I got to talk to legendary NASCAR driver, David Pearson, at an autograph session on Friday. I asked him if he got the road-racers respect for his 1974 IROC performance. In case you don't know, Pearson finished 4th out of 12 drivers that year in IROC driving Porsche Carreras and all four races were road course races. He finished ahead of drivers like A.J. Foyt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Denny Hulme. See:
http://www.irocracing.com/History/1974/1974-history.htm
Pearson said that he liked road racing. He also said he always seemed to get a bad car in IROC.