mover, jumping up to fourth from 12th on the opening lap and soon finding himself in second position behind Earnhardt.
While Petty had a great start, he soon started dropping positions and fell out of the top five.
The field broke in half with Earnhardt leading a six-car group while the rest of the field fell off. After a few settled laps, Labonte and Unser, Jr. made their way to the front and passed the leading tandem of Earnhardt and Wallace. However, those two would push back and regain the positions.
Entering the final ten laps, Earnhardt, Wallace, Labonte and Unser, Jr. had broken away, but Unser, Jr. started to struggle with his tires. Exiting turn four on one lap, Unser, Jr. brushed the wall. Wallace found his way back to the lead after a pass low into turn one. On the final lap, Labonte made a run to the inside of the back straightaway, but Wallace blocked it off and held on for the victory ahead of Labonte, Earnhardt and Unser, Jr.
Elliott was a distant fifth ahead of Haywood and Foyt. Mears was eight, a spot ahead of Petty. The IMSA champions Pruett and Brabham were tenth and 11th respectively. Sullivan was actually lapped in this race, but he had been in a practice accident in the build up to the race after contact with Unser, Jr.
Race Two - Nazareth
Hold on! Nazareth? Yes! For the first time, IROC was visiting a short track. Shocking to the 21st century viewer, this IROC race was run on a Saturday in conjunction with a standalone NASCAR Busch Grand National Series event, which took place on Sunday while the Cup Series was off. IndyCar and also been off for two weeks after running at Long Beach, as was Trans-Am. IMSA had run the weekend before on the streets of West Palm Beach.
The grid was inverse of the Daytona results, but an accident almost immediately into the race caused a stir. Brabham was sent into the outside wall after contact with Petty. The initial start was waved off and Brabham was allowed into a backup car, but had to start last in the field.
On the second start, Sullivan led lap one before Pruett took the top spot on lap two. Sullivan was losing positions on each lap and it would not be long before he was down to seventh.
Foyt aggressively drove forward and took the top spot on lap 18, but simultaneously Elliott made a pit stop for tires, and a theme would emerge over this afternoon. Foyt continued to lead, but Wallace was driving to the front from 11th on the grid after the second start. On lap 37, just after halfway in the 75-lap race, Wallace took the lead.
Almost immediately after Wallace inherited the top spot, a caution came out for debris. On the restart, Foyt worked his way around Wallace, but soon Wallace was into the pit lane with a tire problem. Wallace was the fifth driver to take tires at this point. Not long after that, Unser, Jr. and Earnhardt each made pit stops for tires, as would Labonte.
Foyt was hanging onto the top position, but faced pressure from Pruett. During the battle, Foyt lost his right-front tire while leading and Pruett moved into first with 16 laps to go. However, Sullivan was gaining on the leaders. After being a distant third he was taking a second a lap out of Pruett's advantage. Pruett began to slide on his tires and ran wide with 13 laps remaining. This opened the door for Sullivan to retake the lead for the first time since the opening lap.
With all the tire issues, Wallace had wound up in third ahead of Unser, Jr. Foyt had rejoined competition in fifth position, but Sullivan was the only driver without a major tire issue all race and he drove into the distance, winning the race over Pruett by 13.45 seconds. The performance was so startling, Sullivan had not even realized he won until the mechanics pointed for him to go to victory lane.
Wallace, Unser, Jr. and Foyt rounded out the top five with Labonte in sixth ahead of Earnhardt. Brabham took the backup car to an eight-place result ahead of Haywood. Mears, Elliott and Petty took the final three spots.
Race Three - Michigan
Paul Page billed it as a pivotal race at the top of the broadcast. The top seven drivers in the championship were mathematically eligible for leaving the two-mile Michigan International Speedway as the championship leader. Only 14 points covered Wallace, Labonte, Earnhardt, Sullivan, Pruett, Unser, Jr. and Foyt.
Petty and Brabham shared the front row, and Brabham led a few of the opening laps. Meanwhile, Wallace nearly replicated his Daytona start, this time going from 12th to fifth on lap one with Labonte on his coattails while Earnhardt had also driven from tenth into the top five.
Earnhardt would soon take the lead from Brabham after receiving a push from Labonte, but Labonte would make a move to the inside of Earnhardt on the front straightaway and move to the top spot.
The bottom three starters held the top three positions as the race approached the quarter-post but Pruett was closing on the leaders. Earnhardt took advantage of Pruett's head of steam and was pushed to the lead. Labonte was caught out and dropped to fourth. Wallace took a look for the lead on Earnhardt, but this slowed both cars down and Labonte regained the top position after a three-wide pass.
This dicing of the leaders allowed Foyt and a few others to close up on the field. With seven laps to go, the top eight were all under a blanket. Labonte went back to the top spot entering turn three that lap and Wallace dropped to fifth. As the side-by-side racing increased around third, Labonte and Earnhardt pulled away.
Labonte and Earnhardt had gained some breathing room, but Wallace climbed back up to third and mounted a late charge. Labonte opened some daylight to the field and took the victory while Earnhardt held off Wallace for second. Elliott and Unser, Jr. rounded out the top five.
Pruett was sixth ahead of Foyt, Haywood and Mears. Sullivan, Petty and Brabham took the final three spots.
Race Four - Watkins Glen
Five drivers were alive for the championship entering the season finale at Watkins Glen. Labonte's victory at Michigan put him in the championship lead, four points ahead of Wallace and eight points ahead of Earnhardt. Unser, Jr. and Pruett were tied on 34 points, and for either of those two to win the championship, it would have required winning the race with at least leading the second most laps in the race.
The drivers lined up in championship order. Labonte and Wallace were on row one, Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. on row two and Pruett had Foyt to his outside on row three.
Labonte held onto the lead at the start while Unser, Jr. moved up to third around Earnhardt. Pruett overtook Earnhardt for fourth on the following lap. Unser, Jr. would soon get around Wallace for second and start applying pressure on Labonte in the lead. Pruett moved around Wallace into third.
Unser, Jr. had a run into turn one at the start of lap 11 and took the lead on the inside of Labonte. Later that lap, Pruett moved ahead of Labonte entering the carousel. On the next lap, Pruett took the lead into turn one, but Unser, Jr. countered, getting a strong exit of the esses before passing Pruett back into the carousel.
The top four remained close over the second-third of the race until Wallace needed to make a pit stop for a tire issue. Richard Petty suffered a hard accident in the carousel, slamming into the barrier and notably damaging it, but Petty was able to drive back to the pit lane and garage area with no caution being waved.
Wallace emerged from his pit stop in eighth position, and with Labonte having led ten laps, he had effectively clinched at least three bonus points for the second most laps led. This spelled doom for Unser, Jr. and Pruett, as no matter what they could not overtake Labonte if he had those three bonus points.
With Wallace out of the picture and Earnhardt never really challenging Labonte on the track, Labonte had to just stay on the road and the championship would be his. Unser, Jr. and Pruett pulled away from him, but the top two had next to no daylight between their cars in the closing laps.
Unser, Jr. had control over the final two-thirds of the race and won by 1.3 seconds over Pruett, but Labonte's third-place finish clinched him the IROC championship. Elliott drove up to fourth of Earnhardt while sports car aces Haywood and Brabham rounded out the top seven. Wallace could do no better than eighth. Mears had a spin the carousel relegate him to ninth ahead of Foyt. Sullivan had early damage to his right front after an incident in the carousel. He spent much of the race multiple laps down, but finished 11th ahead of Petty.
Labonte won the championship with 72 points, 12 ahead of Unser, Jr. Wallace was dropped to third on 58 points, one ahead of Earnhardt and seven ahead of Pruett. Elliott took sixth with 38 points, two more than Foyt and three more than Sullivan. Haywood had 31 points. Brabham and Mears were tied on 24 points, but the finish in the final race of the season was the tiebreaker, placing Brabham tenth in the championship. Petty scored 16 points over four races.
In Review
Outside of Mario Andretti and perhaps David Pearson, this is one of the best groups of American motorsports competitors to ever take to the racetrack together, and each were at different stages in their careers.
Foyt and Petty were both at the end. Unser, Jr. and Pruett were both still at the beginning. Wallace would win the NASCAR Cup Series championship later that year. Labonte would win another Cup championship seven years later. Earnhardt would win four more Cup titles. Mears added his fourth Indianapolis 500 two years later.
It is fascinating to see how the series was contested. Daytona and Watkins Glen were both held on NASCAR Cup weekends. Nazareth was with NASCAR's second division. Michigan was with CART, but IROC had an accommodating schedule. Other than NASCAR, nothing was going on in February. Somehow, all these series were off the weekend of Nazareth. Cup was off for the Michigan weekend, though Trans-Am was at Lime Rock Park. IMSA was at Heartland Park Topeka the day after Watkins Glen, and Brabham won that race in the Nissan GTP after concluding his IROC campaign.
When you consider how the NASCAR Cup Series now has only one off-week from the Daytona 500 in the middle of February and the season finale on the first Sunday in November, not to forget mentioning IndyCar's tightly packed summer schedule, there would be no concession made in the year 2022. Although, with the limited practice in the NASCAR series and even IndyCar running less practice, theoretically, a schedule could be made that would not interfere with the day jobs for the competitors.
Watching these four races, it is important to note how different these events were presented 33 years ago and what I mean by that is, before you say everything was better back in the 1980s and today's networks are atrocious broadcasting a race, note that the February 17th season opener from Daytona was not aired on television until AFTER the Indianapolis 500. It is what followed the Indianapolis 500 broadcast that year over three months later!
Also note that the second race at Nazareth had already taken place before the first race even aired. When did Nazareth air on television? July 30, three months and a day after it had been run.
This is also without noting the lap number in the race was hardly mentioned until you got in the final five or ten laps, there were no intervals to the leaders, you barely saw anything that happened beyond the first three or four cars, and they would air two- to three-minute features during the race! They went away from the race to show you a piece on A.J. Foyt. Not even splitscreen or double-box. You saw the feature piece full screen and that was it.
Remember that next time you are complaining about a race airing on a streaming service with a grand total of three minutes worth of commercials and consider if the alternative was really that much better.
Broadcasting aside, IROC XIII was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It brought Rick Mears and Richard Petty to the same racetrack. These are likely the only four times they ever raced against each other. The same can be said for Mears and Earnhardt, Haywood and Petty.
It is incredible that at one point the top four drivers from NASCAR, three of the top four from IndyCar, the two most decorated drivers from each of those series, and three of the top sports car champions from the United States would all compete against each other four times a year with $200,000 going to the champion. That isn't even $500,000 in 2022 money. But they did it and IROC was run that way for most of its 30-season history.
Though it was far from the top series in the United States, it was something the competitors felt worthy of their time, almost obligated to do, and we all won out because of it.
