Brickyard helps lead popularity surge

The race in Indianapolis helped NASCAR to expand into a national sport.
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
INDIANAPOLIS -- The most sudden success story in the history of auto racing -- the marriage of America's most popular motor sport to the world's most hallowed track -- isn't new anymore.
The Brickyard 400 will be run for the 10th time Sunday. Some call it the race that transformed NASCAR. Others say it's just a part -- although a big one -- of NASCAR's broader transformation from regional to national, from cult sport to mainstream.
"The Brickyard is what did it for them," A.J. Foyt said of NASCAR's boom in popularity, which began with the first tradition-shattering stock car race at storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994. "The corporate sponsors said, 'If you're big enough to run at Indy, we're in."'
Roush's view
Team owner Jack Roush disagrees.
"I don't want to be contrary to A.J., but I don't mind saying no," Roush said. "The thing that happened is that NASCAR, over the last 10 years, has been hell-bent to make Winston Cup racing not a southeastern United States sport, but a worldwide sport. To go to the Brickyard was a part of that strategy, and a piece of a puzzle that was complex."
But the timeline is, at least, remarkably coincidental. Not until the autumn after that first Brickyard 400 did the catch phrase, "America's fastest-growing sport" become wildfire in NASCAR.
Speedway President Tony George, in breaking a tradition of Indy cars only since the track opened in 1909, feared at first that stock cars would be a passing fad, that crowds would come for the novelty but wouldn't come back.
But more than 1 million requests for 300,000 seats blew out the Speedway's computer system less than 24 hours after tickets went on sale in 1993 for that first Brickyard. A new race never had drawn such immediate and overwhelming interest.
New kind of star
From the beginning, the event handed NASCAR a new kind of star, launching the youthful and polished Jeff Gordon to national attention as the first winner. It was the second Cup victory in a career that totals 62.
"I won the 600 at Charlotte and that was a huge moment, but then a few months later won this race -- and it changed my life," Gordon said. "I didn't go to Disney World after I won the 600. I went to Disney World after I won this race.
"The fan base increased, the sponsorship awareness increased, everything just went to a whole new level."