Change of heart

NASCAR marks 10 years of racing at Indianapolis

Facts and Figures Event: The 10th Brickyard 400 Winston Cup stock car race. Distance: 400 miles; 160 laps around the 21/2-mile, asphalt-on-brick Indianapolis Motor Speedway rectangular-oval track. Cars: 3,500 pounds; use carburetion instead of fuel-injection found on stock models of passenger cars; tubular frames, with safety modifications. Start: 1:30 p.m. EST. Defending champion: Bill Elliott, who won his first Brickyard 400 at an average 125.033 mph in 2002. Purse: The 2002 race paid a record $7.42 million, including $449,056 to winner Bill Elliott (Record payoff $1.64 million to Jeff Gordon in 1998 included a $1 million Winston bonus. Crowd: Speedway never discloses attendance but admits to at least 275,000 reserved seats in permanent stands. TV: Televised live by the National Broadcasting Co., with announcers Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach, and pit reporters Bill Weber, Marty Snider, Dave Burns and Matt Yocum. Radio: About 400 U.S. stations on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network, anchored by Mike King. Track mortality: There have been 66 deaths at the Speedway, including pre-Indy 500 races of 1909-10. The last death was on May 17, 1996, when pole-winner Scott Brayton was killed in a crash during Indy 500 practice. There have been no fatalities in the Brickyard 400 or the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- A decade ago, even the thought of another type of race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway was almost heresy.

Indy cars dominated American racing, the IRL's split from the established Championship Auto Racing Teams was still two years away and NASCAR's main support still came from its down-home, good-ol'-boy followers.

Flash forward.

NASCAR is preparing for its 10th race at Indianapolis, the Winston Cup series has a national following and several of its stars hail from Indiana, no longer a mecca only for open-wheel racing.

"It had a great presence in Indiana. But at the same time it was like a lot of areas of the country, where there wasn't the exposure to it up close and personal like it is now," said Tony Stewart, who grew up in Columbus, Ind., grew up on the midget and sprint car tracks of the Midwest and became a star in the IRL before switching to stock cars.

"Once NASCAR came to the Indianapolis area in person it brought the excitement level to an all-time high here, so I think it was a great thing," said Stewart, the defending Winston Cup champion.

For more than 80 years, the Indianapolis 500 was the only race at the Speedway. In 1993, three years after control of the track went to Tony George -- the grandson of the late owner Tony Hulman -- NASCAR first tested on the famed 2 1/2-mile oval.

The first Brickyard 400 was in 1994 and was won by Jeff Gordon, who grew up just 15 minutes from the track in the town of Pittsboro and became the Brickyard's first two-time winner in 1998.

George added Formula One's U.S. Grand Prix to the Speedway's racing calendar in 2000, and Gordon became the first three-time Brickyard champion in 2001.

Another rising star in NASCAR is Ryan Newman, a native of South Bend and a Purdue graduate, who this season has started from the pole five times and won four races, both highs for the series.

Going into Sunday's race -- the 21st of 36 races this season -- series leader Matt Kenseth leads Dale Earnhardt Jr. by 232 points and Gordon by 308.

Bill Elliott is the defending champion at the Brickyard, the Speedway's longtime nickname because of the 3.2 million bricks that once covered the track.

"I was actually one of them that wasn't extremely excited, just because of the history of the place," Stewart said of NASCAR's intrusion into Indianapolis a decade ago. "The way we've all adapted our attitudes toward it is that the Indianapolis 500 is obviously what the tradition and history of this great race track has been all about for so many years.

"A lot of times, people are scared of change, but as the years have gone on people have accepted it and seen how good of a change it's been for Indianapolis."

Elliott, a native Georgian, has come to appreciate Indy's tradition, too.

"It's hard to rank where that win falls," he said of his victory last year. "The Brickyard is one of the crown jewels, so to speak, of our sport, so that makes it special in that regard. But as far as ranking it against winning the Daytona 500 or the Winston Million, you just can't. They're all special in their own way.

"I will say that winning the Brickyard is certainly one of the highlights of my career," he said. "It's just such a special experience. There's so much history at that track that you can't help but get emotional about winning there."

Stewart, Robby Gordon and John Andretti are the only current NASCAR regulars who also have driven in the Indianapolis 500.

"There's something in everybody's life that they're very passionate about. To me, it's winning at the Brickyard," Stewart said. "It only happens once a year, that's the hard part. You only have one chance every 365 days to accomplish that goal."

 

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