Having followed Tony for nearly the entirety of his career in NASCAR’s top flight, it’s easy for me to remember the big moments at Indianapolis, in part because Indianapolis is very significant to me as well.
The 1998 Brickyard 400 was the first-ever NASCAR race that I watched on TV — all in black-and-white on my great-grandmother’s television. I was five at the time; Jeff Gordon was 27 and busy putting in arguably his most dominant of the five victories he has in this race. I was awe-struck, but I knew what I was watching was awesome.
I remember 2002, and how gut-wrenching it was to witness what felt like a lifetime dream going down the drain (the only point in his career that I remember hurting more was the finish to the 2008 Daytona 500). It took a while — a long while — to get over that.
I remember 2005, and how fitting that day seems in perspective (it was at my grandmother’s house that I watched that race). I knew it was special, but I also think that 12-year-old me did not grasp the full significance of Tony’s first win there. To be able to do that required an understanding of all the underlying variables that make Indianapolis such a special place. I was too young to get them all — but boy, was I really happy!
It’s only been in recent months — especially since the retirement announcement last September — that I think I’ve come decently close to understanding why Indianapolis is so special to Tony.
I am a native North Carolinian. I was born in North Carolina, raised in North Carolina, and grew up loving NASCAR in North Carolina. As such, I follow a traditional line of thinking for North Carolinians, in that there is no race more significant and more important to win than the Daytona 500. I’ll admit that the 500 is always what I wanted to see Tony win the most.
But Tony — and other native Hoosiers, for that matter — see things a bit differently.
If you grew up in the shadow of the Racing Capital of the World pre-Generation Y, and you loved motorsports, the Daytona 500 was not your dream. Your mecca was Indianapolis, and your dream victory was a win in the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
To be fair, and honest, Indianapolis doesn’t care about Daytona. Why would you need Daytona when you have the 100+ years of history of America’s original proving grounds at your doorstep?
This would be the line of thinking that Indiana’s native sons and daughters have. This would be the line of thinking that Tony Stewart follows.
Tony cares about Daytona. It will, on some level, eat at him that he never was able to win a 500 when his career is over. But if it weren’t for the fact that the NASCAR world cares about Daytona, I doubt that it would bother Tony much, if at all. If he really cared about winning the Daytona 500 this year and ending the 0-for-17 streak, he would have done everything in his power to be there, ATV rides be damned.
Why? Because what really matters to Tony is Indianapolis. Not Daytona.
That Tony is present and ready for Indianapolis in a way that he wasn’t for the 500 should say everything about how he views this race.
What we regular NASCAR fans don’t understand — what I, for 18 years, didn’t understand — is that the way we see the 500 is how Tony and all native Hoosiers see the 400 and the 500 at Indianapolis. February is interesting and important, but this is the one that really matters.
