Racecar drivers collect numerous mementos during the course of their respective careers, from helmets and firesuits to chunks of asphalt and steering wheels, and when they reach the end of their careers – rocking chairs. But of all the knickknacks drivers pick up as they rise from upstart rookie to cagey veteran, ones from the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway are perhaps the most coveted.
That the speedway recently celebrated its centennial era has much to do with drivers’ reverence for the 2.5-mile oval. It’s been hosting automobile races since 1909, and not just any race, but the Indianapolis 500. And because of its archaic – at least in racing terms – lineage, parts of Indy’s surface, namely the frontstretch, remained clad in bricks until 1961 when asphalt was spread across all but a three-foot strip at the track’s start/finish line. Hence, it’s nickname – the Brickyard – and why so many drivers’ bric-a-brac collections contain an old brick from the Wabash Clay Company, the Veedersburg, Ind.-based company that supplied nearly all those “Culver Blocks” on which legends tread.
As years pass, those bricks become harder and harder to come by, which is appropriate considering that each passing year raises the level of competition in all forms of auto racing, which makes finding victory at the Brickyard equally elusive.
Winning at Indy was hard in an Indy car, and when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series began racing there in 1994 via the inaugural Brickyard 400, the stock car set found out first-hand what folks like Lloyd Ruby, Rex Mays, Ted Horn, Tony Bettenhausen Sr. and Michael Andretti found out in 70 collective Indy 500 starts – winning can be hard to come by.
Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing, knows this better than anyone. In five Indy 500 starts, Stewart went winless, despite leading a total of 122 laps and starting from the pole as a rookie in 1996. It appeared that his Indy 500 luck followed him to NASCAR when he came to the speedway as a rookie anew in 1999. In six agonizing years, which included a start from the pole in 2002, Stewart’s best Brickyard 400 finish was fifth in 2004, despite leading 43 laps in 2002 and 60 laps in 2003. But finally, in 2005 on his march to his second Sprint Cup championship, Stewart nabbed a win at the famous Brickyard.
It wasn’t just any win, for Stewart is a favorite son of Indiana, with the Columbus, Ind., native lauded alongside such other homegrown talents as Larry Bird, James Dean, John Wooden, John Mellencamp and David Letterman. The “local boy does good” angle is one that has earned Stewart many fans in the Hoosier State, but it’s also been Stewart’s well-chronicled adoration of Indy that has earned him a devout following.
The former USAC and IndyCar Series champion grew up about 45 minutes from the historic track in the towns of Columbus and Rushville. In fact, before Stewart made his debut at Indianapolis in the 1996 Indianapolis 500, he drove a tow truck while trying to make ends meet as an aspiring USAC driver.
Stewart would drive down Georgetown Road toward 16th Street, running parallel with the speedway’s 3,330-foot-long frontstretch, and wonder what it would be like 300 feet to the left running at 200 mph.
He finally got to experience that feeling in 1996, but it would be an agonizing 10 years before Stewart experienced his ultimate wish – winning at Indy.
But after standing inside the speedway’s victory circle in 2005, it only took a year and 209 days for Stewart to score his second Indy triumph when he led seven times for a race-high 65 laps en route to a dominating win in the 2007 Brickyard 400.
Stewart earned those wins as just a driver. They were big – the biggest of Stewart’s career – but trumping them would be winning a third Brickyard trophy as a driver/owner with Stewart-Haas Racing.
That opportunity presents itself this Sunday, and just as Stewart has seized other opportunities in the past, he aims to pick up another prized “brick”-a-brac in this year’s 20th running of the Brickyard 400.
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