Tony Stewart and the Home Depot Team kissed the bricks in Indy last year, and everyone in the Cup garage hopes for their turn this year. » More Photos

But I’m sad to say some of the younger crew members don’t have the respect for the sport or some of the tracks they should. That’s evident when you hear them say the Brickyard is just another race on the schedule. That shows me these guys don’t really know our sport’s history well. But fortunately, most drivers have grown up watching racing and have the utmost respect for Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The folks who work at the speedway truly respect and revere their track. It was a bit awkward the first year or two NASCAR raced at Indy because the “yellow shirts,” or the security guys, and there are about 750,000 of them, didn’t really seem to welcome us initially. We were treading on their special territory but we treated them great and now they do the same. NASCAR and all the competitors went in with the right attitude and showed respect and admiration for the speedway. I think everyone at IMS really appreciated that and it helped ease the transition from hosting open wheel cars to stock cars a bit for those guys.

Indianapolis is definitely a difficult and different track for some guys to figure out but I think the former open wheel guys will run well Sunday. Patrick Carpentier and Sam Hornish might surprise a lot of people. They know the track and believe it or not, you run the same groove in the Indy and the Cup cars. I remember talking to A.J. Foyt our first year there about the preferred line and we were all shocked when he said it was the same for us as the Indy cars.

So, this could be a breakthrough weekend for some of these open wheel stars. Juan Pablo Montoya ran really well there last year. Who knows? We might see one of our open wheel guys pull off an upset victory. And anyone beating Kyle Busch these days would be an upset in itself.

Jimmy Spencer calls it like he sees it as an analyst on NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane on SPEED. He retired from driving with two NASCAR Sprint Cup, 12 NASCAR Nationwide and one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory, putting him in an elite group of drivers who have logged wins in all three of NASCAR’s premier divisions. In 478 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, Spencer amassed 28 top-five and 80 top-10 finishes. He won back-to-back NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour championships in 1986 and 1987 on the heels of 15 victories, becoming the first driver ever to earn consecutive titles in the series. He earned the nickname “Mr. Excitement” for his flamboyant and aggressive driving style early in his racing career.