Did the Brickyard Win People Back?

INDIANAPOLIS -- For all the talk of problematic tires and empty seats, the rubber held up and an estimated crowd of 180,000 showed up Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for NASCAR's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

Although a dominating performance by Juan Pablo Montoya made the race look like it might be a runaway, the former Indy 500 champ made a pit road mistake that allowed the dependable Hendrick Motorsports team to pounce with what turned into an exciting late-laps battle between 50-year-old pole-sitter Mark Martin and gracious but gritty Jimmie Johnson.

There will be those that criticize "the racing" even after watching the most underrated three-time champ masterfully hold off the series' winningest driver in Martin, a huge sentimental favorite.

But a good race doesn't always have to be filled with door-banging, crash-filled, side-by-side racing (although that's always a good thing). It's about a compelling storyline and a close finish.

The Brickyard had both of those.

Although I haven't missed an Indianapolis 500 since 1991, it's been almost 10 years since I last covered NASCAR's visit to the world's most famous track. The massive press room was noticeably empty -- no staffers from the Los Angeles Times, either Detroit paper, or even nearby Chicago or Cleveland.

My colleagues assured me that there was a noticeable drop in attendance from last year and there were the obvious signs -- lots of empty seats in the prime front-stretch grandstands and more tellingly, no traffic Sunday morning.

Everyone was prepared for this in the days leading up to the race. The troubled economy shared the blame with the uncertainty of tire performance, even as the competitors themselves assured, promised and swore the tires wouldn't be the same problem as they were last summer when teams had to pit every 10-15 laps for fresh tires.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway's outgoing President Joie Chitwood said the single greatest day of ticket sales didn't come until a few weeks ago when when four-time cup champion, and four-time Brickyard winner, Jeff Gordon declared during a June tire test that Goodyear had solved the tire problem and guaranteed fans the tires would not be an issue in the race.

This event is not the Indianapolis 500 -- nor has it ever aspired to be -- and the stock cars aren't exactly suited for the tight, flat track.

There have been whispers that maybe NASCAR shouldn't be at The Speedway anymore; that its welcome has worn off, its luster gone.

Now the debate becomes who needs who more. Does NASCAR still need to be at this historic facility? Or does Indianapolis Motor Speedway need to be a part of the country's most popular motor sports series? The answers are yes and yes.

NASCAR's 1994 arrival in Indianapolis came at a time when the stock car series was beginning a massive expansion into untapped markets, including Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and Kansas City. It was the beginning of the popularity peak that took NASCAR into the national consciousness, to a billion-dollar television deal and beyond the perception it was merely a regional obsession.

The Speedway also needed NASCAR. Having just one race -- even if it was the Indianapolis 500 -- didn't make economic sense. And in the mid 1990s when the Indy 500 suffered through the open-wheel split, NASCAR's contribution to IMS became more significant.

"I think it's developed into a very nice balance,'' said Indianapolis Motor Speedway Vice President of Communications, Fred Nation. "The Allstate 400 has developed into one of the favorite races for drivers and teams, acknowledging the track possesses unusual challenges. But they like the tradition and prestige of winning here.

"The novelty has worn off in the sense that a generation of drivers now regard the race as another on the schedule, while the previous generation thought this was the Indianapolis 500 track and never thought they'd be able to run on it.''

As for Sunday's race, Nation thinks the event answered the doom and gloomers.

"I'm sure it maintained its place as the largest attended NASCAR race of the year,'' Nation said. "As badly as we felt after the race lat year, we feel equally better about the prospects for 2010 that this will be the turnaround. It exceeded out expectations.''

People may be talking as much about who didn't win Sunday as much as they are about who did.

At least they're talking about the race and not about tires.