Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Indy still feels like home to Stewart

Friday, Aug. 6, 2004 | 10:11 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Since he joined NASCAR's premier division in 1999, Tony Stewart has greeted the Brickyard 400 weekend with equal parts excitement and dread.

Growing up in nearby Rushville, Ind., Stewart dreamed from a young age of racing in the Indianapolis 500 -- a goal he has accomplished five times. Since moving from open-wheel cars to stock cars six years ago and eventually becoming a lightning rod for controversy, the media spotlight always shines brighter on Stewart when the Nextel Cup Series rolls into the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Stewart insisted, however, that he is feeling less dread and more excitement as he prepares for this weekend's Brickyard 400.

"I'm looking forward to it," Stewart said when asked how he was approaching this year's race. "As much as I get the highs of the highs and the lows of the lows, it's a week that I always look forward to. Even though it's a drag sometimes, from the media side it's a much busier weekend than I want to have with the media attention that we get there (but) being from Indiana, there's no way to get around that.

"At the same time, I get to see my family and friends and get to see people that I don't get a chance to see but a couple times a year. Yeah, more so this year, I'm probably looking forward to it more than I ever have in the past."

Part of the reason for Stewart's change in attitude is the fact that he said he and the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team had a "very productive test" at the 2.5-mile speedway earlier this summer.

Stewart said that just taking part in a test before a nearly empty grandstand got him pumped up for this weekend's race.

"Just showing up there for a test, it sends goose bumps down your spine for somebody like me that grew up around Indianapolis Motor Speedway," Stewart said. "Obviously, it's a big week for us."

Stewart, who is fifth in points, will be making his sixth Brickyard 400 start on Sunday. His best finish was fifth in the 2000 race, but he has failed to finish in the top 10 in his last three starts at IMS.

A victory in Sunday's 160-lap race would mean the world to Stewart, he said.

"Everybody's question normally is what is it going to mean to win there?" Stewart said. "It will be one of the biggest ones of my career, obviously, if not the biggest win as far as an individual race.

"(But) you still have to treat it as one of the 36 (races) on the schedule. It's still one of the first 26 that get us into that playoff format. It's real important for us to have a good run at Indy."

"The first time that I was giving a ride, I got a passenger -- a 50-year old man from Indiana that had watched the speedway his whole life," Gaughan recalled. "I'll never forget it: The first time ever he's on the track and we come out of turn four and I've done maybe one lap on the track and I've got this guy in the car.

"Even my eyes are big and I look over and this guy's jaw is just to his chest, eyes are as big as dinner plates. When we finished I said, 'man, that front straightaway is cool and the way you come out of turn three.' And he goes, 'what do you mean?' And I told him that was my first time, too, and the guy almost had a heart attack."

Gaughan said there are few sights in motor sports as impressive as coming down the front straight at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

"You come out of turn four there and you look at the front straightaway and it's the narrowest front straightaway that you've ever seen," Gaughan said. "Grandstands all the way up one side and grandstands up the other side and it becomes a tunnel. It's a fun place."

The Busch Series will race March 6 -- the weekend before its event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway -- at the 2.75-mile Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. The venue is the same one used by the Champ Car World Series.

The series also will race at Watkins Glen International Aug. 13 as a companion event to the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series event the following day. The two events will be the first road races for the Busch Series since it ended an 11-year run at Watkins Glen in 2001.

"Mexico has a long tradition in motor sports and we are thrilled that NASCAR is now part of it," NASCAR chairman Brian France said. "Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a beautiful track that provides our NASCAR Busch Series teams the opportunity to perform on an international stage. We look forward to providing this event for our growing Mexican fan base."

The 2005 Busch Series schedule includes the addition of second dates at Phoenix International Raceway (April 22 and Nov. 12) and Texas Motor Speedway (April 16 and Nov. 5). The series will visit Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the ninth consecutive year on March 12 for the Sam's Town 300.

The entire 2005 Busch Series schedule can be found on this page.

"We are excited about having Jamie as part of the team into the future," Ganassi said. "With the way the No. 42 Texaco/Havoline team has been running up front, we are in position to start winning races soon."

Prior to Ganassi's announcement, it had been rumored that McMurray was one of the drivers being considered to drive a third Nextel Cup car for team owner Joe Gibbs next season.

McMurray currently is 15th in the Nextel Cup standings, 133 points out of 10th place.

Only the top 10 drivers -- and those within 400 points of the leader -- after 26 races can contend for the Nextel Cup championship over the final 10 races.

Toyota has announced that 2002 CART champion Cristiano da Matta will be replaced by test driver Ricardo Zonta for the final six races of the Formula One season. Da Matta, in his second F1 season, has scored only three championship points this season and is 15th in the drivers' standings. Zonta, a Brazilian, drove for the BAR-Honda team in 1999 and 2000 and twice raced for Jordan in 2001.