Asked about changes that might be on the horizon in both the Sprint Cup schedule and the Chase format, Jeff Burton admitted that he was a bit jaded.
"My perspective is different than other people's perspective," he said. "My perspective is that I'm a race-car driver, and I care about the sport and the well-being of the sport, but I don't view it from the same eyes as the fans.
"I have to be careful. When I say that something is better for the sport, a lot of times I'm thinking about it from a competitor's standpoint because I'm not sitting in the stands. I think by far, from a quality-of-race standpoint, the double-file restarts (and other changes) have enhanced the sport."
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HEFTY SHARE OF THE MILLION-- Legends racing originated at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and racing the miniaturized, entry-level vehicles reached a crescendo with last weekend's Legends Million, which CMS touted as "the largest grass-roots race in history."
The total purse was $1 million. Daniel Hemric, of Kannapolis, N.C., won $250,000 for his victory in the A-Feature on July 17 on the quarter-mile track in the superspeedway's tri-oval area.
Doug Stevens, the fastest qualifier, finished second, followed by Steven Cantrell, Cup regular David Ragan and Tyler Green.
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NUMERO DUO--Kyle Busch said the Daytona 500 is NASCAR's most important race but rated the Brickyard 400 second.
"It's number two; it's right there," he said. "Daytona is one, Indy is two ... they're both pretty close to each other. Daytona pays a little bit more because NASCAR has to do that.
"Indy is an important race track for a lot of people. The history ... has all been Indy cars, but still ... there's a lot there that everyone always wants to win."
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FIRMLY ESTABLISHED - Tony Stewart, twice a winner of the Brickyard 400, said he thinks NASCAR has earned a stable position both at the Speedway and across the Midwest.
"I think our sport's grown nationwide to where it's not just what it does for the Midwest," said Stewart. "It's across the country what the sport has been able to bring. I think we're long way beyond the fact that this is not a Southern sport anymore. It's not like we've just been coming here (the Midwest) for two or three years; we've been coming up this way for a long time now."
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WANTS IT-- Kevin Harvick, who Indy in 2003, said it's a race every driver yearns to win.
"It's kind of the second place, where you check off on the year, where you want to try to win the race, next to Daytona," said Harvick. "Growing up a fan of Indy cars and really wanting to race open-wheel cars ... to be able to win there -- and just to compete there -- is pretty cool."