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.

What kind of race will this year's Brickyard 400 be? As with any other event, it's impossible to tell. You could make a pretty good argument, probably, that there have been very few, if any previous Indy 400 milers that were anywhere near scintillating from start to finish.

But there have certainly been a number of them that really got your attention, for one reason or another. The 2008 race boggled the imagination because no one could have ever predicted the catastrophic tire wear situation that occurred, and as with most bad occurrences in racing, if anyone could have predicted it, they would have prevented it.

I think I was among a miniscule percentage of people who felt the 2008 Brickyard was fascinating in its own perverted way because, as I said then and devoutly believe, even today, that the winner of any race is he or she who most adeptly manages the conditions and their vehicle on a given day or night.

The 2009 Brickyard is likely going to be a massive, spark-throwing collision of all the shaky things that are happening in Cup racing this season.

Despite a bunch of tire tests and unquestioned testimonials from some of the most revered and trusted names in the sport -- Gordon and Stewart -- there is still a "show me" attitude that's probably at the forefront of a lot of the public's mind.

This season has been a real obstacle course for race tracks when it comes to getting ticket buyers through the gates. Given what was a sorry spectacle in many fans' minds in 2008, it'll be real interesting to see what the live attendance is like Sunday.

The television ratings question is another thing that there's no definitive answers for. The Brickyard 400 throws another switchback into the road. Indianapolis is the first race following the handoff from TNT, whose six-race series played out to widespread fan acclaim but to consistently down ratings from a year ago, to ESPN.

The same people who loved TNT seem to dread what's coming with ESPN, but no one will know about that until after Sunday's event.

So across the board, the best thing to do is hunker down with plenty of food and drink and enjoy the show, because without question it most certainly will be one.

And a week from now, we can add all the numbers up and see where it leaves everyone.

Wins: Thru Gateway

	2008	2009
Cup Series	7	3
Nationwide	5	6
Truck Series	2	2

Kyle Busch Victory Watch

Refreshing? Heck no it wasn't refreshing to see Kevin Harvick pull a "Kyle Busch" after Harvick dominated last Saturday's Nationwide race at Gateway, only to pull a disappearing act after a fuel mileage miscalculation cost him a chance to win. It only proved Busch isn't the only one in the garage who has passion-control issues -- although it's not a bad problem to have, as badly as most people seem to adjust to it.

For his part, Busch did win, which gained him one race back on his drive to eclipse his 2008 record total of 21 wins (8 Cup, 10 Nationwide, 3 Truck).

Indy, a chance for a unique triple since it comes at two separate venues in close proximity to each other, is as tell-tale a moment for Busch as it is the other factors mentioned above. He's now at 11 down and 11 to go. His 2008 win total at this point was 14, but the positive is that last year Busch had been red-hot in Cup to this point, whereas now he needs to light up his Cup effort to ensure he'll make the Chase. Stay tuned.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.