INDIANAPOLIS -- When R.J. Reynolds was deciding the four race tracks to hold annual $1 million promotions that could make a fan rich, as well as a driver richer, the company -- which sponsors NASCAR's Winston Cup Series -- decided to go with tradition.

They went with the biggest, the longest, the fastest and oldest.

	The famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway provides a great backdrop for NASCAR's top stars.

Daytona -- the biggest in terms of importance. Lowe's Motor Speedway -- home to the longest race. Talladega Superspeedway -- home to the fastest race. Darlington Raceway -- where they've been racing the longest.

Nowhere among these stock-car racing strongholds will one hear mention of the Brickyard. And, yet, after only eight years of racing in the heart of open-wheel racing country, NASCAR's visits to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway have become some of the most important and anticipated stops on the circuit.

It's not the Daytona 500, but it has it's own appeal and a growing stock car tradition.

"It's wild to walk out on race day and see all of those people," Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. "To me, it doesn't have the same personal importance or impact like Daytona does, but I can see why it is a special place for the Indy 500."

But while some individuals, and NASCAR as a whole, have not embraced the track as one of the bastions of stock car racing, many drivers believe, once you get past comparing it to some of the sport's biggest venues, it is a huge draw.

"Indianapolis is not Daytona. Daytona is not Indianapolis. Neither one of them are Darlington. Once you accept all of that, you can go into any of those races with a clear head," said Kyle Petty, whose family has raced in NASCAR since its start. "Indianapolis is beginning to build its stock car racing tradition. That's good. That's something I think everybody in the garage wants to help them build. It is building within the garage -- I think the Brickyard 400 is one of the very biggest races of the season for everybody in terms of prestige and definitely in terms of purse."

Although the purse is a big incentive -- this year's totals almost $7.5 million -- the opportunity to race at the famed Brickyard, the drivers say, is bigger. Especially for those who grew up loving stock cars, but were still always curious about what it would be like to drive around Indy.

"Heck, we'd race there just for the trophy and maybe to kiss the yard of bricks after the race," said Johnny Benson, who grew up in Michigan. "It pays a lot but nothing would matter more than the trophy."

Midwest native Dave Blaney agrees.

"I believe they could say that the winner's share for the Brickyard 400 would be a sack of Indiana corn and every real racer would still think this is one of the most important races on their schedule to work to win," he said. "Most of the guys I'm racing around now in the Winston Cup Series grew up racing stock cars and to them, winning Daytona was everything. That was the race. And it's big for me now, too.

"But I grew up in Northeastern Ohio, where sprint cars are king, and every kid dreams of racing and winning at Indianapolis. If any driver tells you that racing at the Brickyard in any race is 'just another race' because it pays just as many points as Daytona, Texas or Martinsville, they're lying. It's a big deal for everyone of us every time we come here."

It was a big deal for Jeff Gordon. Although Gordon was born in California, his family moved to Indiana when he was just a child. He was always drawn to stock cars, but he also wondered what a lap around Indy would be like.

"When I look back, I think winning the inaugural Brickyard 400 is my most cherished victory," said Gordon, who has now won here three times. "I never thought that I would have the chance to race here and it was only my second victory in Winston Cup. All those things added up really made that victory special to me.

	Jeff Gordon won The Brickyard 400 last year.

For Tony Stewart and John Andretti, the experience is even more special because both have driven open-wheel cars here before. Both grew up in Indiana and both consider winning the Indy 500 their ultimate dream. But there is a minor difference between the two.

For Stewart, winning the Indianapolis 500 is the only dream.

"Those are two totally different things," Stewart said of racing in the Brickyard 400 vs. the Indy 500. "Trust me, I want to win the Brickyard 400 really bad, but it won't take the place of winning the 500. It probably would if I never ran an Indy car there, but the fact that I've had good cars there and I've never won -- I don't think anything's going to make up for that."

For Andretti, open wheel, stock or clown -- he'll drive any kind of car at this track.

"My whole life has been the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, or at least ever since I can remember," he said. "I went to all the races watching my Uncle Mario race. I snuck in the garage and, even after they threw me out, snuck back in again. This track has played a significant role in my life.

"Anything that happens at that track is important. Winning anything at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a big, big deal. If they raced tour buses there, I'd want to be driving one."

The enthusiasm the midwestern boys have brought to stock cars being in Indy, as well as the curiousity the long-time stock-car lovers have harbored toward the Indy 500, has rubbed off on the sport's younger competitors -- an indication that this track will be one of the strongholds in the future.

"I purposely didn't walk out of the tunnel and onto the racetrack while we were there in testing," said rookie Jimmie Johnson, who was 18 when the series began racing in Indy. "I want to wait until we walk out for qualifying and experience it the way that I've seen it on television for so many years. I've grown up wanting to race there and I have this vision in my mind of what it will be like to walk out there for the first time."

For Petty, to see how fast the sport has taken to this area -- and how fast the area has reciprocated -- has been amazing.

"I remember when everybody was so excited about us going to Indy to begin with," Petty said. "We took like eight or nine cars up there for a test with NASCAR, just seeing how the cars would do at a place like Indianapolis. The response was incredible. People packed the seats the track opened up for them, and they went nuts watching just nine cars going around that place.

"We got to thinking there that if they liked nine cars testing, they would go nuts over 43 cars racing. And we were right. The city just opened up, welcomed us. The track went out of its way to make sure everybody was comfortable. You can't ask for much more than that."

Rupen Fofaria is a beat writer for the Raleigh News & Observer.