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EVENTS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
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Swap this NASCAR's Jarrett comes out on top in IROC race
Updated: Saturday February 17, 2001 8:52 PM
By John Donovan, CNNSI.com DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- All things being equal -- which is, after all, what the International Race of Champions is all about -- this is still a stock-car track. This is still the site of NASCAR's Super Bowl. Swapping paint is what these drivers do for a living. Still. Dale Jarrett survived a 40-lap paint swap with 11 of the best drivers from four different racing series -- NASCAR, Indy, CART and Busch -- to win the True Value IROC race Friday at Daytona International Speedway. The IROC series is a four-race series among identically prepared Pontiacs designed to test drivers' skills. The winner of the series receives $250,000. Jarrett, the winner of last year's Daytona 500 and one of the best drivers in NASCAR's Winston Cup series, won Friday's race only after the two leaders with two laps left in the 40-lap race bounced each other around to give him the chance. Winston Cup hero Dale Earnhardt and open-wheel star Eddie Cheever Jr. were vying for the lead when Cheever went low into turn 1 and tapped Earnhardt into the grass apron. Somehow, Earnhardt kept from wrecking, but the time he lost in his skid was enough to ensure he wouldn't make it to victory lane. "What a job Dale Earnhardt did in not wrecking that race car," Jarrett said. Earnhardt was so peeved about the move that he chased Cheever down -- after the checkered flag -- found him on the back straight and tapped Cheever's car, sending it into a spin.
The two drivers met in pit row after the race, smiled and exchanged words. But the message from Earnhardt was clear. This is a stock-car track, and that was not a good move. "It was like going to the movies," said CART's Kenny Brack, who finished fourth. "A really good movie." After Cheever and Earnhardt knocked each other around, Jarrett found an opening, bolted into the lead and outran fellow Winston Cup driver Ricky Rudd to the finish line. Cheever finished third. Earnhardt was seventh. "Eddie went to block me, and that opened up the middle and I shot through," Jarrett said. "That was fun racing." Earnhardt, despite a badly mangled left front side from a run-in earlier in the race, was running speeds of more than 176 mph over the last portion of the race. Jarrett won with an average speed of 173.077 mph. Jarrett, who wrecked his primary car for Sunday's 500 in one of the Gatorade 125s on Thursday, escaped almost unscathed in the IROC race. But, being a stock-car driver, it wasn't for a lack of trying. "I wanted to be in there mixing it up," he said.
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