The roar of stock cars has been reverberating through Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s hallowed grandstands since the first NASCAR Cup Series race in 1994. The inaugural Brickyard 400 became the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 in nearly a century, setting the stage for additional motorsports events to be held at Indy.
Each NASCAR weekend has delivered its own special and memorable moment, with race winners such as Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Dale Jarrett, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson. There have been a few surprise winners, but generally Victory Lane has been visited by the sport’s champions.
A look at five of the most significant moments in the race’s history:
1. Gordon Gets Brickyard off to Grand Beginning: The biggest event occurred in 1994 when NASCAR stormed onto the oval for the first time. A capacity crowd of more than 250,000 attended, and nearly everyone was standing when the 23-year-old Pittsboro, Indiana resident took the checkered flag for his second career Cup Series victory (he won the first earlier that year at Charlotte Motor Speedway). The Brickyard win vaulted Gordon into superstardom, a meteoric rise like few drivers have experienced in the sport’s history. Among the 80-plus entries were cars for Indy legends A.J. Foyt, Danny Sullivan and Gary Bettenhausen, and the first two made the race. Rick Mast was the surprising pole winner, and he led the first lap. The race became the first of what is currently 11 event victories for Hendrick Motorsports.
2. Jarrett Takes Ford to Victory Lane, Parrott to Yard of Bricks: With Gordon and seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt winning the first two Brickyards in Chevrolets, it was time for Ford to win at Indy. Dale Jarrett delivered that in 1996 despite not leading until Lap 135 of 160. Jarrett and fellow Ford driver Ernie Irvan had a spirited battle in the late going, with Jarrett passing for the lead with seven laps remaining. Jarrett became the first driver to win the Daytona 500 and the Brickyard 400 in the same year, and he unknowingly started an Indy tradition by taking crew chief Todd Parrott and their Robert Yates Racing crew to Indy’s iconic Yard of Bricks to kneel and kiss them. Now, even fans kiss the bricks.
3. Wait! How Many Laps Was That Race? The 2004 race was best remembered for Gordon winning the Brickyard 400 for the fourth time, equaling the number of Indy wins of Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears (and later Helio Castroneves) in the Indianapolis 500. But another significant and impactful event occurred that year: Indianapolis became the first race where NASCAR’s new overtime policy was utilized. The green-white-checkered finish turned out to only be needed once as the race was completed with 161 laps rather than the scheduled 160. As for Gordon, he won his record-setting fifth Brickyard 400 in 2014.
4. Another Indiana Hero: Where Gordon was an Indiana transplant by way of Northern California, Tony Stewart was as Hoosier as Hoosier gets. The Columbus product often known as the “Rushville Rocket” won his first Indy race in 2005 to a thunderous applause as the large crowd. Stewart celebrated the first of what became two Brickyard 400 victories by climbing the fence on the front straightaway with his Joe Gibbs Racing crew.
5. Larson Completes the Indy Double: Last year, Kyle Larson made his debut in the Indianapolis 500 in May, then returned to the Speedway in July and won his first Brickyard 400. Like the wins of Gordon and Stewart, Larson appreciated the victory more than most because he had spent much of his younger days living close to the track as a rising star in the sport, winning numerous USAC sprint and midget races. Larson didn’t win the “500” last year, but his first attempt started from the No. 5 position that helped him with the Rookie of the Year award. In Indy’s NASCAR race, Larson delivered a late-race charge to grab control and score the most significant of what was then his 27th Cup Series victory.
