Cheever Is Experiencing a Breakthrough in IROC

The International Race of Champions has been a private party for NASCAR Winston Cup drivers for more than a decade.

The cars used, Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams this year, are essentially stock cars, and the four tracks used are Winston Cup tracks--Daytona, Talladega, Michigan and Indianapolis. And this year, nine of the 12 drivers are from NASCAR.

No driver other than one of NASCAR’s own has won the IROC championship in the last 11 years.

So what is Eddie Cheever, one of the Indy Racing League’s representatives, doing winning a race and challenging for this year’s championship? The title will be decided today in a 100-mile race over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.5-mile rectangular oval.

Cheever stunned the stockers by winning the third round at Michigan, the first open-wheel driver in 13 races to win a race since Al Unser Jr. won at Daytona in 1997. Unser was also the last non-NASCAR champion, taking the crown in 1988 when two of the four races were on road courses, Riverside and Watkins Glen.

This is Cheever’s second IROC year and he credited an accumulation of stock car experience for his win.

“Mastering the draft is the secret and I still don’t understand exactly how it works,” said Cheever, who won the 1998 Indianapolis 500.

“It’s a science and I don’t know how Earnhardt, Martin and the more experienced NASCAR drivers do it. It’s all about how you pick up the air, and you’ve got to understand it almost before it happens.

“I have studied a lot of tapes of the IROC races. When you’re in the car it’s very frustrating when you’re drafting and you think you’re doing well and all of a sudden four cars go by you. There’s got to be a reason that happens. When you’re passed in an IROC race, you have to find some way to slow down this freight train that’s coming by you.

“I know I am racing on the NASCAR drivers’ turf and I understand that, but they’re very aggressive and very rude. You’ve got to find some way to get them to slow down. If you don’t, you can’t jump back on the train, and your race is over.”

To become IROC champion, Cheever still is a longshot. He must win today’s race, lead the most laps and have Dale Earnhardt finish eighth or lower in the 12-driver field.

This has already been a breakthrough year for Cheever, however. When he won the Radisson 200 at Pikes Peak Raceway in June, it was the first win for an Infiniti-powered car in IRL history.

“I’m really looking forward to racing here again,” Cheever said. “I really enjoyed myself last year [when he finished third]. I remember being in the lead, and I made a mistake going into Turn 1 and Mark Martin was behind me. I swear he must have hit me 25 times in Turn 2. I kept thinking, ‘I’m going as fast as I can. I can’t go any faster.’ But he kept hitting me.”

The hitting that goes on between Winston Cup drivers, something impossible with fragile Indy cars or the Formula One cars that he drove for many years, is a source of fascination for Cheever.

“These guys will race you hard and clean for lap after lap, but they’ll also bang on you. I mean, have you seen Dale Earnhardt and Dale Jr.? They ram on each other for lap after lap. If that was my son, I’d jump out and give him a good spanking. Here’s a kid banging into dad, and dad is shaking his fist, and it just keeps going on. That’s the way they race.”

Other than drafting and banging, Cheever said the biggest difference is in the cockpit. In his IRL car, he sits out in the open. In the IROC car, he is inside a cab.

“I’m really claustrophobic and in an IROC car everything is closed in. There’s no air, and there’s a lot of dust inside the car. It’s hard for me to drive them because I’m not used to being covered in something, but I do like the fact that a little bit of contact is allowed. It gives you a greater margin of error.”

Tony Stewart, last year’s Winston Cup rookie of the year and a former IRL open-wheel driver, likes Cheever’s chances.

“I think he’ll do well,” said Stewart, also in the IROC race. “Everywhere we’ve gone this year, Eddie has driven more practice laps at each track than anybody. It shows how determined he was to be good at each of those tracks, and that determination paid off at Michigan.

“I think getting that first win under his belt in an IROC car is really going to give him some confidence here. He’s run probably more laps here than any of us have, so I would say he is a favorite to win.”

Cheever will start in the fourth row alongside Jeff Burton. The field is inverted according to the point standings. That puts Cheever’s IRL teammates, Greg Ray and Mark Dismore, on the front row, with Earnhardt and three-time IROC champion Martin on the last row.

CROSS-OVER CAR

Jeremy Mayfield’s Mobil 1 car will carry a major league baseball motif to honor the World Series in October. The Penske-Kranefuss Racing car will feature the World Series 2000 logo with a red, white and blue paint scheme in Winston Cup races Oct. 15 at Talladega, Ala., and Oct. 22 at Rockingham, N.C.

“If there are two staples in Kentucky--outside of racing--they would have to be horse racing and baseball,” said Mayfield, an Owensboro, Ky., native. “We raced a Kentucky Derby car last year at Fontana, and this year we’re honoring baseball with this World Series car. Hey, the Louisville Slugger is probably the best-known bat of all times.

“I’ve always watched on TV but never been to a World Series game. They’ve promised me that this is my year.”

CART SCHEDULE

The Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach in 2001 will be April 8, a week earlier than this year, according to the CART schedule released Thursday. Other California races will be Oct. 14 at Laguna Seca Raceway and Nov. 4 at California Speedway in Fontana.

CART schedule makers made it possible for their teams to run in the Indianapolis 500, leaving open Indy qualifying weekend, May 12-13, and race day May 27. Between the two weekends, CART will race in Japan.

ROAD TRIP

It was a big weekend for Southern California drivers in the rest of the country last week. Rookie Kevin Harvick of Bakersfield won his first Busch Grand National race at Gateway Speedway, Jay Drake of Val Verde won Indiana Speed Weeks sprint car main events Friday night at Terre Haute and Saturday night at Putnamville and Cory Kruseman of Ventura won the Speed Week feature Sunday at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind.; Alex Gurney of Irvine scored his first Toyota Atlantic podium finish with a third at Trois-Rivieres, Canada, and Aaron Justus of Crestline retained his Formula 2000 points lead with a second-place finish at Trois-Rivieres.

It gave young Gurney his first chance to spray champagne from the victory podium, a post-race celebration first started by his father, Dan, after winning the 24 Hours of LeMans in 1967.

LAST LAPS

Second-generation driver Troy Herbst this weekend will return to the Southern Nevada desert where he grew up to defend his championship in the SCORE Las Vegas Primm 300 desert off-road race. Herbst, 34, from a prominent Nevada racing family, will drive his Ford-powered Smithbuilt open-wheel desert car in the unlimited class. His brothers, Tim and Ed, are defending champions and leading in Trophy Truck points after three races this year. Racing will start Saturday at 6:30 a.m. in Primm, 35 miles south of Las Vegas.

Irwindale Speedway will be a busy place Saturday night with five main events--two 50-lappers for Food 4 Less super late models and one each for Grand American modifieds, mini-stocks and American race trucks. . . . Ventura Raceway will be dark this week because of the county fair. . . . SCRA sprint cars will return to Perris Auto Speedway on Saturday night with the field chasing two-time champion Richard Griffin.

NECROLOGY

Ron Hussey, 50, one of motor racing’s most renowned photographers, died last Friday from head injuries after falling in the Long Beach home he shared with longtime companion Anne Proffit. A native of Pasadena, Hussey co-authored the book, “Harley-Davidson: The American Motorcycle.”

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This Week’s Races

NASCAR WINSTON CUP

Brickyard 400

* Site--Indianapolis.

* Schedule--Today, second-round qualifying (ESPN2, 10 a.m.); Saturday, race (Channel 7, 10 a.m.)

* Track--Indianapolis Motor Speedway (oval 2.5 miles, 9 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance--400 miles, 160 laps.

Last year--Dale Jarrett dominated, leading 116 of 160 laps for his fourth victory of the season.

* Last race--Rusty Wallace took the lead after teammate Jeremy Mayfield blew a tire on the final lap. Wallace then held off Jeff Burton by two car-lengths to win the Pennsylvania 500 in Long Pond.

* Fast facts--The Winston bonus, which goes to the leader of the standings if he wins that week’s race, is at $190,000--the highest since the award began in 1996. . . . Bobby Labonte leads in the standings by 53 points over Jarrett. . . . Labonte has finished in the top three for three consecutive years.

* Next race--Global Crossing at The Glen, Aug. 13, Watkins Glen, N.Y.

BUSCH GRAND NATIONAL

Kroger 200

* Site--Clermont, Ind.

* Schedule--Today, qualifying, 1:30 p.m.; race (ESPN, 5:30 p.m.)

* Track--Indianapolis Raceway Park (oval, 0.686 miles, 7.5 degrees banking in turns).

* Race distance--137.2 miles, 200 laps.

* Last year--Jason Keller started from the pole and won.

* Last race--Rookie Kevin Harvick took the lead from Todd Bodine and went on to win for the first time in his Busch Series career, in Madison, Ill.

* Fast facts--Keller also won the event in 1995. . . . Three of the last four races at IRP have been won from the pole. Before that, only one of 14 was won from the pole.

* Next race--NAPAOnline.com 250, Aug. 19, Brooklyn, Mich.

NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSN.

Fram Autolite Nationals

* Site--Sonoma, Calif.

* Schedule--Today, first-round qualifying, 2:30 p.m.; Saturday, second-round qualifying, 11:30 a.m. (ESPN2, 6:30 p.m.); Sunday, final eliminations, 11 a.m. (ESPN2, 6:30)

* Track--Sears Point Raceway.

* Last year--Doug Kalitta defeated Tony Schumacher in the top-fuel finals, and Whit Bazemore got his first funny car victory of the season. Jim Yates won the pro stock division.

* Last event--Gary Scelzi tied the NHRA record for top-fuel victories in a season, outrunning Kalitta in Kent, Wash., to win for the sixth time. John Force and Richie Stevens also were winners.

* Fast facts--Kalitta earned his first top-fuel victory at the 1998 event. He is sixth in the standings, trailing Scelzi by more than 400 points. . . . Records were set in all five pro categories last season.

* Next race--Colonel’s Truck Nationals, Aug. 20, Brainerd, Minn.