Indy Or Bust!!!!

   Indianapolis Motor Speedway is scheduled to once again host the Brickyard 400 on July 29.
   Never mind that it will mark the 14th time that the drivers of NASCAR's major series have cranked their engines at the storied 2.5-mile track that dates to 1911.  It remains a very big, special deal to go to Indy.  And it always will.
   So imagine the excitement that prevailed, both among the competitors and NASCAR fans, when it first started to seem that a stock car race really would be held at the Mecca Of Motorsports, previously  the scene of only open-cockpit, "championship car" racing.
   I have been covering auto racing since 1957, and I've never experienced anything like it.  The only thing close is anticipation of the first Daytona 500 in 1959.   

   The first public inkling I know of that NASCAR and Indianapolis Motor Speedway were planning something came on  April 5, 1992.
   It happened at--of all places--Tri-Counties Regional Airport, near Bristol in Tennessee.
   I was catching a commuter flight for its hop over the Blue Ridge Mountains to Charlotte after covering the Food City 500 earlier in the day at Bristol Raceway.  In line to board was Dave Marcis, a colorful NASCAR veteran.
   "Dave, you're only 65 miles from home in Asheville," I said.  "Why are you flying?"
   "I'm not going to Asheville," Marcis replied excitedly in his high-pitched voice.  "I'm going to Charlotte and then connecting to Indianapolis."
   "Indy?"
   "Yeah, me and Dick Trickle are testing IROC cars tomorrow and Tuesday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway."
   Bells started jangling.  Loudly!
  If the family of the late Tony Hulman, which had controlled IMS for decades, was going to allow International Race Of Champions stock cars on the track, didn't it figure that  NASCAR machinery would someday soon follow?
   I figured it did, and dictated a story speculating as much to my alma mater, The Charlotte Observer, minutes after landing.
   There was a lot of cynicism that such a thing possibly could happen.
   However, this began to dissipate when Marcis returned south to run the First Union 400 at North Wilkesboro Speedway on April 12, '92.
    "We could put on a fantastic show in our Winston Cup cars at Indy," exclaimed Marcis, speaking of the circuit that's now known as the Nextel Cup Series.  "We could race three abreast in the straightaways with no problem and two side-by-side in the turns.
   "I'm very hopeful it happens.  It could be one of the biggest things ever in auto racing.
   "You hear all this talk about  the tradition of only open cockpit cars running at Indy and people being opposed to anything being held there other than the Indy 500.  Those of us there for the tests earlier in the week heard none of that.  Just the opposite.  People approached us in restaurants and stores and said, 'We want to see your shows.  Please bring NASCAR here!'"
   And so it began to come to pass.
  Later in 1992, IMS president Tony George, Hulman's grandson, and NASCAR invited 10 top Winston Cup teams to "The Brickyard" for what was termed an "exhibition test."
   As the NASCAR contingent rolled into Indianapolis, they were astonished at the reception.
   Fans lined  overpasses  on  the interstate highways, waving banners of welcome.  Others besieged  the truck drivers transporting the cars and everyone else wearing any kind of NASCAR logo for autographs.
   Spotting Richard Petty, NASCAR's all-time victory leader with 200 wins, one fan shouted, "Oh, Lord, I'm hyperventilating."
   All the drivers wanted to be first on the track, but especially Rusty Wallace, driver for the team owned by Roger Penske, who held several Indy 500 victories.
   Wallace made it by racing his car down a special lane that led from the garage area to pit road.
   Dale Earnhardt chose the traditional Indy method of getting onto the track.  "The Intimidator" walked from the garage up Gasoline Alley as his crew pushed the No. 3 Chevrolet he made famous.
   Earnhardt was grinning Puckishly, knowing full well what would happen when he, with the black Chevy alongside, came into view.
   Earnhardt's emergence on foot onto pit road--and the fans' rip-roaring reaction that sounded ten-fold like the locomotive of song, the Wabash Cannonball of Indiana railroad fame, thundering through--remains one of the most electric moments I've experienced as a sportswriter.
   As Earnhardt got up to speed along the backstretch on his first-ever lap at Indy, I was standing alongside his team owner, Richard Childress, in the pits.  The two were in radio contact.
   "What does it feel like?" Childress asked.
   He then bent double in laughter.
   "What did Dale say?" I asked.
   I can't publish the exact quote that Childress relayed to me, but it had something to do with the firmness of a certain part of the male anatomy and the difficulty of Chinese arithmetic.
   Not surprisingly, when NASCAR announced its '94 Winston Cup schedule,  Indy was on it.  The Brickyard 400 was scheduled for Aug. 6.
    In August of '93 NASCAR held another test at Indy with practically all the teams participating.
   The fan outpouring exceeded even that of '92, with tens of thousands attending the sessions.
   The awe and excitement and humility among  the drivers, especially those that  never had been on the great speedway before,  was something that professional athletes seldom show.
   "When I started racin' on the little ol' short tracks in the mountains of Virginia, Indianapolis seemed as far away as the dark side of the moon," said Rick Mast.  "I listened to the Indy 500 on the radio, but until I came up here to run a Busch Series race at Indianapolis Raceway Park, I didn't understand this place's significance.  Me and the boys on my team came over here and toured the museum.  I saw the helmets, gloves and goggles of the guys who raced here as far back as 1911 and the history of the place hit me.
   " I thought, 'Goodness, they were racing at Indy even before my momma and daddy were born.'"
   Rick Mast was destined to become the first pole winner for the Brickyard 400, edging Earnhardt.  Jeff Gordon, who grew up in Indiana, scored a popular victory in the inaugural race on the old, revered track.
   Perhaps Jimmy Spencer put it best  of all the NASCAR drivers when they visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway to get ready to run officially for the first time.
   Said Jimmy: "I think we are walking and driving on sacred ground."
   The grounds at The Brickyard always will be.