Before IndyCar qualifying for the Freedom 250 got underway, fans who had secured free tickets for the event were treated to a head-to-head battle between former racing greats in historic Pontiac Firebirds as part of a two-race IROC Championship.

A random draw decided the eight-car grid, with Bobby Labonte and Bill Elliott lining up on the front row.

Four-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jeff Gordon dominated the opening race, charging from seventh in the eight-car field to the lead and overtaking four-time Indianapolis 500 winner Helio Castroneves with five laps remaining.

Kurt Busch, NASCAR’s first champion of the playoff era, followed Gordon through to finish second. Castroneves said after the race that he might have had a bit more in hand to fight back for second place, but he did not want to — and was not even sure he was allowed to — get too physical with his Firebird.

“This is a blast, let me tell you,” Castroneves told FOX News. “I mean, racing with those guys, they are absolutely amazing. Kurt and Jeff, I mean, all the rest of them. But in the end, we were getting so tight together with those guys. I had a little moment when I could have tried to get past Kurt, but I thought, okay, we have a second race. I have got to take care of this car. But I want to speak to my team owner and see if I can put a little scratch on it and be a bit more aggressive.”

Gordon climbed out of the cockpit in high spirits, as it was the first time the winningest NASCAR road-course driver had ever competed on a street circuit.

“I mean, it’s awesome to be on a street course,” Gordon said. “My first time ever on a street course, but just having to learn the different nuances of where the bumps are, where you can go into the braking zones, how to get the downshifts done smoothly. And I’m learning from all these guys, but more importantly, I’m just having a blast being out there with heroes of mine and legends in racing.”

With that street-course victory, Gordon now mirrors the driver most likely to surpass his NASCAR road-course record of nine wins, having won in his first street-circuit race just as Shane van Gisbergen won in his first-ever NASCAR start. Van Gisbergen currently has eight wins in 14 starts.

What Gordon lacked in street-circuit experience, he made up for with extensive experience in similar stock cars, saying that the current NASCAR O’Reilly cars and the NASCAR Cup cars from his era are the closest in feel to the 1996-2006 historic-era IROC Firebirds.

“I mean, this car feels very natural to me,” Gordon said. “I’ve driven cars like this. They’re very similar to, say, an O’Reilly car or the older Cup cars that I raced. So I’m very comfortable with it. It’s probably a bit more of a learning curve for guys like Helio and Tommy [Kendall].”

Gordon then started from the back row again for Race 2 after the field was set with a full invert. He and Busch once more carved their way through the pack, finishing first and second again.

Gordon marked the victory with a burnout on the start-finish line on Pennsylvania Ave.

Castroneves was on course to repeat his podium finish from the first race before spinning at turn four with four laps to go while battling fellow Indianapolis 500 winner Tony Kanaan.

Kanaan claimed the final podium place in the second race after starting on pole because of his last-place finish in the first race.