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TMS IROC RACE


BobbyChaffee

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Ft. Worth, TX (04/15/05) Open Wheel Champion edges out NASCAR veteran

Bobby Chaffee, TexasSpeedzone.com

 

The International Race of Champions (IROC) race at Texas Motor Speedway (TMS) was a very exciting and nail biting race right to the very end. The race was highlighted by several very hard impacts and side by side, door handle to door handle, fender banging action.

 

The race started on a very strange note. The series that is comprised of all champions had a hard time lining up for the start of the race and it had to be restarted. The action became fast and furious. The first incident of the night came when 2004 IROC Champion Matt Kenseth, nudged 2004 Grand American Road Race Series Co-champion Scott Pruett in the rear coming out of turn four. Kurt Busch, Bobby Hamilton, and Danny “the Dude” Lasoski, took evasive action to avoid the spinning car of Pruett. Contact with the front stretch wall would end Pruett’s night. The other three drivers would make a dash through the grass or a pass down pit road.

 

The very biased NASCAR crowd was clearly behind the #6 car of NASCAR Veteran Mark Martin. The more positions that he gained the more the crowd began to rise to its feet and cheer the stockcar ace to the lead point. Sebastien Bourdais had a solid performance going as he ran in the top three most of the day. Throughout the field the drivers ran side by side, in some cases three wide, for many laps and continued to make contact with one another. The best save of the race came from Mark Martin. He became very sideways coming off of turn four and was very close to spinning out. However, the veteran from Arkansas, made the save, bringing the NASCAR nation to its feet once again.

 

One of the hard charger’s of the race was defending NEXTEL Cup Champion Kurt Busch. He had the early run of bad luck when he went through the front stretch grass to miss the spinning Pruett car. That would damage the front valence of the car. Busch would also make a pit stop and change tires. The tires would help as he sliced his way up through the field. Busch put on a great battle with Bourdais for the lead of the race. Busch would take the lead on a restart.

 

Lady Luck would not stay with Busch on this night. One lap before the mandatory competition caution would wave he made very hard impact with the outside retaining wall coming out of turn two on lap 45. The impact would end his night. Busch was visibly shaken and upset by the incident. During a post accident interview, he made a vulgar remark on the TMS big screen television network.

 

Bourdais would restart in front of the field. He would hold off challenges from defending Indy 500 Champion Buddy Rice, Mark Martin and others. At the checkered flag Mark Martin could only close to a car length and finished second. Buddy Rice ended the race in third. Martin Truex Jr and Bobby Hamilton closed the race with a great race for forth position.

 

Soon after securing the win Bourdais would slide through the front stretch grass and make an impressive set of doughnuts on the front stretch, ending with both rear tires blown out. The fans sprang to their feet in excitement as the burnout was as good as any NASCAR driver has tried to accomplish in recent memory. It was easy to see Bourdais could hardly contain the excitement of his first Crown Royal IROC win.

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