Racing's winning combo: Indy's heritage, NASCAR's popularity.(The Orlando Sentinel)

Byline: Ed Hinton

INDIANAPOLIS _ The most sudden success story in the history of auto racing _ the marriage of America's most popular motor sport to the world's most hallowed track _ isn't new anymore.

The Brickyard 400 will be run for the 10th time Sunday. Some call it the race that transformed NASCAR. Others say it's just a part _ although a big one _ of NASCAR's broader transformation from regional to national, from cult sport to mainstream.

"The Brickyard is what did it for them," A.J. Foyt said of NASCAR's boom in popularity, which began with the first tradition-shattering stock car race at storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994. "The corporate sponsors said, `If you're big enough to run at Indy, we're in.'"

Team owner Jack Roush disagrees.

"I don't want to be contrary to A.J., but I don't mind saying no," Roush said. "The thing that happened is that NASCAR, over the last 10 years, has been hell-bent to make Winston Cup racing not a southeastern United States sport, but a worldwide sport. To go to the Brickyard was a part of that strategy, and a piece of a puzzle that was complex."

But the timeline is, at least, remarkably coincidental. Not until the autumn after that first Brickyard 400 did the catch phrase, "America's fastest-growing sport" become wildfire in NASCAR.