IROC: Earnhardt Ties Martin With Fourth True Value IROC Championship
4 August 2000
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
Indianapolis- With a second place finish, NASCAR Winston Cup champion, Dale Earnhardt, driving the dark blue True Value IROC Pontiac Firebird earned enough points to take the 2000 True Value IROC Championship away from fellow champion Mark Martin at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Martin, driving the red True Value IROC Pontiac Firebird earned his 10th career True Value IROC race by 1.327 seconds, but fell short of the championship by 3 points. NASCAR Winston Cup veteran, Tony Stewart took third place.
For the third consecutive year, the True Value IROC series finished its season at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The four race invitational series began at Daytona in February with Dale Earnhardt earning his eleventh IROC victory, tying Al Unser, Jr. for all-time series race wins. Race two resulted in Bobby Labonte's first series win in April at Talladega Superspeedway. The surprise of the season took place in race three at Michigan Speedway when the 1998 Indy 500 winner, Eddie Cheever, Jr. relentlessly battled for the lead throughout and took home his first True Value IROC victory.
For the final race of the series, Martin started in 11th position but quickly moved to fifth position on lap 3 and up to third on lap 7. According to Martin, "I got off to a good start. Before the lap 7 caution, I knew I was going to lead the race soon."
A single race incident occurred immediately following Martin's surge to the front, in the first turn of the 7 lap as Indy Racing League Champions Greg Ray and Mark Dismore tapped one another. The collision sent Dismore spinning into the wall. According to Ray about the accident, "It's unfortunate. We had a good car. Mark (Dismore) and I got into it in Turn 1. Unfortunately, he caught the wall." Dismore's car was towed, while Ray pulled out of the race in the 18th lap.
After the caution lap, Martin, continued his torrid pace all the way to the checkered flag. His victory made him the first driver ever to win three consecutive events in any type of car at Indianapolis Motor Speedway since the track's first race in 1911. According to Martin, "I got to the lead as quick as I could and then just tried to stretch it so he (Earnhardt) couldn't draft. When I got to the lead, I didn't think he'd get to second. I ran about one lap, and there he was, I thought, 'That's it.' I could probably race 10 more years here and never win another True Value IROC Race here. I've just been lucky."
With Mark Martin gaining bonus points for leading most laps and winning the race, Earnhardt needed to finish second in order to secure another championship. Rising to the challenge, Earnhardt came in behind Martin and earned a total of 74 points to win the 24th True Value IROC championship. Taking his fourth championship, he tied Martin for the most True Value IROC titles. According to Earnhardt, "Congratulation to Mark for the win, but we're happy to win the championship. It was a great battle all year."
The True Value IROC series features 12 of the world's top drivers from different types of racing, placed in identically prepared Pontiac Firebird Trans Ams, in a race with no pit stops, no qualifying and no driver set-up of the cars.
True Value is the world's largest hardware and home center retailer with more than 5,500 locations worldwide, representing annual retail sales of more than $14 billion. True Value's racing involvement includes a 16-year history with IROC as well as involvement with NASCAR. Additional information on True Value and individual True Value locations is available at www.truevalue.com.
Points PositionPoints Status
1 11 Mark Martin Red 2 40 1 32 5 21
Running
2 12 Dale Earnhardt Dark Blue 1 40 17 Running
3 10 Tony Stewart Powder Blue 3 40 14 Running
4 5 Jeff Gordon Cream 8 40 1 2 2 12 Running
5 3 Rusty Wallace White 10 40 10 Running
6 9 Bobby Labonte Lime 4 40 9 Running
7 8 Eddie Cheever, Jr. Gold 5 40 8 Running
8 6 Dale Jarrett Aqua 7 40 7 Running
9 4 Dale Earnhardt, Jr. Violet 9 40 6
Running
10 2 Greg Ray Med. Blue 11 18 5 Accident
11 1 Mark Dismore Orange 12 7 1 6 3 4 Accident
12 7 Jeff Burton Yellow 6 1 3 Engine
Average Speed 155.106
Time of Race 38 min. 41 sec.
Margin of Victory 1.327 sec.
Lead Changes 2 among 3 drivers
Text provided by IROC
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