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INDIANAPOLIS -- Eddie Cheever Jr., Greg Ray and Mark Dismore will return to familiar territory as representatives of the Indy Racing Northern Light Series in the International Race of Champions season finale Friday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The trio will race against nine of NASCAR's best on Friday -- the day before the Brickyard 400. Cheever, who is second in Northern Light Series points, won the last IROC race on June 10 at Michigan International Speedway. He sits fifth in IROC standings, trailing leader and defending IROC champion Dale Earnhardt by 19 points.
No other IROC driver has more experience than Cheever at the famed 2.5-mile
oval, as he competed in the Indianapolis 500 for the 11th time in May and
finished third in the 1999 IROC at Indy race.
"I think having done a lot of laps there definitely doesnt hurt," said
Cheever. "The more you learn at Indy, the more you learn to understand the
conditions and how they apply with the way your car is handling."
The first three IROC races this season took place at Daytona International
Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and Michigan Speedway. The IRL doesn't compete at those tracks. Friday's green flag falls at 2:45 p.m. ET.
Cheever's full season of IROC experience in 1999 is an advantage, said Dismore, who joins Ray as rookies in the four-race series.
"Eddie ran last year, and I'm sure going into the year 2000 IROC series he
had expectations of what to expect," said Dismore. "I went into this deal,
like Greg, and had no idea what to expect.
"Every race we run, you learn a lot and take away something with you from
that race. I'm going to Indy with expectations of having a good race, and
for me a good race would be a top-five finish."
Dismore is a five-year veteran of the Indianapolis 500 but is still learning
the nuances of IROC racing at Indy. This week he is testing the cars to
learn as much as he can.
"I did 25 laps yesterday," said Dismore. "I'm waiting for it to get hotter
out, because I want the conditions to be worse. In the morning, when the
track's not bad, it's easy, and I know that (track conditions Friday
afternoon) isn't going to be that way."
Although he enjoys racing IROC cars, Cheever, who also competed in 132
Formula One races, prefers Indy Racing machines.
"I get more satisfaction from driving open-wheel cars because I've done that
my whole career," said Cheever. "I like them because they are very
technical, and you can tinker with them. You are always looking for that
perfect lap. Driving an Indy car around Indy is like trying to thread a
needle in a windstorm.
"Racing in an IROC car is a little bit more fun because you can make
mistakes. You can get very close to the car in front of you; you can
actually bump them. In our cars, you want to give everyone at least 2 feet.
In an Indy car if you touch with somebody, you can be guaranteed of one
thing: You are going to hit the wall. The question mark is how hard."
Competing in IROC this season has given all three Indy Racing drivers the
opportunity to get a better feel for stock car racing.
"I can sit down and watch a stock car race and have a little more of an
understanding about what's going on instead of just guessing about it," said
Dismore. "It does help me understand what they are doing on Sundays."
Dismore also wouldn't mind seeing the tables turned.
"If they would come and sit in one of our cars and go run with 10 or 12 of
us in a group, then that would open their eyes to what we are experiencing
and the level of difficulty we deal with.
"It'd be awesome to get some of the stock car regulars in one of our cars in
a controlled situation. It'd be neat to get a Dale Jarrett or an Earnhardt,
guys that are only stock car drivers, in our cars to experience what we're
going through." | |
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