Does Indianapolis deserve to be held high among NASCAR tracks?
It was 1909 when Indy hosted its first race. What was NASCAR doing then? Nothing. It hadn’t been created. And it wasn’t created until 40 years later. Some say that’s exactly why Indianapolis doesn’t mesh with NASCAR. But the fact is, NASCAR fans shouldn’t embrace Indianapolis; NASCAR fans should be glad Indianapolis embraces them. It’s difficult for open-wheel traditionalists to accept a 3,400-pound stock car vibrating the famed bricks. And it’s difficult for NASCAR historians to accept the speedway as another brick in the wall of the sport’s lore. NASCAR was born on short tracks like Martinsville, which is the oldest track on the schedule. But it grew on high-banked, high-speed tracks like Darlington, which happens to be the second-oldest track on the circuit. The first NASCAR race held at Martinsville was in 1949. It was 1950 for Darlington. The first NASCAR race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway wasn’t until 1994, and that took some hard-core politicking to sway the open-wheel brass to
