Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308080081
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB ZELLER
DATELINE: WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. LENGTH: Medium
Baldwin, 46, the reigning Trans-Am champion but with no oval experience, lived the dream of a million Winston Cup stock car fans when he went head-to-head with Earnhardt and other top racers in the International Race of Champions series.
With his unabashed enthusiasm and skillful, gutsy racing, Baldwin almost single-handedly saved an IROC series that was devastated by the deaths of Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison and plagued by a rash of no-shows.
Although he finished a distant eighth in the four-race championship, Baldwin stole the show with his side-by-side battles with Earnhardt at Talladega in May and Michigan last weekend.
Most drivers regard IROC - the series where Indy car, stock car and sports car drivers compete in equally prepared cars - as the salad to their racing dinner. It is important, but secondary.
Not Baldwin. It was the highlight of his 30 years in racing.
"In road racing, you race the road," he said Friday at Watkins Glen International. "In stock car racing, you race the man."
Baldwin seems to have everything it takes to be a top racing star. He is an outstanding, aggressive driver. He also has a handful of sports car championships. But he never caught the big break that would have thrust him into a big-time NASCAR or Indy Car career.
So last year, when Federal Express arrived with his IROC invitation, "I signed it and handed it back to the FedEx guy. That's how quick it went back," Baldwin said.
He finished last at Daytona, got out of his car and announced, "This is the most fun I've ever had racing."
Recalling that first race, Baldwin said, "One thing that thrilled me was that I found I wasn't intimidated by the high speed and I damn sure wasn't intimidated by running close. I liked that.
"And I was amazed at how Dale could go to the front. Just go to the front! At Daytona, I was running wide open in line and he was on my inside and he just drove all the way to the front. My foot never lifted and yet he went all the way up there."
"And so I figured, `I know how I'm going to get up there. I'm going to follow Dale.' "
In the third race, at Talladega Superspeedway in May, he did just that.
"If Dale went high, I went high. If he went low, I went low," Baldwin said. "And I followed him to the front."
The two drivers beat and banged on each other lap after lap and then thundered side by side to the checkered flag behind race winner Al Unser Jr.
"It took them 20 minutes to determine who was second, and I was second, but it wouldn't have made any difference if I was third," Baldwin said.
"When I stopped the car, I was just thrilled. I mean, it was the high - the absolute pinnacle - of my entire racing life."
As Baldwin walked toward the garage, he saw a crowd around Earnhardt. Nobody had come to talk to him, of course, and he almost kept walking. But then he stopped and said to himself, `I'm going to go tell him.'
Baldwin caught Earnhardt's eye and said, "Man, you're fun to race with!"
Earnhardt smiled and said, "That was a lot of fun. You're good to race with."
"I couldn't believe it," Baldwin said Friday. "I just said, `Thank you, sir,' and walked off."
In Michigan last weekend, it happened again. Baldwin and Earnhardt bumped and rubbed and battled, and Baldwin led a bunch of laps. In the end, however, he finished 10th.
"I got out of the car and I have never in my life driven so well and raced so hard and felt so good about finishing 10th," he said.
This time, Earnhardt came to him, a big smile on his face.
Friday, Earnhardt's car owner, Richard Childress, told Baldwin's car owner, Buz McCall: "I gotta tell you, all Dale has been talking about this week was what a phenomenal job Jack did in the IROC series."
Earnhardt said Saturday: "You get a guy who races like Jack does, and he's a lot of fun to race with. He got right into it. He's a tough competitor."
Although Baldwin qualified second for Saturday's Trans-Am race, he was booted to the back of the starting grid when his car flunked post-qualifying inspection. The front end was 6/100ths of an inch too low.
Starting 33rd, Baldwin clawed his way through the field to finish third.
"I was still pumped up from Michigan and IROC last week," he said.
\ AUTHOR Bob Zeller covers Winston Cup racing for this newspaper.
by CNB