Brickyard 400 Set to Make History : Motor racing: Record books await winning driver in today’s NASCAR race.

Most serious motor racing fans know that Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 and that Lee Petty won the first Daytona 500.

But how many know who won the second 500 at each track?

The Brickyard 400 will take place today at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and Dale Earnhardt believes the winning driver will take his place alongside Harroun and Petty as landmark names.

Earnhardt has won 62 Winston Cup races and six championships and has gone from working out of his family’s backyard garage in Kannapolis, N.C., to head a multimillion dollar conglomerate, but he badly wants to win NASCAR’s first foray into Indy car territory. Today’s 400-mile race is the first for any type of machinery except Indy cars on the Speedway oval.

“I’m proud to come in here as the defending champion for NASCAR and Winston,” Earnhardt said after practicing Friday in his Richard Childress-prepared Chevrolet Lumina. “The Indy mystique is everywhere.

“Every place we go, it’s what people want to talk about. We had an open house back home (in Welcome, N.C.) at Childress’ shop this past weekend, and close to 30,000 people came through and everybody had something to say about Indy. It was the same last Wednesday night in Pittsburgh. That’s not NASCAR country, but about 5,000 people showed up for an autograph session and it was no different from North Carolina. They were talking Indy, too.

“Now it’s time to go out and make a little history of our own by winning the race for the first time. That’s what we’re here for and I can’t wait.”

Earnhardt will start on the front row, alongside surprise pole-sitter Rick Mast, a journeyman driver from Virginia who has never won a Winston Cup race in 141 starts. Mast qualified his Ford Thunderbird Thursday at 172.414 m.p.h., which earned him a $55,000 bonus.

Jeff Gordon, who celebrated his 23rd birthday Thursday by qualifying third-fastest at 171.125 m.p.h., collected a $5,000 bonus as the youngest starter in the race, but he wants more.

“I’ve never been so nervous and so happy at the same time,” said the young driver who moved from Vallejo, Calif., to Pittsboro, Ind. when he was 15 because California laws prohibited him from racing. “I don’t know about this place. Even though it pays the same points as the other races, there isn’t anybody who can’t say that this place is a little more special.”

Actually, Mark Martin, who is third in points behind Ernie Irvan and Earnhardt, said he doesn’t consider it special.

“We’re preparing for this one just like we do for every other event,” Martin said. “We want to win North Wilkesboro and Martinsville just as bad as we do the Brickyard 400.”

Irvan, the series points leader from Salinas, Calif., had a disappointing qualifying speed of 169.453 m.p.h. and will start his Ford from the ninth row in the two-by-two lineup. Next to Irvan will be Geoff Brabham, driving in the first stock car race of his career, after a distinguished Indy car and sports car career.

A.J. Foyt, four-time Indy 500 winner, ended his 15-month retirement, squeezing into the 40th and final spot for the Brickyard with a 168.596-m.p.h. lap Friday. He edged Joe Ruttman by three one-thousandths of a second.

“I was nervous as hell,” Foyt said. “I was just trying to get it close and not screw up.”

It will be the 59-year-old Foyt’s 36th start here after driving in 35 consecutive Indy car races from 1958 through ’92. He will receive $5,000 as the oldest qualifier.

Three were given provisional starting berths, including Mike Chase of Bakersfield, the only Winston West driver in the field.

Among those who missed qualifying were Hershel McGriff, 66, who could coax only 162.449 m.p.h. from his Ford. Ben Hess of Wadsworth, Ohio, and Robert Sprague of North Bend, Ore., both suffered concussions in separate single-car accidents Friday and were taken to the intensive care unit of Methodist Hospital for observation.

And, oh yes, Joe Dawson won the second Indy 500 and Junior Johnson the second Daytona 500.