Indy and Charlotte

By DAVID GREEN

Some folks with NASCAR credentials will be in Indianapolis for Sunday's Indy 500, and some who made waves in the open-wheel classic will be racing stock cars in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway near Charlotte later that day. Too bad they all have to choose one or the other.

It wasn't always so. Before 1974, the Indianapolis event was always held on May 30, the traditional Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as it was once called) holiday, or on Saturday if the 30th fell on a Sunday. The first running of what was then known as the World 600 was staged in June, but quickly migrated to a late-May Sunday date -- the one that now falls on the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Before the two races came into head-to-head conflict, there was plenty of crossover competition.

Most everybody knows that Indy 500 champion Mario Andretti won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and A.J. Foyt, the first four-time Indy winner, won the Daytona 500 in 1972. No NASCAR regular ever won the Indy 500, but that's not because none ever made a solid run at the Borg-Warner Trophy.

Marshall Teague, one of the stars of NASCAR's early years, abandoned that circuit to race with the AAA and its successor, USAC. He finished seventh in the 1957 Indy 500. Paul Goldsmith, a standout of the late 1950s and 1960s in USAC and NASCAR stock cars, had back-to-back top-five finishes at Indy -- fifth in 1959 and third in 1960.

Other top stock car drivers, including Junior Johnson, Bobby Johns, LeeRoy Yarbrough, Cale Yarborough and others, were tempted by The Greatest Spectacle in Racing in the 1960s. Then, in 1970, NASCAR driver Donnie Allison turned in a stellar fourth-place run at Indy -- six days after he won the World 600 at Charlotte.

Others, including Allison's older brother Bobby, have tried their hand in open-wheel racing's American classic, but none has come close to matching his performance in the two races.

Of course, that became difficult, if not impossible, when the races went to a same-day schedule. There was a small window of opportunity, when the 500 had an 11 a.m. starting time and the 600 was moved to a 5 p.m. green-flag time, for a driver to try to run both races. Several have done it, and none has performed better than Tony Stewart, who finished sixth at Indy and third at Charlotte in 2001.

Moving the Indy starting time back to noon has all but ended the chance of any crossover competition. That's a shame.

Taking two of America's greatest races out of head-to-head conflict would be a great move -- for the Indy Racing League, for NASCAR, for Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Lowe's Motor Speedway, for drivers who might be willing to test their merits in both races, and for fans who would get to watch them do it.