An anonymous driver analyzes Indy, Logano and Woods Brothers

For drivers like Tony Stewart, racing at the Brickyard is like an emotional homecoming. Jerry Markland/Getty Images

Heading into Sunday's race at the Brickyard, an anonymous NASCAR driver shares his thoughts about the latest happenings in the circuit:

"I think with these cars, the key at Indianapolis is going to be getting into the turn. To get down the straightaway, you need some big horsepower -- that's always key. But these things get tight a lot there, and if you can't get off the corners at all, it's not going to help. It's going to be key to get them to turn off the corner and really be able to get in the throttle earlier than everybody else, and get down the straightaway. But I think most important in a lot of these races lately is track position. That'll be huge for Indy, because everybody's going to be aero tight.

"It's just so difficult to pass there. If you're aero tight, you can't get on the throttle earlier than the guy in front of you because you're going to push up into the wall. You can't run two wide as it is, and there's one line through all four corners. No matter what -- whether it's the CoT or the old cars -- that track is aero dependent, and the CoTs especially are aero dependent. It's pretty simple. So, just getting out there in the lead and getting some clean air is critical.

"I'm finding with all these races, once you get in the back -- you just run the same speeds as everybody else unless you're way better than everybody else. And if not, you're just as fast as everybody else that's around you and you can't pass.

"You might see some two-tire strategy late to win on Sunday -- although I did hear that the tire test that was done there, I heard that the tires were getting worn out pretty quick. But honestly, there's a lot of these races where I would have said, 'There's no way you're going to take two tires and it's going to work.' So I could see two tires, or -- if it's late in the race -- a fuel only stop where you just hold them off. We'll see how much tires fall off Sunday for us, but track position is definitely critical. It's more critical to be out front in clean air than it is to have new tires.

"I think this race is still special [despite claims the hype has died down]. I mean, it's still Indy. It's the same thing as Daytona in that sense. There's certain places you have to describe the track, where it is and what it does ... and there's certain places you just say, 'It's Daytona.' And this is the same thing. It's Indy. So, there's still a lot of prestige, and if you have to tell a driver you could only win one race and you had to choose it, I'm sure a lot of them would tell you Indy.

"I would say the guys that grew up around Indiana [Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman], to those guys Indy means a lot more than Daytona. So, it's still special to win at Indy and be able to kiss the bricks and just go along with what Indy is. For all drivers, it definitely ranks in the Top 3 of what they want to win on a pure race standard."

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"Everybody makes a big deal about Toyota domination these days, but I just see it as Kyle Busch domination. It's not like Toyota teams are dominating the Top 10 or anything like that. You've got three cars at Gibbs -- you got a guy that's a two-time champion, a guy that in his rookie year was in the Top 3, and a guy in Kyle Busch that's dominating this year, so to me, that means it's still pretty even. Yes, one manufacturer is winning a lot of races because it's one guy dominating the series. And you can't fault the manufacturer for that. He's on one of the best teams, and he's one of the best drivers out there.

"One guy can always make a difference, for sure, but you can't change the whole scheme of NASCAR based on it. It's no secret Gibbs puts out a lot of horsepower [through chief engine builder Mark Cronquist], and they do their own engines. So, it's not like other Toyota teams have the same engines they have. They're doing their own stuff, so it's just like Hendrick doing their own stuff and Roush doing their own stuff. There just might be a pattern that somebody needs to slow down Gibbs and not Toyota. Because Gibbs is winning everything right now."

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"Speaking of Gibbs, 18 years old is NOT too young for Joey Logano to take the ride in Stewart's No. 20 car. If you've got the talent ... he's put himself in position to get this ride, and nobody should resent him for that. It's not his fault that at 18 he's in probably the best stuff out there. He's running clean and he's running hard -- AND he's running smart. It's going to be a big step, but there's no reason why he can't go win races next year.

"I think he's ready for it -- and at 18, he's not making stupid mistakes. Guys who are 40, 50 make stupid mistakes, just like kids that are 18 to 25. We're race car drivers. We're going to make mistakes, and sometimes we get blindsided by thinking that we're perfect and the other guys are the ones messing up. But Logano's not out there making dumb mistakes. And that's the only thing where you start questioning age -- when a young guy is out there in fast equipment, but he's wrecking a lot or wrecking other people."

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"The Wood Brothers are in trouble, but saving them's a tough call. You can't sit there and just protect them so that you have tradition there. If they don't earn their spot, then they don't belong in the field. And that's tough -- I don't know the right answer. But I don't think you should take a spot away from a guy that deserved it, that earned his way in, just because of tradition.

"The Top 35 rule is weird. It's there to keep teams like the Woods safe, but if you fall out of it, it's harder to work your way back in it to where it's supposed to save you than it is to be there and just make the race every weekend."

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"The open-wheel craze is far from over. I just think they didn't have a place to go in NASCAR, honestly. Dan [Wheldon] was ready to come over, and I don't know if it was something that happened through Chip [Ganassi]or whatever, but he didn't have a place to go.

"It's not like they're struggling over there for money or anything; they get paid pretty good. Everything's going to go in waves, and obviously you can't keep having these waves of open-wheel drivers come over because there's not many spots left. And that's something, sure, you could easily say I'm going to break away and I'm going to go, but when there's not a lot of options to go to it's pretty scary, because if you break away from that option, you may just be sitting on the sideline.

"It's not a sport for the weak of heart. This sport will spit you out and eat you up if you let it. In sports, if you're good enough you'll automatically have an opportunity. Here, you could be good enough and just never get that chance because the money's not there. The toughest thing is that with the sponsorship as tight as it is, it's not like there are 50-55 cars to get in. Three years ago, it was easy; there's barely 43 cars now. If you don't like the team you're on, you can't break away. So, I don't think there's enough cars to go around to find good rides to be in. It'll go up and down. There'll be years where a lot of guys go over, and years where not a lot of guys come over."

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"Indy winner: I'm leaning a couple of ways. Jimmie Johnson's been strong lately ... but I'm going to go Tony Stewart. Back-to-back Indys ... he wants it bad. And once you strap the helmet on, the distractions go away: nobody's going to ask him what driver he's going to have for his second team or anything like that. And they've been running good."