Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

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My first taste of NASCAR came in 1997, as I gathered together with 400,000 of my closest friends to watch Ricky Rudd race the ridiculously orange #10 Tide car to the checkered flag.

I sat on pit row and marveled at how quickly men could change four tires and dump gallons of gasoline into a running car - so much for those signs at filling stations that say it's dangerous to leave your motor on while pumping petroleum. I marveled at how earsplitting NASCAR engines are - a noise can be excruciatingly obnoxious and magnificently intoxicating at the same time. And I marveled at how attractive (most) all the drivers' wives were - and hoped that the ones with the prettiest wives would remain on the track so their wives would remain in the pits.

But most marvelous of all, simply, was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or IMS for short.

Best known as the home of the Indianapolis 500, the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing," the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is rich in tradition. And rich in riches too.

Besides the Brickyard 400 and the Indy 500, IMS hosts the SAP United States Grand Prix Formula One race. According to Sports Business Journal, these were three of the top five moneymaking events in sports in 2000. Indy was king, bringing in $336.6 million, $100 million more than the second-place Daytona 500. The Brickyard was third with $219.5 million and the U.S. Grand Prix was fifth was $170.8 million. Wedged in between those in fourth place was Super Bowl XXXIV with $215 million.

The Indianapolis 500 has long been the globe's largest attended single-day sporting event. This is hardly surprising; the speedway is Earth's largest seating facility with 250,000 permanent places for one's buttocks. Second on the list used to be pole day (qualifying) at the Indy 500, but pole day has since been surpassed by the Brickyard 400.

NASCAR named its 160-lap race in Indianapolis the "Brickyard" because that's the nickname for the IMS. That's the nickname for the IMS because in 1909 3.2 million bricks were laid as the track's surface. Most of the bricks remain in place under the current surface, with three feet of brick at the start/finish line still visible.

The track itself is a 2.5-mile oval, and 224 acres sit within that oval. That's enough land to grow 560,000 pounds of tobacco (given, according to my father-in-law - and who am I to argue, that an average tobacco yield is 2500 pounds per acre).

But golf is more profitable than smokes, so instead of a 'baccy farm, IMS put a Pat Dye-designed championship golf course (or part of one anyway) inside the track. Holes 7-10 of the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course lie between turns 2 and 3. Greens fees for one round are $90 (told you golf is a cash cow). However, this price includes a golf cart with a built-in hole location system using global positioning satellite technology.

As far as track records go (for racing, not golf), Brett Bodine has driven the fastest qualifying lap in a stock car at 181.072 mph, or 49.704 seconds around the loop; Bobby LaBonte has run the quickest complete race, averaging 155.912 mph. In open-wheel cars, Arie Luyendyk qualified at 237.498 mps, or 37.895 seconds; he also holds the complete race record, averaging 185.981 mph. Whether in a NASCAR or Indy car, whether qualifying or on race day, that's fast.

Fans need speed - although, Indiana race fans will watch just about anything with an engine race anything else with an engine (even lawn tractors) - as long as they go in circles. Yes, Hoosiers are among the most passionate race fans in America. As evidence of this love, an Indy racing car - not some historic government building or natural landmark - will grace Indiana's commemorative quarter scheduled for distribution in August 2002.

And if you're talking racing in Indiana, one name that surely will come up is Jeff Gordon. Gordon, an Indiana native, is the most cheered and jeered driver in NASCAR and also its best. Heading home for the Brickyard, Gordon, the race's only two-time winner, leads the NASCAR Winston Cup Series by 45 points over the aforementioned Ricky Rudd (who traded in the #10 for the #28 Texaco/Havoline car).

On August 5, I'll be heading home too, attending my third Brickyard 400. And personally, I'd like to see Gordon get his third win.

After all, of all the drivers, he's got the prettiest wife.

(Though mine still takes the checkered flag overall.)

NASCAR runs this Sunday at the 8th annual Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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