NASCAR Hall of Famer Ray Evernham and former team owner Rob Kauffman have formed IROC Holdings LLC with the intent to have an IROC event in 2024 with historic IROC cars while exploring future opportunities, according to a release issued Monday.
The two have also acquired the rights to the IROC brand.
In an interview Monday night on “Sirius Speedway” on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Evernham said: “We’re still way early in the planning. ... The plan right now is to put on a vintage type of race event reunion before the end of the year.
“We’re really, really early in the planning stages, but just to get the IROC brand, get people to know a little bit about what it is and put on some demonstrations and try to get some of these IROC out of the garages and back on the racetrack.”
Evernham also said on the show: “What’s old is new again, but I do think that fans would still like to see this IROC history or traditions like the international flavor that IROC had. With the competition, as I said, in motorsports, people want close racing. They want to see things that are really cool. I think if you start to do something like putting these old IROC cars back on the racetrack, that’d be pretty cool.”
The International Race of Champions was held from 1973-2006 and featured races in identically prepared cars among drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1 and other series.
Evernham, worked as a mechanic for IROC before beginning his NASCAR career, which included winning three championship as Jeff Gordon’s crew chief, and later becoming a team owner.
Evernham collects and restores old IROC cars. He said he has 13 1/2 IROC cars.
Mark Martin won a record five IROC titles. Dale Earnhardt won four series crowns. A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Jr. each won two series crowns. Mark Donohue won the inaugural title.
