Recalling NASCAR's arrival at Indy

I didn’t attend the first Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 4, 1950.

Didn't make the first Daytona 500 on Feb. 22, 1959.

The first World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on June 19, 1960? Nope.

All, or course, were significant events, destined to become classics on the NASCAR schedule.

I was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Aug. 6, 1994, for the inaugural Brickyard 400, and I can’t imagine the first races at Darlington, Daytona and Charlotte being bigger spectacles.

This weekend, memories of what transpired at Indy in August of '94 come racing back.

I recall the astonishment in the press box of the great track.

The frontstretch grandstands on both sides of the straightaway looked like canyon walls filled with people. The sound of their anticipation and excitement was a buzz akin to what might have been emitted by thousands upon thousands of bees.

At the start/finish line NASCAR’s former big-time champions were introduced and then seated in convertibles to be honored with rides around the historic track. Many took their wives along. I especially recall the beaming pride of Buck and Sue Baker and Tim and Frances Flock.

Finally and appropriately, men who had paved the path for NASCAR to someday take its show to Indy were being recognized in a major way.

Allow me to put the recollections in reverse just a bit.

As the drivers in the ’94 field gathered near the flagstand for a photo with the speedway’s Mary Hulman George and NASCAR chief Bill France, Jr., I thought back to June 22, 1992.

That’s when NASCAR selected nine star drivers and their teams to go to Indy for a test.

So charged up were the Indiana fans that hundreds of them lined the street leading into the track just to watch the transporters roll in during the middle of the night. The trucks arrived directly from Michigan International Raceway, where Geoff Bodine won the Goodwrench 400 the day before.

As fans swarmed to the speedway for the test, some spectators awaiting the action in the infield at Turn 1 began chanting, “We want a race! We want a race!” Never mind that some former Indianapolis 500 champions were opposed to the NASCAR intrusion onto what they considered hallowed ground.

Dale Earnhardt was very quick that day. And he was fast when time trials were held for the inaugural Brickyard 400 on Aug. 4, 1994. Like all the other drivers, he wanted badly to win the pole position for Indy’s first stock car race.

That honor, in what widely was regarded as a whopper of an upset, went to Rick Mast, who clocked 172.414 mph in a Chevrolet fielded by Richard Jackson.

Earnhardt qualified second at 171.726.

During a rollicking interview after his pole run, the witty Mast was asked repeatedly to tell stories about his prize-winning cow.

As a teen in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Mast had traded the animal for his first race car.

His anecdotes were hilarious, and the reports that were published in papers across the country the next day won Mast a legion of new fans.

He and Jackson were awarded a lot more shortly after the press conference. Among the prizes for the pole-winning team was a new van for the car owner. Jackson and Mast crammed as many crew members as possible into the van and took them for a ride around the speedway, the most famous in the world.

Amused fans cheered in appreciation.

Finally, the 400 field got the green flag.

Earnhardt wanted to lead the first lap, but he tried too hard. Exiting the fourth turn the back of his car slipped and hit the wall. The damage took Earnhardt out of contention for the victory, but he finished fifth.

Mast led the first lap.

As the race rolled on, Geoff Bodine appeared to be the driver to beat.

He was getting far better tire wear than his rivals and was poised to make one less pit stop, a pivotal factor.

Then he and his younger brother, Brett, took turns spinning each other out of the lead. Geoff struck first. A bit later, on the 101st of 160 laps on the 2.5-mile speedway, Brett retaliated.

Geoff’s car was so badly damaged that he was knocked out of the race.

Back in Gasoline Alley, Geoff traced the trouble to “family personal problems.” Brett, who was to finish as the runner-up, fervently denied that.

With Geoff Bodine eliminated, Jeff Gordon and Ernie Irvan staged a thrilling duel for the triumph. They swapped the lead five times between laps 136 and 156.

It seemed they might sweep across the strip of bricks abreast at the finish.

However, a flat right-front tire on the 156th lap forced Irvan to pit. This left Gordon with a 10-lengths lead over Brett Bodine, and Gordon maintained the edge to the finish to the roars of a crowd estimated at 300,000, the largest in NASCAR history.

It was a storybook outcome.

Gordon had grown up in nearby Pittsboro, Ind., and he’d celebrated his 23rd birthday just 48 hours earlier.

Some members of the media panned the 400. The NASCAR competitors disagreed.

“I think the people saw a hell of a show,” said four-time Indy 500 winner A.J. Foyt. “I think the crowd went home well-satisfied.”

I echoed Foyt’s sentiments then and still do.

The fact that the 400 remains a highlight date on the Cup schedule demonstrates the race’s importance.

For NASCAR teams and fans, the aura of The Brickyard remains aglow.