NASCAR is Indy bound this weekend!

There’s no other way to put it. Champions do well on the historic 101-year old race track.

photo credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR

A former, reigning or future champion has gone on to win fourteen races in NASCAR’s sixteen year history there. The winner of this race has gone on to win the championship during the same year eight times thus far.

1998 – Jeff Gordon	2005 – Tony Stewart
1999 – Dale Jarrett	2006 – Jimmie Johnson
2000 – Bobby Labonte	2008 – Jimmie Johnson
2001 – Jeff Gordon	2009 – Jimmie Johnson

Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner. He is the winner of the past two Brickyard races and three of the last four races there.

“I think any kid that races thinks of the Indianapolis 500 as an event they want to compete in, especially from the generation that I was in,” Johnson has been quoted as saying. “It may be a little different in today’s world where people think more of the Daytona 500. But in my generation it was the Indy 500. To have my career path lead me toward stock car racing I knew that I wouldn’t have a chance to race in the Indy 500. But with stock cars racing at the Brickyard it’s the next best thing.”

Between Johnson and Tony Stewart, they have the past five races at the Brickyard.

“It’s my home race, obviously,” Stewart said. “Growing up in Indiana and every year watching the Indy 500 and the whole month of May leading up to it, a race at the Brickyard is more than just a regular points race. It’s always been a big race to all of the Cup drivers, but then when you grow up in Indiana, it just makes it that much more important.”

Regardless of whether the race this Sunday is at the legendary Brickyard, it’s back to thinking of the points-picture after an off-week. This Sunday’s race marks the fourth one in “The Race to the Chase”, the 10-race stretch before “The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup” championship begins.

“What do we have to do to win more races before the Chase starts,” points leader Kevin Harvick explained as his team’s mindset. Harvick leads the standings by 103 points over 2nd place driver, Jeff Gordon. Harvick has a win at Indy under his belt coming in 2003. Actually, Harvick along with Ricky Rudd, the 1997 Brickyard winner, are the only two winners who’ve won a race at the Brickyard and have yet to win a championship.

“When I think about Indy, I think about a lot of tradition,” Harvick said. “Indy is one of those places where everybody wants to win.  Next to Daytona, it is kind of the second place where you check it off as one you want to win.  We’ve been fortunate to win there, and we know what that feels like.  I grew up as a fan of Indy cars, and I really wanted to race open wheel cars, so to be able to win there and just to compete there, is pretty cool.”

Jeff Gordon leads all drivers with four wins at the Brickyard. It places him second on the all-time win list at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears. Formula One driver Michael Schumacher is tops on the list with five wins.

“The Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 — guys like Rick Mears and A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, Al Unser — all those guys were heroes of mine that I aspired to be,” Gordon said. “Living in Indiana, racing around Indiana, Indianapolis Raceway Park, the fairgrounds, Bloomington, all over the place, it was every short-track, open-wheel, Sprint Cup driver’s dream to race at Indianapolis one day. To be able to do that in the very first ever NASCAR stock-car race there in 1994, win it, then go on to win it three more times is something that I probably put up as the highest accomplishments of my career.”

Chip Ganassi could make history on Sunday as the only car owner to win the Daytona 500, Indianapolis 500 and Brickyard 400 all in the same year. His drivers, Jamie McMurray and Dario Franchitti, won the Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500, respectively.

“So many times you have drivers who are good at a particular type of track,” Ganassi said. “Fortunately, our guys are good at the tracks that have the big races. Believe me, that’s a big help, and it’s no small thing.”

Jamie McMurray has posted one top-five and three top-10 finishes at the track in his seven starts there, but it’s Juan Pablo Montoya that came close to winning last year after leading 116 of 160 laps. Montoya was penalized for speeding on pit road with thirty-five laps remaining and could only notch an 11th place finish. He’s also a former Indianapolis 500 winner (2000).

TV coverage of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway begins at Noon on Sunday on ESPN.

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The Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide Series will also be in action from the Indianapolis area. Both races will take place about 20 minutes down the road and under the lights at the O’ Reilly Raceway Park, or ORP for short.

Ron Hornaday Jr is the defending race winner in the truck series. He leads the series with three wins there. He went on a tear last summer around the time of this win and won five consecutive truck races.

“It was really strange,” Hornaday said. “I knew when we won that race that we had done something incredible but the impact of it did not sink in really with any of the No. 33 team members until later. I think we were all riding the victory high. Then it ended after Nashville, but we went on to win the championship so we were content with that. Looking back on it this season I can’t believe we were ever in that position to begin with. The competition is so tough and it is any driver’s race week-in and week-out. (Mike) Skinner probably should have won that race last year but we pulled it out somehow. I just continue to be reminded how lucky I am to be with such a competitive team.”

It might be hard to believe Hornaday is on a 22-race losing streak for just the second time in his career.

Todd Bodine leads the standings now by 101 points. It might be hard to believe that he has never won at the famed short track.

“O’Reilly Raceway Park is a flat track that’s real easy to overdrive,” Bodine said. “The goal of practice is to be sure the Germain.com Tundra can turn good through the center of the corners and keep from getting loose off the corners. The goal for the driver in the race is to practice something no race car driver ever wants to practice, patience.”

TV coverage of the AAA Insurance 200 presented by J.D. Byrider at O’ Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis begins at 8 this Friday night on SPEED.

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Kyle Busch is one of six drivers planning to pull double duty at ORP. He has won a series leading seven Nationwide Series wins already this season even though he’s only running a partial schedule in the series. It’s bad news for the rest of the field this Saturday night, but he’ll be there to race.

“Obviously, ORP has been a great place for me,” said Busch. “I started my first ever NASCAR race there back in 2001 when I was just 16. I won there in a Hendrick car when I was a Nationwide Series rookie, when our crew chief made a great call to pit off sequence. In 2008, I think we led all but three laps and won in the Z-Line Designs Camry for Joe Gibbs Racing. It’s a fun track and I think we’ll be pretty strong there and I’d obviously like to get my Truck Series win at ORP. We’ve run well there in the past and hopefully we can put the Toyota Tundra in victory lane and get some owner points.”

While Busch is a threat to win, it continues to be the Brad Keselowski vs. Carl Edwards show for the championship. Keselowski continues to lead the standings, while Edwards continues to be his closest competitor. This week, NASCAR penalized the two drivers for rough racing in last Saturday’s race which saw Edwards in victory lane while Keselowski wrecked after leading the most laps. This week, Keselowski leads the standings by 168 points after Edwards was also penalized 60 championship driver points.

“We’ve been strong on the short tracks this season,” Keselowski said. “I think ORP is a great place for us to regain some of the momentum we have lost over the last couple of races. We had a pretty big lead in the points heading into Chicago and we’ve seen that dwindle a bit. When you have two weeks like we’ve had it makes you thankful that you had a big lead. It would be different if we weren’t competitive over the last few weeks, but that’s not the case. Paul Wolfe and all the guys continue to give me fast Discount Tire Dodges. We’re definitely not in a slump, but we need to get back on track.”

By the way, Edwards is the defending race winner.

“To be coming back there Saturday night as the defending race winner means a lot to me,” he said. “Hopefully we can have a good run at what I think is one of the greatest race tracks in the country.”

TV coverage of the Kroger 200 benefiting Riley Hospital for Children at O’ Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis begins Saturday night at 7:30 on ESPN.