By The Commish

On August 6, 1994, NASCAR stock cars raced on the fabled Brickyard in Indianapolis for the first time, to the horror of open-wheel purists and the nervous anticipation of the stock car world. For Jeff Gordon fans-- and there were starting to be quite a few of them-— it was the Breakthrough. A sign in the turn 1 stands read "NASCAR — Welcome to Foyt's House." By the end of the day, a new owner would move in.

At this time, NASCAR was still considered to be a Southeastern sport. Most of the auto racing on U.S. television focused on the Indy cars. The first Brickyard 400 was NASCAR's real introduction to mass-market media, and the telecast was designed to connect open-wheel fans with the most familiar NASCAR names and faces. When Paul Page signed on the air for ABC's two-hour pre-race show, Gordon was a footnote to the telecast. The TV networks instead asked a dozen open wheel drivers to give their NASCAR counterparts advice. The answers were mostly tongue-in-cheek or ironic: "Only turn right when you're going back to the garage." When drivers like Dale Earnhardt or Geoff Bodine were interviewed, or past champions like Benny Parsons or Richard Petty, the viewpoint was consistent. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think stock cars would race here," said Parsons.

Veteran journeyman Rick Mast, who Jack Arute solemnly told us had sold a prize cow to buy his first race car, took the pole with Earnhardt on the outside. Most of the coverage focused on whether Earnhardt would win the race. Mentioned in passing was that Gordon had taken the third starting position on his 23rd birthday, and the broadcast featured a short film clip on Gordon as a child prodigy coming up from go-carts and his dreams of winning Indy in an open wheel car (notable today mostly for the clips of Gordon at the Buck Baker school). When ABC finally interviewed him, Gordon was almost speechless, telling viewers that he couldn't put into words what the occasion felt like to him. "It would mean more to me than anything in this whole world," he gushed.

Finally, the broadcast started; "You are about to watch the making of history," Paul Page intoned as ABC shifted to Bob Jenkins and Parsons in the booth. An elderly Mary Fendrick Hulman gave the command to start engines from her wheelchair, and finally the race began as 300,000 plus fans roared. Earnhardt did his best to lead the first lap, but bounced off Mast and then the turn 3 wall, knocking the toe out of his car and dropping him off the lead lap. The fans roared as Gordon took the lead on lap 3, but the announcers still focused on Earnhardt's chances of recovering for the victory. Even after Jerry Punch, the only NASCAR veteran among the pit reporters, recounted Ray Evernham's advice to Gordon not to "pull away and show everything you got yet," the announcers didn't seem to believe that Gordon could win the race. Instead, they looked for recognizable favorites like Bodine or Rusty Wallace and discussed them. By lap 20, Bill Elliott and Brett Bodine had moved into the top 5, and the commentators focused gratefully on these known drivers for the next 50 laps.

Gordon was running an extremely strong race, even after a slow first pit stop and a mild bump from Bodine as he slowed to pit the second time. He never fell lower than fifth position, and when the announcers did mention him, it was always as the "23 year-old hometown favorite who had recently won his first race." The field quickly strung out with just 20 cars on the lead lap by the halfway mark. Bodine was having to spray his feet with non-stick spray because his shoes were sticking to the pedals, while Earnhardt slowly climbed back into the top 20. Gordon, meanwhile, was cruising. Car owner Rick Hendrick was heard teasing him over the radio, "Are you showing off for the hometown fans?" Gordon's response was simply "10-4."

Late in the third fuel run, Gordon was running second behind Bodine, when a crash between Dave Marcis and Mike Chase brought out the yellow flag. One of the most emotional camera shots of the race came during this stop, when the ABC staff found a banner in the stands that read "Alan, Davey, Neil — Wish You Were Here." As if inspired, Bodine, who had purchased Kulwicki's team, chased his brother Brett out of the pits, while Gordon followed a close third on the lap 100 restart. And that's when the soap opera that is NASCAR was revealed to the ABC viewers. As the field came up to speed, Geoffrey Bodine nudged his brother's bumper going into turn 3 to take the lead. Brett Bodine recovered quickly, and in turn 4, returned the favor, spinning his brother out and causing havoc on the track. Gordon managed to dart by on the inside. A number of other cars, including Dale Jarrett and Earnhardt, were damaged as the field scattered. More than half the cars came down pit road at full speed, sending the unhelmeted pit crews and officials diving for cover. From Jarrett's roof camera it seemed clear that both bumps were intentional, proving Bob Jenkins' quip that "There's not much brotherly love" going on. Geoffrey Bodine, interviewed in the garage by his ruined car, poured oil on the flames by telling viewers, "We've had some family problems and personal problems, but I never thought he'd do that to me. I'm more disappointed about my brother than about the car."

The announcers seemed taken aback, not sure how to respond to the embarrassing situation. The fans, however, loved it. This was real drama, the sort of thing that made NASCAR more interesting to watch than Indy cars. After the restart on lap 105, Gordon easily passed Brett Bodine in the short chute to resume the lead. ABC managed to find Brett's wife Diane in the pits to give her husband’s point of view. Talking about what Punch called "a classic case of brotherly shove," Diane denied her husband hit his brother deliberately or that there was bad blood between them. "He feels terrible," she said. And the TV viewers ate it up.

As the race moved into its later stages, the drama shifted back to the track. The announcers began to mention Gordon more, talking to Ray Evernham and speculating what kind of emotion Gordon might show if he won. They were watching Rusty Wallace, who with Ernie Irvan had moved up into the top five and was gaining positions by lightning-fast pit work. And with growing hope, the announcers focused on Earnhardt's determined march back up to the top 10. The final pit stops took place with about 25 laps to go. Wallace again beat Gordon out, but, as Jerry Punch reported, Gordon told his crew, "That's OK, we'll get it on the track."

The restart featured some of the best three-wide racing of the day as Wallace, Gordon, and Irvan duked it out for position and graphically demonstrated the differences between stock car and open-wheel racing. In the space of a lap, Wallace blocked Gordon going into turn 1, Gordon passed Wallace going into turn 3, Wallace pulled a slide move under Gordon, making contact with the driver's side of Gordon’s car, and finally led coming out of turn 4. Gordon, knocked up the track by the contact, let Irvan down inside him, then powered by Wallace on the outside followed by Irvan. Wallace was loosened up by the cars outside and fell back to sixth place. The race boiled down to the young gun vs. the veteran.

Gordon led Irvan until 19 laps to go, when Irvan loosened Gordon up enough to pass him. Gordon duplicated the move two laps later, taking the lead back as an audible crowd roar shook the speedway. Earnhardt meanwhile had moved up to sixth place, raising hopes that he would affect the finish. Gordon and Irvan continued their duel, with Irvan finally passing Gordon on the inside with 11 laps to go. On lap 260, Punch reported that Gordon's pit had told him to wait to make the pass on Irvan until given the word, and Gordon closed in on Irvan's spoiler like they were at a plate track, forcing Irvan to struggle with his car's handling and wear his tires with his aggressive blocking.

Then, with five laps to go and Gordon on Irvan's bumper, the unthinkable happened. Irvan wiggled and swung wide. Gordon, alert to the opportunity, dove to the lead. Irvan fell back with a deflating right front tire. When the camera showed it on pit road, it was worn past the cords from the battle. Though Brett Bodine closed to second, and Elliott, Wallace, and Earnhardt finished in the top five, the cameras finally focused on the young man who had adopted Indiana as his home state. Bob Jenkins told viewers, "This is a Cinderella story unfolding here" while the Rainbow Warriors were shown alternately praying and cheeing on pit road. As the crowds stood and screamed, Jeff Gordon took the first checkered flag for NASCAR at Indianapolis.

Gordon had learned a lot since his win at Charlotte a few months before. This time he took an additional cool-down lap to control his emotions. Gordon had finally achieved his dream of winning at Indy, but in a stock car—- a feat he has since repeated three more times. And from that day, NASCAR at the Brickyard has never looked back. With crowds routinely as large as or larger than those for the Indy 500, an increased national audience hungry for the human drama of stock car racing, and a dominant driver who calls Indiana his adopted home. Foyt’s House has become Gordon’s house. Those purists were right—- since the first Brickyard 400 in 1994, Indy has never been the same.

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