International Race of Champions : Timely Yellow Flag Helps Elliott Beat Earnhardt

You might get one chance to pass Bill Elliott, but not two, not even if you’re Dale Earnhardt.

Earnhardt sneaked past Elliott, the pole-sitter, on the seventh lap of Friday’s Budweiser International Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway, but at almost the same moment, Chip Robinson banged against the wall and brought out a caution flag.

Under IROC rules, laps run under caution don’t count so IROC chairman Les Richter ordered Earnhardt to drop back to second place before racing was resumed.

Earnhardt never got another chance as he followed his fellow NASCAR driver nose-to-tail for the remaining 33 laps of the 100-mile race for identically prepared Chevrolet Camaros.

“The cars were just too equal to get around Elliott at the end,” Earnhardt said.

Elliott called the caution flag the key to the victory, his first in nine IROC starts.

“Dale was really tough,” Elliott said. “I don’t know if I could have gotten around him, at least not without help. Al Unser and Earnhardt worked together to get by me, but Dale pulled in and Al got left out to dry.

“At the end, I was just hoping that Dale and Terry (Labonte) wouldn’t start helping each other. Lucky for me, they didn’t. For a while, I thought it was (Bobby) Rahal back there. If I’d known it was Terry, I’d have been even more worried because he and Dale know how to draft so well together.”

As might be expected on a NASCAR track, it was a 1-2-3 finish for stock car drivers Elliott, Earnhardt and Labonte. Indy car driver Al Unser Jr. managed to pass Geoff Bodine late in the race to prevent a stock car sweep of the first four spots.

Robinson, the International Motor Sports Assn. Camel GTP sports car champion, created the only accident of the race.

“I got a little high coming out of turn two and I brushed the wall,” Robinson said. “There was nothing I could do. When I went back out, the alignment was a little off and a lot of the body work was gone, but I kept racing to get as many points as I could.”

The next race of the four-race series is June 11 on the road course at Riverside International Raceway.

Roberto Guerrero, the Indy car driver who missed Friday’s race with a broken ankle, will start on the pole at Riverside on June 11 as drivers invert positions from the way they finished here. Even though Guerrero was not here, he received 12th-place points and will remain eligible for the remaining races. Robinson, who finished three laps behind Elliott, will start alongside Guerrero.

Elliott earned $8,900 for his 32-minute 13-second race during which he averaged an IROC record 186.239 m.p.h.

“My car ran strong all day,” Elliott said. “In fact, I asked them in victory lane if I could borrow that car for Sunday.”

Elliott, the defending champion in Sunday’s Daytona 500, failed to finish a lap in Thursday’s qualifying race when the transmission broke on his Ford as he went into third gear.

For Chris Cord, another IMSA driving champion, it was an unusual experience. Cord had never driven in an oval track race and had never driven such a heavy car. The Camaros weigh 1,300 pounds more than the Toyota GTO car that Cord races.

“For the first time out, I loved it,” Cord said. “I think a technique is required for this type of racing. Apparently, the first three got it, and the rest of us have a lot to learn. The big difference between running today and in practice was we kept the same intervals in practice. Today it was easy to lose the draft with the swirling wind.

“This week has been the steepest learning curve I have ever faced. Our cars in Camel GTO racing have so much downforce and bigger tires that they’re glued to the race track. We purposely avoid drafting because we don’t want the front end chewed up. These IROC cars are just on opposite ends of the spectrum from where I’m coming from.”

Cord finished ninth, ahead of Indy car champion Rahal, who pitted because of a vibration; Robinson, who hit the wall, and Guerrero, who wasn’t here.