Seth and Sutton Sharp

June 22, 2017

Racing legend A.J. Foyt arrived at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1991 to shoot a commercial with his Winston Cup car. After the filming was complete, Foyt and Tony George, the President and CEO of the Speedway decided to take Foyt’s car around the track for a few laps. Foyt went out on the track first and George would eventually hop in the car for a few laps as well. This unplanned moment played a huge part in building a relationship between NASCAR and the speedway in the future.

George’s interest in adding a second major event to the IMS calendar was spiked after his time spent with Foyt. Later that year, he held a meeting to discuss the possibility of adding an event to the schedule. They continued to explore the possibility of a second event, as the IROC Series hosted a test session at the track in April of 1992. Dick Trickle, Jim Sauter and Dave Marcis tested their cars at the track, with the sole intent of seeing if stock-cars could be a possibility in the future at the speedway.

Rumors spread over the next few weeks that Goodyear was planning a NASCAR tire-test at the speedway at the start of the summer. The rumors proved to be true, as the official announcement was made official: On June 22 and 23rd of 1992, NASCAR would be testing at the famed track.

NASCAR arrived at Indianapolis for the first time, one day after the Miller Genuine Draft 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The drivers on hand for the historic test session were Dale Earnhardt, Darrell Waltrip, Rusty Wallace, Bill Elliott, Davey Allison, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty, Ernie Irvan and Ricky Rudd. Richard Petty and Derrike Cope were also invited to the test session, but did not to attend.

The stars of the Winston Cup Series were faced with one small obstacle, as temperatures at the track reached a record low for the end of June. “Everybody always said it’d be a cold day in hell when we races at Indianapolis,” joked Kyle Petty.

When the cars first started rolling out onto pit-road at 11 AM, it became a vocal battle between Wallace and Earnhardt to see who would be the first NASCAR stock-car to hit the track. As cars rolled off the grid in numerical order, Wallace become the first driver to cross the finish line.

At the completion of the first day, Bill Elliott and his Junior Johnson Ford led the way with a speed of 165.001 MPH.

The second and final day at the track saw another first. Foyt, indirectly responsible for NASCAR’s arrival to Indianapolis, got behind the wheel of Earnhardt’s No. 3 Chevrolet and took some laps of his own around the speedway. At the end of the day, with Earnhardt back in the No. 3, drivers ditched single car runs and raced around the track in a pack. The Winston Cup drivers put on a show for fans with roughly 20 laps of hard racing, as Earnhardt and Allison ran through the grass while trying to pass other cars.

Once again, Elliott led the way at the top of the leaderboard, this time reaching 168.767 MPH.

The Goodyear tire test all-but proved that NASCAR and Indianapolis were on the verge of announcing something historic, but not everyone was on the same page. “I don’t think Indy cars should come to Daytona and I don’t think we should go to Indy to race,” Kyle Petty said after the test.

Waltrip was concerned about what the addition of Indy would do to the Winston Cup schedule. “You’re basically talking about kicking a member of the family out. That’s not going to go over too well.” Waltrip continued by saying “As crowded as the schedule is, Indy would be too compelling to keep out. If I can sit down with my sponsor and say ‘In 1994, not only am I going to bring you Daytona, I’m going to bring you Indy too,’ they are going to be pretty excited.”

One driver who was looking forward to the opportunity was Martin. “I never dreamed I’d race at Indy, and now it just might happen.” He continued and spoke about the comparison between Indy cars and stock-cars at the speedway. “It will probably be quite a bit more competitive and wheel-to-wheel. I don’t really think fans would be disappointed missing 60 miles per hour.”

Earnhardt might have summed the rumors up best when he said “The only reason I’ve ever tested tires is because they’re going to race somewhere. You don’t test a tire here to go run at Charlotte. I imagine we’re testing tires here to run in the future.”

The future was confirmed on April 14, 1993 when George and NASCAR president Bill France Jr. announced the Brickyard 400, a stock-car event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The Winston Cup Series race would be held on August 6, 1994.

The test turned out to be bittersweet for the No. 28 team, as it was the only time Davey Allison took laps at the track. Allison tragically passed away in July of 1993. After the test session, Allison was quick to speak highly of his experience on the track. “The thing that impressed me most is how smooth the surface is and that it’s actually quite a bit wider than it appears on TV. I had a blast.”

Before leaving the track, photographers took many pictures of the drivers, their cars and crew members on the front stretch to preserve the memory of the historic day. In a now famous picture, Allison knelt at the yard of bricks and posed for a picture alongside Earnhardt.

The Winston Cup Series returned in August of 1993 for its first official test at the track. 35 teams took part in the test.

The record-low temperatures didn’t scare any fans away. In less than two hours, every parking space at the speedway was full. The crowd was estimated at close to 30,000 people, as IMS claimed they had to turn another 35,000 fans away due to lack of parking.

Two drivers used the test to work with their new teams for 1994. Terry Labonte got behind the wheel of the No. 5 for Rick Hendrick for the first time. The car, which at the time was sponsored by Tide and driven by Rudd, arrived at Indy with its familiar orange paint scheme, but without the Tide logo. John Andretti got behind the wheel of the No. 14 for Billy Hagan, a seat vacated by Labonte.

When it came time to qualify for the inaugural event in 1994, 86 drivers attempted to make the race, with half of the drivers missing the field. Rick Mast took the honor of being the first driver to sit on the pole for the event, putting down a lap of 172.41 MPH. The action packed race kept the record crowd of close to 350,000 on their feet for most of the afternoon.

Irvan led the race late before cutting a tire and giving up the lead. Jeff Gordon, with one win under his belt, took advantage of Irvan’s misfortune and took the checkered flag, putting the official stamp of approval on NASCAR’s relationship with Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

(Quotes obtained from New York Times, Indianapolis Star, Racing Reference and carsandracingstuff.com)