Indianapolis is the heart of all American racing

By DAVID GREEN

I have to admit I was a bit surprised when I read Dennis Terry's latest Over The Wall piece. I figured DT would get some flak for suggesting that the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard has become a bigger race than the Daytona 500 -- and, sure enough, he has gotten plenty.

The volume of disagreement notwithstanding, there's plenty of recognition that needs to be accorded to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even among those who believe Daytona is NASCAR's most important race.

Simply put, the Speedway and its 500-Mile Race are the most significant and important things in all American automobile racing.

The design of the big track that opened in 1909 is the reason why just about all oval tracks today are perceived to have four turns. Their 180-degree corners are artificially divided into Turns 1-2 and Turns 3-4 because there really are four distinct turns at Indianapolis.

The distance of the classic race first staged in 1911 and now approaching its century edition is the reason events such as the Southern 500 and Daytona 500 were set at their 500-mile length. Harold Brasington and Bill France didn't just coincidentally pull that "500" number out of the air, you know.

Brasington, in fact, built Darlington -- and H. Clay Earles built Martinsville Speedway -- after visiting Indianapolis and being inspired by that facility and that event.

The Indianapolis 500 and the drivers who competed in it were the first to raise auto racing to mainstream public acceptance. Indy lifted racing from the novelty status it held when horseless carriages first began evolving. Later, when cars and car racing became more prevalent, it was the 500 that helped turn racing into something other than what most people thought of as a crude, low-class activity.

Until the mid-point of the 20th century, Indy-car racing was what NASCAR racing is now. It featured racing machines that were at first exactly the same as, and later strongly resembled, the passenger cars that race fans drove. Take the fenders off a Model T or A roadster, and it doesn't look much different from a 1920s- or '30s-vintage Indy 500 winner -- no less, certainly, than a Nextel Cup machine looks like a street-version Monte Carlo.

NASCAR racing will never catch up to the Indy 500 until and unless the 500 ceases to exist, and then only about 35 years later. That's unarguably true, just as it is true that the National Football League will always be junior to Major League Baseball. NASCAR and the NFL may eclipse their rivals in popularity (as both have done), but you cannot revise history -- nor can you discount the impact of the history on the success of the new front-runners.

So, is the Brickyard 400 now NASCAR's most important race? That's a tough call.

Daytona and Darlington both have the same kind of cache that Indy does, and maybe that translates into greater significance for most NASCAR fans and competitors.

I have no problem with anybody's preference, as long as they recognize that the big track where today's race will be held is where ALL American racing -- NASCAR included -- should trace its lineage. That demands and deserves no small amount of homage and respect.