Indianapolis Motor Speedway, “The Brickyard,” surely is the most celebrated race track in all of racing and likewise one of the famous venues in all of sports. For decades, millions of sports fans who’d have no connection with auto racing would at least follow the Indianapolis 500 on Memorial Day weekend as some folks tune in the Masters but would never follow the PGA or watch Wimbledon, yet otherwise ignore tennis. The 2 ½ mile legendary site also has a longer history than just about any sports setting in the United States with ground being broke in 1909, it predates even Fenway Park and Wrigley Field.
Ironically, despite the substantial legend behind the Indy 500, American open wheel racing is in trouble with its future at stake. Were there no Danica Patrick, the readily marketable sex kitten, advertising poster child, and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model bringing much attention to the Indy Racing League (IRL), would the series garner much attention at all? Most of its races are now broadcast on Versus, the Comcast upstart sports network, that aside from IRL and the NHL has little more to show for itself other than outdoor life programming and the Tour de France. Fans can say what they will about Danica Patrick’s “sexploitation,” she is a highly competitive driver, who despite only having one win in the series consistently pulls in top 5 finishes and looks good in the series’ point standings. Auto racing worldwide follows a similar dichotomy to football. Just as the world follows their kind of football Americans call soccer and America follows the NFL and college game, everywhere in the world outside the United States, open wheel racing, the Formula 1 series rules while NASCAR rules supreme in the USA. So where does that put the IRL? Likewise, for the sake of this discussion, what happens when the legendary sports Valhalla hosts NASCAR?
The Brickyard 400 started in 1994 and helped establish the reputation for the career of sophomore racer, Jeff Gordon, who won the first race of his four Indy races. The following year, NASCAR’s legend of the era, Dale Earnhardt, holder of seven championships enjoyed the victory ritual akin to those celebrated by A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, the Unser’s, and all the legends with Brickyard trophies. In 1994 and 1995, open wheel racing was much healthier in America. The crippling IRL/CART split was still a couple years in the future and plenty of American open wheel drivers were among the regular who’s who of American sports fans, but even when the green flag dropped starting the first Brickyard 400, the implication was clear. America’s most popular racing series was now racing at motorsports most famous track. Fifteen years later, one could easily debate what is truly the most popular racing event in America: the Indianapolis 500 or NASCAR’s Daytona 500 in February. Clearly, the buildup to the Daytona 500 gathers far more attention in sports media than the Indy 500.
When the first Brickyard 400 ran in 1994, NASCAR still had its grand slam of races, the Daytona 500, Charlotte’s Coca Cola 600, Darlington’s Southern 500, and the second race at Talladega advertised as the first, the longest, the oldest, and the fastest. That landscape has changed. The Southern 500 got the ax moving the legendary South Carolina event to a miserable fate for NASCAR racing on Labor Day weekend in Fontana California where the beautiful people hardly acknowledged the good old boys coming to town. This year, the Labor Day event will take place in Atlanta while the name of the Southern 500 now stands with the lone event in Darlington in May. In fourteen years, the NASCAR/Brickyard marriage has produced NASCAR’s number two sensation, second only to the Daytona 500, as the Brickyard 400 is the sports new classic. While other races surely have a greater impact on the NASCAR season, the history of the Brickyard and giant capacity of the Indianapolis track taking place during one of the sleepiest times in the entire sports seasons, this weekend’s upcoming race is a huge event. Looking at the winner’s list, the Brickyard 400 winners club forms a fraternity of some of NASCAR’s greatest drivers, many of whom have series championships, some the same year as their Brickyard victory. Besides Jeff Gordon with his four wins, his teammate Jimmie Johnson holds two wins, both championship seasons for the California driver. Two time champ, Tony Stewart, and former champ, Dale Jarrett, both have two wins. Other champs with Brickyard wins include Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Labonte, and Bill Elliot. How elite is this field of winners, only Ricky Rudd and Kevin Harvick, a Daytona 500 winner, round out the field of NASCAR Indy winners.
While most of the NASCAR races in Indy have been worthy of the buildup full of all kinds of quirky twists and turns, heartbreaking wrecks and failures, and intriguing matchups fighting for the win, the 2008 Brickyard 400 was one of NASCAR’s greatest embarrassments of all time. Between the racing surface having recently been “diamond grooved” in an attempt to improve grip on the high speed 2 ½ mile surface and Goodyear having a tire that simply could not hold up to the substantial friction with the added down force applied by the “Car of Tomorrow,” the race was reduced to a series of heats separated by “competition yellows” every 10-12 laps with only one yellow flag dropping for action on the track when Brian Vickers’ Toyota engine exploded. Frustrating fans in the stands and NASCAR viewers alike, an afternoon’s racing came down to a final shootout between Jimmie Johnson and Carl Edwards.
After substantial apologies and finger pointing, noting that the racetrack surface rubber combination never allowed the track to “rubber up” as the tire compound was ground off to little more than dust, Goodyear, NASCAR, and the track’s management shook hands agreeing such would not be repeated in 2009. Goodyear invested heavily in tire testing formulating a rubber compound that should assure this year’s race should be a truly competitive affair.
Going into this year’s race, perhaps for many, Mark Martin will be the obvious sentimental favor, leading the series with the most victories, four in 2009, a Brickyard trophy would be a glorious feat for one of the sports’ greatest drivers never to win a championship or Daytona 500. From a truly competitive standpoint, it would be hard not to put money on Jimmie Johnson or hometown favorite Tony Stewart, #2 and #1 in this year’s points standings, both drivers look like the clear cut favorites to duel for the championship through the Chase. Sure, Jeff Gordon is in third place in the standings and the veteran driver surely knows the Brickyard. Consider that neither Joe Gibbs Racing nor Roush/Fenway have ever won at the Brickyard. As qualifying and practice approach, NASCAR fans will discover quickly if a year’s worth of effort have prepared these teams for success and an attempt to put life back into what has been a disappointing season for both teams. Not to be ignored, consider Roger Penske is synonymous with Indy success on Memorial Day. His premier NASCAR driver, Kurt Busch is in fourth place ready to strike while teammate Sam Hornish is a former Indy 500 winner. Speaking of Indy 500 winners, how about Juan Pablo Montoya who is surging forward in the standings breathing life into what has been a moribund atmosphere at Earnhardt/Ganassi racing?
Weather conditions should be near perfect for late July with a forecast for partly cloudy skies with temperatures in the high 70’s. The late July classic finds television coverage shifting to ESPN who will broadcast the balance of the 2009 Sprint Cup season with all events up to Richmond appearing on ESPN and all the remaining races from Richmond, the deciding race for the final “Chase” lineup and all ten “Chase” races leading to the final showdown in Homestead on ABC. While ESPN invested heavily in returning to covering NASCAR, race fans see need for much improvement in their coverage. With so many personalities and production segments, the coverage often gets distracting, unfocused and confusing. This is no knock on the guys in the booth, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, and Dale Jarrett, the Hickory, NC fraternity. Alan Bestwick, a fine announcer and Rusty Wallace host the event in ESPN’s version of Fox’s “Hollywood Hotel.” Watching races on ESPN the past two years, one would often think that during the race, the network is more focused on showing off all its production toys with more emphasis on Tim Brewer’s cutaway car than what Jeff Hammond’s role or Larry McReynolds’ role on Fox and TNT entailed. While the technical information is interesting, it can be distracting if used too frequently or if the segments are not concise. ESPN’s greatest sin, particularly when broadcasting over ABC affiliates is the rapid exit from post race coverage wanting to cut away quickly to additional ABC programming or local news. Effective NASCAR coverage must include at least a segment with the winner in victory lane, some interviews with the key competitors, drivers or crew chiefs, and a skillful wrap up by the appropriate members of the broadcast team putting the race in perspective in the points competition and setting the stage for the following week. If ESPN falls short on any of these variables, their coverage is not fully satisfactory.
Thankfully, everything appears to be lining up for a weekend where the story will be told on the track and in the pits not being dogged by tire technology failures or bad weather. RMF will be cheering for Mark Martin, but would find a Tony Stewart or Roush/Fenway victory quite satisfying. Okay, could it be possible given how successful Hendricks cars including Tony Stewart’s stable are racing this year, how about Dale Earnhardt Jr. dramatically turning around his season with a stunning win in his father’s footsteps at the historic track? Not likely but fun to think about, surely thousands of fans will be cheering for just that.
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