Around the Track: Indy

The Brickyard 400 burst onto the NASCAR scene in 1994 as the sport's most lucrative race, which instantly projected it into "must win" status.

In his latest edition of Cingular's "Around the Track," Jeff Burton talks about Nextel Cup's 12th annual visit to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, for Sunday's Allstate 400 at The Brickyard.

Indy's unique oval with four distinct corners connected by short "chutes" and long front and back straights has new pavement that only compliments the 2.5-mile track's already-smooth surface.

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Jeff Burton: I'm a huge race fan and to have the opportunity to go to Indianapolis 10 years ago and see the racetrack -- much less drive on it -- I thought was really cool.

The place is so unique from anything else. It's unique in every way: Unique in its history, unique in its shape. Indy just has a special feeling about it.

It's almost like traveling to a foreign country and everything is so different; that's almost what going to Indy is like.

Indianapolis itself is a nice town, pretty normal -- but the minute you roll through that tunnel (into the racetrack) it's like going somewhere different.

Everything they do there is different, from the amount of people they have working at the racetrack to the processes and procedures they have. Everything is different.

It's like going to another country.

I think we've changed more to adapt to them than they've changed to adapt to us, over the years. They have a way of doing things and are very consistent in the way they do things.

I remember the first time we went there, in the drivers' meeting the week before we went to Indy, NASCAR said, "this is a totally different deal and you need to be patient. It's different than what we do every other week, but be patient and over time it will become normal."

It has gotten normal for us. We changed for them. And that's OK -- there's nothing wrong with that.

The history and heritage that they have at Indianapolis should stand. They should operate it the way they have always operated it because they've been successful doing so.

It's perhaps the most famous speedway in the world and we need to respect that.

The interesting thing about qualifying and racing there is it's pretty much the same groove. You have more grip in qualifying so you're in the throttle much more.

You are never all the way out of the throttle in Turns 2 and 4. Certainly, in Turns 1 and 3 you are -- but you're back in the throttle very quickly. Indy is a very fast racetrack but it's a fun racetrack.

The thing that is most important about qualifying at Indy is going early. The way the qualifying order is, we start in the morning and the hotter the track gets the slicker it gets, so going early is very important.

Inside the Numbers Jeff Burton at Indianapolis Year Start Finish 2004 19 12 2003 37 27 2002 23 29 2001 22 16 2000 33 6 1999 16 5 1998 34 36 1997 33 15 1996 28 11 1995 18 38 1994 38 19 Averages 27.4 19.5

On race day, there is that feeling of what some people call the "tunnel effect" when all of the grandstands get full on the front straightaway.

With all of those people, it is quite a feeling and very different than what we normally experience. We are very aware of the fans because they are on both sides of the track.

Then, on the back straightaway there's nobody there. It's totally different from front to back.

The first few times we went there, it really did almost feel like you were in a funnel, but today we've just gotten used to it. So now it's no big deal.

Once the race starts, momentum is everything at Indy. It's all about carrying speed through the middle of the corner so that you can be fast off the corner.

Indy's corners are different than any other corner we have in racing really, as far as the way we race. They're shorter and there's less corner.

The track is perfectly smooth and you need to have really good grip to take advantage of that smoothness. If you are a little bit slow in the middle of the corner, it just carries that speed onto the exit of the corner.

So, it's very important to handle in all parts of the corners at Indy. You can't just handle well getting in or getting off -- it has to be good in all parts of the corners.

Indy is one of those places where you really get an aero push, big-time.

It's also one of those places, based on the shape of the track and the lack of banking, where you can really mess people up by getting right behind them to make them really loose.

So, you have to have a car that turns well and is stable so that when people do get near you, they don't mess you up.

The key is turning well. If you turn well there and the car responds to the front wheels, then you'll run very well.

At Indy, there are four opportunities a lap to pass people. We actually saw some passing on the outside last year, which was the first year we'd really seen that.

There are several different ways to pass. Off of Turn 1 and Turn 3, it's all about putting yourself in position so you can turn under them getting off the corner, then you'll make that pass because they don't want to run in there on the outside of you as you approach Turns 2 and 4.

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If you're going to try to pass in Turns 2 or 4 -- they're not really the best places to pass because when you do make a pass there and the guy holds you up, you lose a lot of momentum.

What you'll see is guys come from four or five car lengths back on those long straightaways and pass a guy that had just completed a pass in front of them and just lost so much momentum.

So in my opinion, the best two places to pass are Turns 1 and 3.

The pit entrance is good at Indy. It's not a real wide pit road, but it's a very long pit road, so the pit boxes are long and spacious, from a length standpoint.

They don't have a tremendous amount of width, because pit road is not real wide, but getting onto pit road is good there.

We have a really nice access road that is as smooth as the racetrack is and getting off of pit road is good.

It's one of the nicer pit roads, as far as the length of the pit boxes, though you can get into trouble there if there are a couple people leaving the pits at the same time.

There's not enough room for two people leaving at the same time with a car still on pit road in its pit box. So there is some give and take that's required, leaving the pits.

One thing that happens at Indy, because the racetrack is so big, is that we don't have a lot of lapped cars there. So there are always a lot of cars on pit road at the same time.

And one thing that happens at Indy a lot is that you're leaving and another guy is just coming in -- because we do have so many people on pit road at the same time.

So that's a factor -- but even though the pit road is somewhat narrow, getting the left side tires too close to the inside pit wall isn't any more of an issue there than it is everywhere else.

It is an issue, but it's not unique to Indy.

When you get down to about 40 laps to go, planning your end strategy at Indy is really circumstantial, like it is everywhere.

We've seen many cases there where being out front is the place to be, and clean air is hugely important.

I don't know why it's as big there as it is, but it's very big there. You want the lead and you want the guy behind you to have to go around you to get it -- and track position is the key.

It all boils down to how fast you can run in the corners. Even though the straightaways are long, there is so much corner there that if you don't handle well, there's a lot of speed (lost).

And there's a lot of speed (gained) in being able to handle just a little bit better than you are already, so it's all about where you are in position to the other cars and how good your car drives.

Much like we've seen a lot of this season, there is a considerable amount of fall-off in the tires.

I don't think you'll see two-tire stops at Indy and I don't think you'll see fuel only stops unless you get a special circumstance.

But you're going to want tires every chance you get.

Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cingular Chevrolet, will take fans Around the Track each race week during the 2005 Nextel Cup season.