THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, July 31, 1995 TAG: 9507310110
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
On the morning of last year's inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, longtime railbirds - an Indy term for avid followers of racing - noticed that the atmosphere was strangely different.
Despite all the excitement and attention given the event, the speedway's first ``other'' race since 1910, veteran 500 watchers couldn't help but notice that it was, well, quiet.
Not literally quiet. The stock cars, after all, shook the rafters of the old double-deck frontstretch grandstands, making more noise at the old Brickyard than had been heard in more than 30 years, since the days of the old front-engine roadsters.
And the crowd, which exceeded 300,000, was on its feet screaming when Jeff Gordon, who grew up in nearby Pittsboro, Ind., won the first NASCAR race at Indy.
The first Brickyard 400 was quiet in an abstract sense. It was, by and large, a race. It was not the monthlong, rite-of-spring, rolling-in-the-mud party that is the Indy 500.
And it will probably be that way again as the NASCAR Winston Cup series returns this week for the second running of the richest race in stock-car racing.
``I think we found out that we had a very different crowd, a very subdued crowd as opposed to the Indy 500,'' said Bob Walters, the speedway's public relations director. ``It was a crowd that was there just to watch the competition and the racing.''
``I thought that the crowd was awed and quiet . . . that is, as opposed to the Indy 500, where everybody is yelling and there is all kind of noise,'' said Leo Mehl, Goodyear's general manager for racing.
Missing during the 400's prerace activities last year was the electricity that almost literally crackles in the air in the supercharged hours before a 500.
It is the 500's history and tradition, particularly the monthlong buildup, that produces that electric atmosphere on race day. And that's a big reason why the Daytona 500, now NASCAR's second-richest race, will not lose its distinction to NASCAR's premier event.
The Daytona 500 has history. And it has a tremendously long buildup - a full winter of preparation and testing.
The $4.5 million Brickyard 400 is the biggest deal of NASCAR's summer, but it is sandwiched between Talladega and Watkins Glen and is race No. 19 of 31. It marks the first of 10 consecutive weekends of races. Thus, once it's over, there's little time for awe or reverie.
A few things have changed this year, but not a lot.
``I would say that probably the biggest difference this year is a lot of the mystery is gone,'' Walters said.
An extra day - Wednesday - was added to the practice schedule, extending the 400 activities to four days. Pole qualifying is Thursday; the race is at 1:15 p.m. Saturday.
Only 55 to 60 entries are expected for the race, down from 85 for the inaugural event but 10 or 15 more than the typical Winston Cup race. And requests for media credentials are down somewhat, Walters said.
As for ticket demand, if you wanted the bleakest picture of an absolutely rosy situation, you could say, quite accurately, that it has plummeted. Down by half.
But here's how Walters puts it: ``Last year, we were four times oversubscribed for tickets. This year, we're only two times oversubscribed.''
That, mind you, is for more than 300,000 seats, almost twice as many as any other NASCAR track.
The biggest challenge for the second 400, it seems, will be to equal the magic of the first.
The weather was a perfect 73 degrees last year (August days in Indiana are usually hot and steamy), the last quarter of the race was as good as it gets and, as Walters put it, ``The winner was a hometown boy who gets out of his car and kisses his beauty-queen wife.''
Some of NASCAR's secret potion seems to have been left on the track over the winter and rubbed off on the Indy-car folks. In May, Indy 500 winner Jacques Villeneuve pulled a NASCAR trick and came from two laps down to win - an Indy first.
In fact, if the Brickyard 400 can match the competitiveness and non-stop excitement of this year's Indy 500, the 400 will not only be NASCAR's biggest race of the summer, but also the best. by CNB