Indianapolis a tell-tale moment on a lot of fronts

The 2009 season is different than any other that's preceded it, at least in recent history, as it heads to its 16th annual race at Indianapolis.

Competition, and everyone's relative positions in the standings, is something that's a standard every season. Only the names and the numbers -- not only the numbers of the race vehicles, but the numbers of drivers in contention -- change from year to year.

Of course, this year is perhaps the best Race to the Chase, both in terms of numbers of drivers involved as well as the caliber of personalities, and it's fantastic.

Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon -- Brickyard champions all -- have been at the forefront of the series all year and what better place than this would there be to start their stretch run to the Chase?

And there couldn't be a better place than Indy, if you're Kasey Kahne or Juan Montoya -- or for that matter, Kyle Busch -- to seriously inject yourself into the locked-in top 12 drivers for the Chase.

None of them are safe going into this weekend.

But the Brickyard is a tough place to get hold of, so for Matt Kenseth, Mark Martin, Greg Biffle and David Reutimann, who've certainly had some divergent results over the years at Indianapolis, there are quite a few icebergs on the horizon.

But this year there's so much more percolating in NASCAR, from legal wrangling to sagging television ratings and attendance figures to the looming specter of doubt over the debacle that was the 2008 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard. (Continued)