Cup drivers get back to work

Refreshed after a rare week off, NASCAR’s Nextel Cup Series gets back to racing Sunday with one of its most prestigious events -- the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

The race is only 14 years old, but it’s already ranked by many NASCAR drivers as their second-most important race behind the season-opening Daytona 500.

That’s because the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway has a vaunted, historic feel for many stock-car racing drivers who grew up watching the Indianapolis 500 open-wheel race, including several who are Indiana natives.

With 200,000 spectators expected to circle the 2.5-mile oval, the race combines the tradition and prestige of the 98-year-old speedway with NASCAR’s popularity to effectively create a festive motor sports hybrid.

“I love and appreciate the history and the size of the place, physically and symbolically,” said Dale Earnhardt Jr., whose best finish in the race, sixth, came last year.

His late father, seven-time series champion Dale Earnhardt, won here in 1995.

“I know it meant a lot to my dad to win the Brickyard, and I’d like to do the same,” he said.

Qualifying is Saturday for the 43 starting positions.

This year’s race also could include more announcements about team changes.

Already this week, Dale Earnhardt Inc. said it merged with Ginn Racing, with Earnhardt planning to keep driving his No. 8 Chevrolet for the newly merged team until he leaves for Hendrick Motorsports next year.

Robert Yates Racing also has scheduled a news conference for today to “unveil future plans,” and there’s speculation that driver Kyle Busch -- who is leaving Hendrick next year to make room for Earnhardt -- might announce which team he’ll join in 2008.

The Brickyard 400’s placement on the schedule gives the race even more heft, because there are only seven races left to decide which 12 NASCAR drivers qualify for the 10-race Chase for the Cup playoff that determines the series champion.

The final races leading to the Chase include a night race at California Speedway in Fontana on Sept. 2.

“It’s a big momentum builder in the middle of the summer when things are really getting going for the Chase,” said four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon, the current points leader again this year and the only four-time winner of the Brickyard 400.

Gordon, who drives for Hendrick, also considers Indiana his adopted state, because his family moved from his native Vallejo, Calif., to Pittsboro, Ind., when he was a youngster.

Indy also is hallowed ground for two-time Cup champion Tony Stewart, who won the most recent race July 15 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and is now sixth in points for Joe Gibbs Racing.

A native of Columbus, Ind., Stewart once drove Indy cars and competed in the Indy 500 five times. After switching to NASCAR, he fulfilled his dream of winning here by capturing the Brickyard 400 in 2005.

Another former open-wheel racer, Juan Pablo Montoya, could make history this year.

The Colombian won the Indy 500 in his first attempt in 2000 for owner Chip Ganassi and now, after migrating to Ganassi’s NASCAR team this season, will try to win the Brickyard 400 on his first try as well.

No driver has ever won both the Indy 500 and the Brickyard 400.

No driver from Roush Fenway Racing, one of NASCAR’s prominent teams, has ever won the Brickyard 400 either.

But the team’s Matt Kenseth, the 2003 series champion, has a strong record here, including four top-five finishes in seven starts.

But even if Indianapolis Motor Speedway is special to Stewart, his crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, refuses to get caught up in the venue’s prestige.

“It’s just another racetrack,” he said. “It pays the same amount of points. We’re not going to work any harder, we’re not going to work any less.”

james.peltz@latimes.com