You, too, can get an employee discount - and more from David Green

We're like one of the big automakers. We didn't think of it first, but that's not going to stop us from offering an employee discount to all ThatsRacin.com readers.

That's right: You pay what we pay for clicks on this web site. But we're not limiting it to any specific time period. Our offer is good from now on, so click yourself crazy.

I wonder how that's working for the automakers. Is anyone buying it, or the cars?

Seems to me there's a downside. If you worked at an auto plant for 30 or so years, bought the company's cars for all that time - for you, the kids and even a cousin or two - how does the new sales policy make you feel?

You probably felt a little special for a long time, getting a break the general public never got. But now? Maybe not so much.

Maybe it's not unlike being one of three or more siblings. Mom told you that you were special and it made you feel real good. Then you overheard her telling one of your brothers or sisters the same thing. Maybe not so much any more.

But enough of that.

We're still waiting for the boys back at the shop to get David Green's blog running good, so he's going to run a few more laps in mine today. Good reading.

Indy a special place, and Brickyard a special race

By David Green

The 16-week, 16-race thrash to the finish of the 2005 season begins this weekend at Indianapolis. That's a good place for NASCAR drivers to launch such a high-profile, high-stakes blitz.

The notion of stock cars racing at Indy has always had its share of controversy. First there was the dismay of open-wheel hardliners when the race was first announced. Then there were arguments, many of them from the NASCAR fan base, over whether the track was suitable for stock cars. And many have complained there's no good vantage point from which to view a race at IMS, with all the towering grandstands and structures in the infield.

Lately, there has been some wailing and gnashing of teeth about the "sellout" that resulted in a name change, from Brickyard 400 to Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Democratic legislators will endorse Bush administration judicial nominees before those arguments are all settled. But it says here that:

NASCAR belongs at this venue.

Stock cars put on an excellent show at this unique layout.

No track of this size has a good vantage point from which the entire track can be seen, with the possible exception of a seat on the Goodyear blimp.

We are several decades into the overt commercialization of sports events and even stadiums. At some point, commercial clutter begins to be a serious impediment to the fan's enjoyment. But, to be fair, that commercial support makes a lot of this stuff possible, too. The NASCAR race, just a little over one decade old, did not have such a tradition that it should have been considered sacrosanct. I would hate to see a corporate sponsor's name take the place of "Daytona 500" or "Indianapolis 500," but "Allstate 400" works just fine for me.

All that aside, there's just no denying the special nature of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Its iconic status in American and international automobile racing is unparalleled. If you have any knowledge of racing heritage and history, you can feel it when you enter Indianapolis. Ditto Daytona and Darlington and Le Mans. They are like Yankee Stadium or Churchill Downs or the Rose Bowl.

Longevity is a part of it, but there are older tracks. Auto racing was first held at the Nashville (Tenn.) Fairgrounds in 1903, on the site of the present .596-mile oval. The Milwaukee Mile has been in operation since 1904. And, unless my memory is flawed (quite likely), Winchester (Ind.) Speedway began operation as a dirt track in the early 1900s.

Indy opened in 1909 and the first 500-Mile Race was staged in 1911. Until World War II, there was no such thing as "Indy car racing" or "stock car racing." There was just "automobile racing." The cars that raced at local bullrings, one-mile fairgrounds tracks and on the bricks at Indianapolis were very much what NASCAR is now - they grew from production-model autos that were raced to purpose-built racing cars that more or less resembled the passenger cars of the time.

Think about it - take the fenders off your Model T roadster, and it looked for all the world like the machine Pete DePaolo drove to victory at Indy in 1925. The similarities were greater than those between your 2005 Monte Carlo and the one Jeff Gordon drives. DePaolo's racecar even carried a passenger - a riding mechanic.

Indianapolis can't take credit for the counterclockwise direction of most American racing. That belongs to the Kentucky Derby. But many, many other fundamental, underlying strains of Indy 500 DNA can be found in NASCAR and all other U.S. auto racing.

The notion of an oval track such as Bristol having four turns stems from the rectangular Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which truly does have four 90-degree turns. The "most famous four words in motorsports" were first uttered by IMS savior Tony Hulman. The 500-mile distance was an IMS innovation, and because of it, the first major stock car races - in 1950, at Darlington, and 1959, at Daytona - had "500" in their names.

IMS is no less appropriate for stock cars than it is for today's sleek open-wheel cars. The Indy cars and their drivers have adapted. That's part of the appeal. It's why NASCAR should still be racing at Darlington on Labor Day.

Some years, the Indy 500 is truly a great spectacle. Others, it's not so great. The same can be said of any automobile race, including past NASCAR events at IMS.

But the mystique of racing at such a historic place is inescapable.

That's not to say everybody has to pencil in Indy as his or her favorite venue. For those who don't like IMS or the Brickyard 400 by any name, hey - your call.

It's all a state of mind. Mine is that Sunday's Allstate 400 is going to be a really big deal. I was there for the first Brickyard in 400, and it was magical. This one promises to be perhaps the best one yet, if for no other reasons than the story lines.

Will Tony Stewart get a breakthrough victory at the track he cherishes most? Will the Roush team's monster season give them their first win at Indy? Will Jeff Gordon snap out of his career-worst slump and become the first five-time winner in the nearly century-long history of the Speedway?

(And if he does, how will Hoosiers react, given that Jeff seems to be downplaying his Pittsboro, Ind., connection. He was a local fave when he won the inaugural Brickyard in 1994, but nowadays his bio cites his birthplace, Vallejo, Calif. But that's getting off the subject.)

However it may turn out - sizzler or snoozer - I don't intend to miss it.