USAC drivers continue to make impact in NASCAR (cont'd)

As important as those traits are, they are an incomplete list of what it takes to succeed in NASCAR. And certainly, USAC is not alone in its ability to produce NASCAR's next big star. But there is a certain complementary element to USAC racing that makes NASCAR team owners sit up and take notice.

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NASCAR has a long history of USAC drivers competing and succeeding at its highest levels. Past USAC champions A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and Johnny Rutherford have all won NASCAR events. But their forays into NASCAR were all too fleeting.

NASCAR as a career destination for USAC drivers is something of a new development. Traditionally, USAC Sprint or Silver Crown drivers would look to USAC Champ Car or CART and a shot at victory at the Indianapolis 500 as their crowning career achievement.

But with American open-wheel racing's top tier fractured as it is between the IRL and the Champ Car World Series, the path above and beyond USAC now has many of its stars looking to NASCAR. And why not? NASCAR's star is still on the rise and aspiring drivers don't need to bankroll their own rides as so many do in IRL and Champ Car.

Stewart points to another reason. "Jeff Gordon was probably the biggest influence. He had a lot of success in USAC -- won a lot of races. He wasn't just handed an opportunity in NASCAR. He earned his way down there. When he got the opportunity to go to NASCAR, he opened up a lot of opportunities for drivers like myself.

"When Jeff had his success down South, it boosted everybody's spirits and helped show everyone in USAC that it was a reality and that if they had the same kind of results that Jeff had on the track, then it could happen to them too," Stewart said.

For that matter, Stewart's successes in NASCAR have done nothing to dampen spirits of aspiring dirt oval racers, either. Between Stewart and Gordon, their six career victories at the Brickyard may just be enough to make dreams of winning the 400-mile race there as lofty as winning that track's 500-mile race.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.