The Brickyard is NASCAR's Newest Tradition

The Brickyard 400 is a race with tremendous prestige. Sure, it's a huge feather in the cap of NASCAR to race at the most famous speedway in the world. Coming to Indianapolis in 1994 certainly helped launch NASCAR from a largely southern sport into a national craze. NASCAR took its newly found clout and expanded like never before. Whether all that was good or bad is a topic for another day. What can't be argued is the Brickyard 400 has taken over as one of NASCAR's crown jewels, rivaled only by the Daytona 500.

Ask any driver where they most want to race and the overwhelming majority will give one answer: Indianapolis. Why? History, pure and simple. The Speedway has been around since 1909 with the first Indianapolis 500 held in 1911. The Indianapolis 500 has been the biggest racing event in the world for decades. The luster may have come off the race a little in the years following the CART/IRL split, but the Speedway is still the palace of motorsports. Names like Foyt, Unser, and Mears are just a few that come to mind when Indianapolis is mentioned. Those drivers carved out their legends at Indy. Any race driver wants to be mentioned alongside those giants of racing.

Tony Stewart didn't randomly pick 14 as his number. That number belonged to his hero, A.J. Foyt. Stewart already has 2 wins in the Brickyard 400, but this will be his first attempt at the 400 with his own team driving a car with the number 14 on the side of it. I can only imagine the butterflies he'll be feeling before the green flag waves on Sunday.

I was able to attend the Brickyard 400 in 2000. It was my first trip to Indy and I can say a chill ran up my spine when I walked into the grandstands and looked out at the track. I've been to Daytona, Bristol, and some other tracks, but standing there that day was different. The history of Indy hit me hard. I could almost see and hear the ghosts of races past speeding by me as I stood there soaking up every bit of what the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is all about. I actually felt honored to be there. At that moment, I realized I hadn't bought a ticket to a race. I had bought a ticket to be a part of another chapter in the history of the most famous race track the world has ever seen.

As race fans, we seem to complain a lot about cookie cutter tracks, cookie cutter cars, lack of personality from the drivers, too many commercials, mystery cautions, or whatever may be bugging us at the time. I feel that if I'm going to complain about NASCAR, I should also give NASCAR credit for doing something good. Maybe the racing isn't always great, but the event is spectacular.

NASCAR got it right when it tied itself to the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway.