IROC - International Race of Champions - 1974

IROC 28 (2004)

Ryan Newman took the win in Race #1 at Daytona International Speedway.

•Three new race venues: Texas Motor Speedway (race two), Richmond International Raceway (race three), Atlanta Motor Speedway (race four).
•Races running under the lights three out of the four events: Daytona, Texas, Richmond.
•A shootout element in each race: The unique race format change incorporates a predetermined competition yellow, which pays bonus points to the top three positions. For the restart, the field realigns with the leader in a single row. The remainder of the field, in order of position, forms double file rows with each driver having lane choice.
•A new approach to the look of the race cars: Car colors and numbers, when feasible, resemble those of the driver’s native series team and stay with the driver throughout the four races.
•Restructuring the purse to award $1 million to the series champion.
•New broadcast partner, SPEED Channel, televising three of the four races live with the fourth race being a same-day broadcast.

Danny Lasoski won his first IROC event in Texas.

Per tradition, the Inaugural Crown Royal IROC opener took place in February at Daytona International Speedway, but the tradition ended there with the race running for the first time under the lights, just adding to all the action and excitement Daytona provides.

The crowd was never in their seats cheering as they watched Ryan Newman dicing with Kurt Busch coming to the stripe in the final lap. Newman edged out the defending IROC champion and garnered his firs series win, but not without controversy. Newman and Busch nearly collided coming into the tri-oval resulting in Newman's tires going below the yellow line before he completed the winning pass. Officials declared the out-of-bounds incident as unintentional and unavoidable without causing a wreck and awarded Newman his first career IROC trophy.

The series continued live, under the lights in April at Texas Motor Speedway with Danny “the dude” Lasoski capturing his first series victory and becoming only the second driver representing short track open wheel racing to do so. Lasoski’s popular win over the best in NASCAR and open

Lasoski put on a show for the fans after taking the checker for his first career IROC win.

Race three introduced the first short track event in the history of the series with Richmond International Raceway hosting its first Crown Royal IROC event.
In another first, series rookie, Matt Kenseth dominated the show taking his first IROC win, which put him back in the championship running after an early retirement in race two at Texas.

Matt Kenseth took the win in the last two events and was crowned the first $1 million dollar champion in IROC history.

Entering the Atlanta finale the new race format and corresponding bonus points implemented in February 2004 had produced the closest points battle in the history of the series with only 13-points separating the top-five spots and seven of the twelve drivers in contention for the championship.

Ryan Newman led by four-points over tying second spot drivers, Matt Kenseth and Jimmie Johnson with a total of seven drivers in the hunt for the first $1 million Crown Royal IROC championship.

The racing action was plentiful with passing for position lap after lap. The championship battle went right down to the checker flag with Matt Kenseth winning by 0.257 second over Ryan Newman, claiming his second consecutive series race win and taking the first $1 million Crown Royal IROC championship, all in his rookie year of IROC competition.

Being in the right place at the right time summed it up for Kenseth, who was in position and collected two bonus points for being in second place at the lap 45 competition yellow and picked up an additional three bonus points at the conclusion of the race for leading second most laps. If not for Kenseth's five bonus points Newman, finishing second, would have won the $1 million dollar championship by virtue of the tiebreaker, having the best average finish over all four races. (from IROC Website)

Final Points
IROC 28 Champion Matt Kenseth
Position	Driver/Sanction	Points	Money Earned
1	Matt Kenseth/NASCAR NEXTEL Cup	72	$1,000,000.00
2	Ryan Newman/NASCAR NEXTEL Cup	67	$80,000.00
3	Kevin Harvick/NASCAR NEXTEL Cup	55	$80,000.00
4	*Jimmie Johnson/NASCAR NEXTEL Cup	54	$80,000.00
5	*Kurt Busch/NASCAR NEXTEL Cup	54	$80,000.00
6	Danny Lasoski/World of Outlaws	51	$80,000.00
7	Scott Sharp/IRL IndyCar™ Series	32	$80,000.00
8	Travis Kvapil/NASCAR Craftsman Truck	31	$80,000.00
9	Helio Castroneves/IRL IndyCar™ Series	28	$80,000.00
10	*Scott Dixon/IRL IndyCar™ Series	26	$80,000.00
11	*Steve Kinser/World of Outlaws	26	$80,000.00
12	J. J. Yeley/USAC	20	$80,000.00

2004 News Index