A Look Back: IROC XIII

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. 

A Look Back: IROC XIV

With the pace of this season there has not been a lot of time for fun writing and exploring almost forgotten events. The 2021 season has been moving with force with races coming one after the other. Not only are the races almost unceasing, but these races have also been spectacular, with incredible championship fights in almost every category, from IndyCar to NASCAR, Formula One to IMSA and let's not forget MotoGP. It has been busy, and that is a good thing. 

There is a little bit of free time ahead, as MotoGP is currently in its summer break and IndyCar's summer break has just begun, a week earlier than intended as the Toronto round was cancelled. Over the lockdown period last year, there was plenty of time for reflection and with a busy summer ahead, I thought I would use this moment to recollect a season and series that has fascinated me for a long time. 

IROC XIV. 

You likely know about my fondness for IROC, the international all-star series that brought together the best drivers from around the world in a four-race series to determine the best of the best. Dormant for the last 15 years, the spectacles that caught my awe from the 1990s and 2000s are all we have now of the legendary series. While the last few years were not the glory years for the series, IROC XIV, the season taking place in 1990 might be the pinnacle of the 30 seasons. 

Backdrop

IROC always had a diverse field, even in those final years when some of sexiest names and international-based drivers were not accepting invitations, but IROC XIV might be the best encapsulation of what the series was meant to be. 

The 12-driver field featured the top four drivers from the 1989 NASCAR Cup Series season, the 1989 IndyCar champion, who also just happened to be the reigning Indianapolis 500 winner, the 1989 Trans-Am champion, the 1989 IMSA GTP champion, who had also won the 12 Hours of Sebring that season, and the 1988 World Sportscar champion, who had also won the 24 Hours of Daytona that year. 

The 1990 season featured arguably the champions from the biggest four series in the United States and it included one of the best drivers internationally at the time who was not in Formula One. 

How did this field shape up? Let's break it down into groups:

NASCAR:

NASCAR always had significant participation in IROC, as it was effectively a stock car, and the races frequently took place during NASCAR weekends. 

Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, Mark Martin and Darrell Waltrip were the top four championship finishers in the Cup Series in 1989 and all four participated in IROC XIV. These four combined to win 18 of the 29 races in the 1989 Cup season. Waltrip won the Daytona 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Earnhardt had won the Southern 500. Wallace was the 1989 champion and had won at an assortment of tracks. He swept the Richmond races, won at Bristol, Rockingham, Watkins Glen and Michigan. Martin had just picked up his first career victory at Rockingham, the antepenultimate round.

Added to the NASCAR contingent was Terry Labonte. The 1984 Cup champion was only tenth in the 1989 Cup season with victories at Pocono and Talladega, but Labonte was the defending IROC champion, having won IROC XIII with a victory at Michigan, a second at Daytona, a third at Watkins Glen and a sixth at Nazareth. 

IndyCar:

IndyCar also had four competitors, but it was not as straightaway forward as NASCAR's bunch. 

Reigning CART champion Emerson Fittipaldi was in the series. Fittipaldi won five races in 1989, including the Indianapolis 500. This was going to be Fittipaldi's seventh IROC season. He competed in the first three seasons while still in Formula One and Fittipaldi had won the second race of the second season on October 26, 1974 at Riverside. He returned for the sixth and seventh seasons and he was a part of the revival season, IROC VIII in 1984, which was the first season of the contemporary IROC format of 12 drivers competing in four races, a departure from the fluctuating qualifiers with a two-race final series that had been used in the early seasons. 

The rest of the IndyCar drivers were sort of random. Al Unser, Jr. was fifth in the 1989 season, and he had famously fallen short of an Indianapolis 500 victory after spinning from contact with Fittipaldi in turn three in the closing laps. Unser, Jr.'s only victory had been in Long Beach, but he was a two-time IROC champion, having taken the title in 1986 and 1988. He had participated in the previous four seasons of IROC and was second in the 1987 and 1989 seasons. Unser, Jr. won at least one race in each of his first four IROC seasons and had five victories overall. Entering IROC XIV, Unser, Jr. had 13 consecutive top five finishes in the series. 

Danny Sullivan was seventh in the championship, and he missed two rounds in 1989 after due to a broken arm, but Sullivan did win two races at Pocono and Road America. Bobby Rahal was ninth in the championship with one victory at the Meadowlands. Sullivan had been CART champion in 1988 and he ran IROC XIII and won at Nazareth. Rahal had participated in four IROC seasons before, with victories at Mid-Ohio in 1985 and 1987. 

Sports cars:

Dorsey Schroeder was the 1989 Trans-Am champion after winning six of 14 races. 

Geoff Brabham picked up his second consecutive IMSA GTP championship in 1989 with nine victories from 15 races, including the 12 Hours of Sebring. 

The final entrant was Martin Brundle, who had split his career up to that point between Formula One and the World Sportscar Championship. Brundle made his Formula One debut with Tyrrell in 1984 and he drove for the organization through 1986. His best finish with the team was his final start with the team, fourth in Australia. He spent 1987 with Zakspeed, but only scored points with a fifth at Imola. 

In 1988, Brundle moved to Tom Walkinshaw Racing's Jaguar program and won the world championship with a 24 Hours of Daytona victory to booth. He returned to Formula One in 1989 with Brabham, and arguably overachieved with points in Monaco, Monza and Suzuka, but he failed to pre-qualify at Montreal and Circuit Paul Ricard. 

Brundle had decided to return to the World Sportscar Championship in 1989 with Jaguar and it allowed him to contest IROC.

This was the first season for the Dodge Daytona, replacing the Chevrolet Camaro, which had been used since the second IROC season. Due to the new car, IROC was not going to be ready in time for its traditional season opener at Daytona International Speedway apart of Speedweeks. The season would not start until Talladega in May, a 101-mile race. The second race would be a 75-mile race at Cleveland's Burke Lakefront Airport in July before concluding at Michigan on the first weekend in August. 

During the Talladega broadcast, commentator Bobby Unser said the Dodge Daytona was developed in the Lockheed wind tunnel in Marietta, Georgia. 

Entering this season, Earnhardt had made 17 IROC starts and had not won a race. Martin was making his IROC debut. In the first 13 seasons, A.J. Foyt and Unser, Jr. were the only multi-time IROC champions. NASCAR drivers had only won five championships. 

Race One - Talladega

Rahal and Martin started on the front row with defending champion Labonte starting last in the field. 

Earnhardt moved to fourth on the first lap from ninth. Soon, Wallace, Martin and Earnhardt led the race with Unser, Jr., Schroeder and Rahal tagged on in a six-car breakaway. Wallace and Martin separated from the rest of the top six while Earnhardt lined up in front of Unser, Jr., who was sporting a helmet cam in this race. 

Unser, Jr. pushed Earnhardt forward and caught the Wallace-Martin duo while Schroeder lost touch in fifth. 

Unser, Jr. got a run into turn three and was pushed to the lead with Martin sliding up to second. A few laps later, Martin would make the same pass, with assistance from Earnhardt and Wallace slipped ahead of Unser, Jr., who dropped to fourth with the rest of the field not even in sight. 

Earnhardt took the lead in the tri-oval with Wallace and Unser, Jr. also getting ahead of Martin. The next lap saw Wallace retake the lead. 

The lead would constantly shuffle between the top four. As the top four battled, Waltrip, Brundle and Schroeder linked together and ran down the top four. As the second pack caught the leaders, Unser, Jr. took the lead with a push from Martin with Earnhardt dropping to third. Wallace quickly fell behind Waltrip, Brundle and Schroeder. 

Quickly, it became three rows of two, Unser, Jr. and Martin, Waltrip and Earnhardt, Brundle and Schroeder with Wallace keeping touch in seventh. Martin would get the lead as the field went single-file, but soon Waltrip took the lead ahead of Earnhardt. 

Brundle and Schroeder were both praised for their performance in their debut. Neither had raced an oval before, let alone the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway.

The front seven settled down in the middle third of the race. The field was single-file coming to five laps to go and they were catching Danny Sullivan, who was stranded out there. Sullivan dropped to the bottom on the back straightaway and let the field through. 

Waltrip led Earnhardt, Unser, Jr., Martin, Schroeder, Brundle and Wallace with four laps to go. Coming to three to go, Unser, Jr. made a move to take the lead with Martin pushing Unser, Jr. to the front. Martin was unable to get in line and Waltrip and Earnhardt slingshot back to the front into turn three. Brundle moved up to fourth.

At the white flag, Martin slid back ahead of Brundle into fourth. On the back straightaway, Earnhardt left Waltrip and Unser, Jr. pushed Earnhardt to the lead. Waltrip continued to fall back. Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. separated but Unser, Jr. did not have enough steam or help to beat Earnhardt to the checkered flag.

Earnhardt picked up his first IROC victory ahead of Unser, Jr., Martin and Waltrip. Brundle got Schroeder by a nose for fifth and Wallace was seventh after spending what felt like the entire second half of the race stuck in that position. 

In the distance, and never shown on camera, Labonte began his IROC title defense in eighth with Brabham and Fittipaldi rounding out the top ten. Rahal was 11th and Sullivan was the only car to finish a lap down. 

This was the fastest IROC race at the time, with an average speed of 188.055 mph and there were 15 lead changes over the 38-lap race.

Earnhardt led the championship with 24 points after his victory, and he earned an additional three points for the second most laps led. Earnhardt was seven points ahead of Unser, Jr. and Waltrip, as Waltrip picked up the five bonus points for most laps led. Ten points back was Martin while Brundle and Wallace were tied on 12 points, as Wallace picked up two points for the third most laps led. 

Schroeder had nine points, two ahead of Labonte with Brabham, Fittipaldi, Rahal and Sullivan filling out the standings, all a point behind the next.

Race Two - Cleveland

Two months later, IROC held its second round at Cleveland, only the second time the temporary circuit hosted IROC after previously doing it in 1984. 

In the interim, Waltrip suffered a broken leg the day before the Cleveland race in NASCAR practice at Daytona. This kept Waltrip from starting at Cleveland. The other four NASCAR drivers flew into Cleveland hours after completing the Firecracker 400 at Daytona. Earnhardt won that race while Labonte finished fourth, Martin was 11th and Wallace was 14th.  

Brundle had won the 24 Hours of Le Mans a few weeks earlier with Jaguar and co-drivers Price Cobb and John Nielsen. 

Unser, Jr. had won the Milwaukee IndyCar race a month earlier. Rahal had three podium finishes, including a pair of runner-up results, one at Indianapolis, between the IROC events. Fittipaldi was third at Indianapolis and Milwaukee. Sullivan was fourth in the previous IndyCar race at Portland. 

With Waltrip out, the field lined up in reverse order of the Talladega result. Sullivan and Rahal started on the front row ahead of Fittipaldi and Brabham. Labonte and Wallace shared row three. Schroeder and Brundle split row four. Martin and Unser, Jr. took up row five and Earnhardt was all alone on row six. 

Fittipaldi went from third to first at the start ahead of Rahal and Sullivan. Wallace ran into the side of Martin in turn five, spinning both drivers out. At the end of lap one, Brundle was up to fourth and took third into turn one on lap two as Rahal lost two spots. Brundle took second from Sullivan into turn three on lap three. 

Fittipaldi opened a healthy lead, but the rest of field remained in lock step in the early laps. Unser, Jr. jumped up to fifth within the first eight laps, but the battle between him, Schroeder and Brabham went back and forth. Brabham would lose ground on lap 11 after locking up his brakes in turn three.

Brundle and Sullivan were catching Fittipaldi. On lap 12, Brundle took the lead into turn one, but the two were side-by-side all the way to turn three. Brundle had the inside and was able to clear the Brazilian and take the top position. Later that lap, Sullivan had to make a pit stop for a gearbox issue, a horrible turn of events considering Sullivan was third. 

Halfway through the race, Brundle led Fittipaldi, Schroeder, Unser, Jr., Labonte and Earnhardt.

Martin had a spin all on his own in turn six, causing him to lose more time. Rahal came to the pit lane with a tire issue, and he would fall off the lead lap. 

Brundle began to gap the field while Schroeder pressured Fittipaldi for second. After passing the lapped car of Rahal, Schroeder spun in turn eight and slapped the barrier with nine laps to go. Fittipaldi had just dropped his tires on the inside of the corner and kicked up some dirt into the path of Schroeder. It was race over for the Trans-Am champion. 

In the closing laps, Brundle's lead was four seconds over Fittipaldi while Unser, Jr. was running down Fittipaldi, running over a second faster a lap. Brundle took the white flag with the race in the bag, while Unser, Jr. took second from Fittipaldi into turn one. 

Brundle took the victory with Unser, Jr. and Fittipaldi rounding out the podium. Brundle was only the second non-American driver to win an IROC race. Fittipaldi had won at Riverside 14 years earlier. 

Labonte and Earnhardt rounded out the top five. Despite two separate incidents, Martin finished sixth ahead of Brabham with Wallace in eighth. Rahal was a lap down in ninth while Schroeder and Sullivan did not finish. 

With his victory, Brundle took the championship lead on 36 points while Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. were tied on 34 points. Martin was 13 points back in fourth, a point ahead of Fittipaldi and Waltrip was awarded the 12th-place result though he was unable to compete at Cleveland, placing the Talladega winner sixth in the championship on 20 points. 

The bottom half of the championship saw Labonte in seventh on 19 points. Wallace was eighth with 17 points while Schroeder and Brabham were tied on 14 points, Rahal had 11 points and Sullivan sat at the bottom of the table on seven points.

With 26 points left on the table and a minimum of three points to 12th at the Michigan finale, the only drivers mathematically eliminated from the championship were Rahal and Sullivan.

Race Three - Michigan

The grid lined up in championship order for the final race of the season, meaning Brundle and Unser, Jr. started on the front row ahead of Earnhardt and Martin. Waltrip was again unable to compete due to his recovery from the injuries suffered at Daytona. 

Brundle slowly took the field to the green flag, but once the race had started, Earnhardt quickly dove to the inside entering turn one and took the lead. Unser, Jr. kept second while Martin moved up to third and Brundle slid back to fourth. The Briton kept slipping back and soon found himself back in eighth in the opening laps. 

The top eight ran mostly single-file with Earnhardt in the lead over Unser, Jr. and Martin. Martin used the draft to slingshot into second. Brabham exited the race after eight laps due to a mechanical issue. Brundle had made a slight recovery and found himself in a battle with Wallace before Wallace clipped Brundle in turn four, spinning Brundle and taking him out of the race and out of the championship battle. 

On the restart, Labonte passed Unser, Jr. for third. Without much passing, Earnhardt maintained the lead and quickly locked up the five bonus points for most laps led. Unser, Jr. would get back to third as Schroeder and Wallace entered the fight. Unser. Jr. would catch back up to Martin and add some pressure for second as the field reached ten laps to go. Rain was reported in the area and increased the tension in the closing laps. 

Martin made a look for the lead with nine laps to go on the inside of the front straightaway, but Earnhardt blocked the moved and Unser, Jr. moved up to second. Earnhardt and Unser, Jr. were battling for the championship with Brundle a lap down. Labonte had moved up to third. Unser, Jr. tried to make a pass high on Earnhardt in turn four, but this dropped Unser, Jr. down to fifth with six laps to go. He would get fourth back but had a greater fight on his hands. 

Unser, Jr. got back up to third around Martin with four laps to go and he would take second from Labonte on the outside of turn three on the next lap. Labonte and Martin were side-by-side for third with Schroeder entering the mix and Wallace at the back of six-car breakaway. 

Earnhardt blocked every move Unser, Jr. made. Coming to the final lap, Labonte got to the outside of Unser on the front straightaway. Unser had lost the draft and slipped to third. Earnhardt would lead every lap on his way to victory and his first IROC championship. Labonte was second with Martin in third. Schroeder edged out Unser, Jr. for fourth with Wallace in sixth. Rahal, Fittipaldi, Sullivan, Brundle and Brabham rounded out the field. 

Earnhardt took the championship with 60 points, 16 points ahead of Unser, Jr. Brundle's Cleveland victory was enough to get him third on 41 points. Martin was fourth on 37 points, a point ahead of Labonte in fifth. Fittipaldi was sixth on 29 points. 

Schroeder and Wallace finished tied on 26 points, but the IROC tiebreaker at the time was best finish in the final race. Schroeder was fourth and Wallace was sixth, so Schroeder was classified in seventh. Despite not running the final two races, Waltrip was still ninth on 23 points. Rahal and Brabham were tied on 18 points with Rahal's seventh in the Michigan finale earning him tenth in the championship. Sullivan was last on 13 points.

In Summation

IROC XIV was a watershed year for the series. 

It was Earnhardt's first championship and Martin's first appearance. They would go on to be the two most successful drivers in series history. Martin won five titles and Earnhardt had four. Martin ended with 13 race victories, first all-time with Earnhardt tied for second on 11 with Unser, Jr.

While non-NASCAR drivers had won eight of the first 13 IROC titles, Earnhardt's title would lead NASCAR drivers winning the next 17 championships. In the following season, Watkins Glen replaced Cleveland on the schedule, but after that race IROC would not run another road course until the Daytona road course in June 2006, the penultimate race in series history. Twenty-six of the first 56 IROC races were held on road courses. Ten of the first 14 seasons had at least two road course races. Only two of the final 64 races were on road courses. 

It has been nearly 15 years since the final IROC race took place at Atlanta Motor Speedway. The series isn't coming back, but I wish it would. The new Superstar Racing Experience might be cut from the same cloth, but it does not compare to what IROC was. IROC brought together the best drivers at the top of their game. It had no gimmicks. It was a race that easily would take place in 45 minutes. No inverts, no fan boost, no competition caution or manufactured finish. It was one sprint to the checkered flag and may the best driver win.

When IROC died, it could not compete in the motorsports landscape. NASCAR was bigger than ever, and the drivers didn't need it. Many of the top drivers would have some contract conflict that would prevent them from competing. IndyCar and Champ Car were split, as were Grand-Am and the American Le Mans Series. There was too much in-fighting and IROC couldn't prosper. It hung on as long as it could. 

After the last 15 years though, where things have leveled off and we have grown tired of the repetitiveness of each series, I think IROC could flourish today. We are seeing it somewhat in SRX, but a full IROC revival would be welcomed with open arms. We haven't seen this best-on-best-on-best series in so long. Many have forgotten what it was like, and others have no clue what they would be seeing. It has been gone long enough to be new again and draw attention.

There are still too many hurdles in the way. We aren't going to see Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Scott Dixon, Josef Newgarden, Patricio O'Ward, Hélio Castroneves, Dane Cameron, Kamui Kobayashi and Jordan Taylor compete in one series, but it would definitely be a draw. It can only be a dream, and when it comes to these kinds of competitions, we will have to live in the past.

1000 Words: IROC

Friday marked the tenth anniversary of the final IROC race. Don't feel bad if you had forgotten about it, where it was, who the winner was and who took the final championship. Martin Truex, Jr. won the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the second consecutive year he won the finale after he won at Atlanta the year prior. Tony Stewart clinched the IROC XXX championship with a third-place finish that day and he had won the two races prior at Texas Motor Speedway and on the road course at Daytona International Speedway. 

I don't know why I was infatuated with IROC. Looking back, I might have been the only one that cared. Maybe it was just because it was another race to watch and the realest thing we had to an all-star, best vs. best competition in motorsports even though it wasn't that close to being a true best vs. best competition. If you watched the final decade of IROC, you would have known that it was a NASCAR-heavy series. 

Take the final season as an example: Five full-time Cup drivers (Stewart, Truex, Jr., Matt Kenseth, Ryan Newman and Mark Martin, who won the IROC title in 2005), the Trucks champion (Ted Musgrave) and filling the second-half of the field was Max Papis, two years removed from winning the Grand-Am title, the defending Grand-Am champions of Wayne Taylor and Max Angelelli who split a car, with Taylor taking the bookends of the season, the seven-time ARCA champion Frank Kimmel who was working on his eight, Sam Hornish, Jr. who finished third in the IRL championship and two victories the year before, Scott Sharp who was coming off fifth in the 2005 IRL season and won a race that year, and Steve Kinser who became IROC's 12th man for the final few seasons. 

IROC rarely was an international race of champions. The series never raced outside the United States. It never made a trek to Canada to Mexico. In fact, all 30 champions were Americans and the only one that wasn't American-born was Mario Andretti. The inaugural season in 1973-74 featured ten Americans but had two World Drivers' Champions in Emerson Fittipaldi, who would win the title in 1974 and Denis Hulme. Peter Revson made it three Formula One drivers on the grid and he won two races in the 1973 season. Defending Can-Am champion Mark Donohue won the championship. George Follmer, 1972 Can-Am champion, was the second Can-Am driver on the grid. Bobby Unser, A.J. Foyt, George Johncock and Roger McCluskey represented USAC. David Pearson, Bobby Allison and Richard Petty represented NASCAR. 

The series tried to draw out the best from Formula One. Fittipaldi did another season. Ronnie Peterson, Graham Hill and Jody Scheckter participated in the second season. James Hunt did one season and pulled out after the first race of his second season to focus on Formula One. Jacky Ickx and Gunnar Nilsson contested the 1977-78 season. The 1979 and 1980 seasons featured a qualifying format with three races for eight NASCAR drivers, eight USAC drivers and eight road racing (Formula One, IMSA, etc.) drivers with the top four advancing to a two-legged finale with one race on a road course and one on an oval. In those seasons Alan Jones, Clay Regazzoni, Patrick Depailler, John Watson, Niki Lauda and Keke Rosberg all contested in the series. 

After IROC's first hiatus after the 1980 season, Formula One drivers never returned and the series became a NASCAR vs. IndyCar vs. sports car series. The series did get a little more international. The tenth season in 1986 featured the Germans Klaus Ludwig, Hans Stuck and Jochen Mass but other than those three it was guys named Unser, Elliott, Yarborough, Waltrip, Gant, Rahal, Haywood and Mears. In fact, outside of the 1979 and 1980 seasons with the three-race qualifying format, the series never featured more than three international drivers in a season.

While the first season was entirely on road courses with three races at Riverside and the finale on the Daytona road course, the series did a complete 180º turn by its final years. During the 1980s, there was a mix with races on the ovals and road courses but by 1992 all races where on ovals and it would be that way until the final season. Daytona typically opened the season. Michigan was regular on the schedule from the mid-1970s until the turn of the 21st century. Talladega was on the schedule often. Riverside hosted 16 races before it closed. 

The series bounced from track to track. Outside of Daytona, Riverside, Michigan and Talladega, the track that hosted the most IROC races was Indianapolis, which hosted IROC six times. The series raced at Atlanta and Watkins Glen five times, Darlington, Fontana, Mid-Ohio and Texas three times, Cleveland, Charlotte, Chicagoland and Richmond twice. Nazareth was the only track to host only one IROC race. 

Could IROC exist today? I remember around the end of IROC that Jeff Burton said something that the changing landscape of motorsports made the series obsolete, as more series were becoming single-spec series in certain elements. IndyCar was down to just Dallara and Honda. NASCAR was going to the Car of Tomorrow. The other issue was cars were being developed for a four-race series. The length didn't justify the costs. The length of races would be friendly today as most races took around an hour (except for the final road course race at Daytona which took nearly 90 minutes because IROC didn't count caution laps) and could be scheduled nicely in a television window. The actual length of the schedule wouldn't be a good thing. The final season had a race in February, April, July and October. We live in a hyper-attentive world in 2016. It can't be too long but it can't be too short. 

Would drivers do it? I am sure there are drivers that would want to compete for the love of racing but drivers are surrounded by bubble wrap more than ever. The issue would be getting drivers that are desirable. You could probably get Trevor Bayne to do it but could you get Kyle Busch? Formula One drivers wouldn't be allowed to. The difficult thing is getting it to work around every driver's schedule. When NASCAR drivers became the core of the grid, races were held on NASCAR weekends.

The biggest issue is money. What company is going to pony up the millions of dollars it is going to take to support a purse large enough to draw top drivers, cover the costs of the cars and be able to draw eyeballs to the television set, computer screen and get people into the grandstands? 

For kicks and giggles, let's just brainstorm how IROC could exist in this messed up world that we call the year 2016 or rather let's imagine it for 2017 because today is the final day of October. What would it look like? I see a balance, two ovals and two road courses. Open the season at Daytona on the oval during Speedweeks, preferably the Friday evening before the Truck race like it was in the final few seasons. After that there will be a somewhat lengthy hiatus as the next round would be at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Carb Day. The penultimate round would take place at Montreal on the Saturday of Canadian Grand Prix weekend. The season ends the last weekend at June at Road America on Saturday and in conjunction with the IndyCar race. 

The car would need to be something that is already in existence and readily available. Spec Miatas or Porsche Carrera Cup cars would make sense but the issue with both is having them race on ovals. I am sure it can be done though. The roster of drivers needs to be diverse but what series to choose from and should there be a limit of amount per series? It would be nice to see the champions from Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR, WEC, IMSA, Supercars, USAC, World of Outlaws, DTM and a few other drivers sprinkled in. For pure fantasy let's imagine a grid with Lewis Hamilton, Simon Pagenaud, Kyle Busch, Romain Dumas, Dane Cameron, Shane Van Gisbergen, Marco Wittmann, Donny Schatz, Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Harvick, Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Pipo Derani and Sébastien Buemi. 

I might be alone in this boat of missing IROC. In fact, I am not sure if anyone outside of the United States knew IROC existed. I guess that just adds to the oxymoronic nature of the series. I remember when Tony Stewart won the title he said he would return the $1 million prize for an IROC race at Eldora Raceway in 2007. Unfortunately, that never happened. In a way, Stewart's IROC idea and the charity Prelude to the Dream all-star race sparked interest in major series racing on dirt and has led to the NASCAR Truck race at Eldora in July. 

IROC is gone and is likely never going to comeback. The money does flow through motorsports like it once did and the appetite doesn't appear to be there. It was fun while it lasted.