Daytona IROC: Who'd be Eddie Cheever now...?

Cheever went to muscle past the seven-time Winston Cup Champion with just two laps to go, but swerved low and made double contact with the seven-time Winston Cup Champion's Pontiac, forcing him down onto the turn one apron and losing the 'Man in Black' what looked like certain victory.

But if you're going to take a living legend out, it's probably best to do it somewhere other than NASCAR's holiest of holies, the Daytona International Speedway.

Afterwards, the pair exchanged words and Cheever was keen to stress the move had been a genuine mistake, but one gets the distinct feeling that payback time will come swiftly and terribly in round two at Talladega in April. As it was, Earnhardt made his displeasure clear by turning Cheever neatly around on the slowing down lap, 'gesturing' as he cruised by.

"I made a mistake, absolutely," said Cheever. "Until then, I had worked with everybody: I worked with [Kenny] Brack, I worked with Jarrett, and there was a mistake at the end of it. I clipped his car, moved him and ricocheted back, and then the pendulum effect as I tried to steady myself got him. It was a mistake that degenerated very quickly and as others have said, he's done more victory laps around here than I've done racing laps.

"I have no rivalry with Earnhardt," he added. "I have enough problems in my life... I made a mistake, I apologised for it. I'm sorry."

Earnhardt refused to be drawn on the subject, but speaking on behalf of the rest of the good ol' boys, Rudd said: "The guy [Cheever] is an idiot. I don't want to run again if that's the way it's going to be. It's stupid. He's like he's gone crazy or something."

It all whiffed a bit of double standards and a fair dose of 'holier than thou' from the NASCAR regulars, but it's great box office for the series that pitches the stars of Winston Cup against representatives of the Indy racing League and Champ Cars, all in identically-prepared Pontiacs.

The coming together aside, the race supplied 40 laps of blink-and-you-missed it classic sling-shot action. There were 17 lead changes among seven different drivers, with Brack and Cheever giving as good as they got to the home-turf NASCAR regulars.

In the early going, Brack looked most likely to overturn the recent NASCAR domination of IROC. The Swede was aggressive in his drafting, decisive in moving in and out of the drafting line and almost flawless in choosing the right drafting partner. Cheever was also always there or thereabouts in the opening skirmishes, but after a long delay to clear debris after Jeff Burton cut a tyre and hit the tri-oval wall, creasing Earnhardt's front bodywork in the process, it was time for the Winston Cup contingent to make their presence felt in a 10-lap dash to the chequered flag.

With three laps to go, it was all about Earnhardt, Cheever, Brack, Rudd and Jarrett and with two laps to go... Cue Eddie's move. With Cheever backing off and Brack forced to follow suit, Jarret and Rudd were through and still side-by-side as they approached the finish line. In the end, Jarrett edged his Robert Yates racing team mate by just 0.014s, with Cheever recovering to third, ahead of Brack and reigning Winston Cup Champion Bobby Labonte.

"I figured Earnhardt and Cheever were going to go at it pretty good," smiled Jarrett, "but that may have been a little bit more than any of us expected. I'm still amazed that Earnhardt was able to save that car from wrecking. After we got past Eddie, it was just down to Ricky and me."


Daytona (USA), February 16


1 Dale Jarrett, 173.077mph, 34m40.208s (does not include stoppage period)
2 Ricky Rudd, +0.014s
3 Eddie Cheever Jr, +0.367s
4 Kenny Brack, +0.372s
5 Bobby Labonte, +0.376s
6 Scott Goodyear, +2.312s
7 Dale Earnhardt, +2.680s
8 Mark Dismore, + 4 laps
9 Tony Stewart, + 5 laps
10 Jeff Burton, + 14 laps
11 Buddy Lazier, +14 laps
12 Jeff Green, +31 laps