The Brickyard 400

Today is the running of the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, which is the 15th running of this race when the stock cars first invaded the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Todays race will only have seven racers who raced in the inaugural Brickyard 400. They include Joe Nemechek, Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte, Michael Waltrip, Mark Martin and the 2000 winner Bobby Labonte, who is pictured below crossing the start/finish line.
Bill Elliott, another former winner (2002), failed to qualify. Four racers have run all the Brickyards; Burton, Gordon, Martin and Bobby Labonte. Two inaugural competitors are deceased, Bobby Hamilton and Dale Earnhardt, who won in 1995. The fact that only seven racers among the 43 starters are running today from the inaugural is to me astonishing. Fifteen years is not that long ago.