Inaugural Brickyard 400 Defined the Career of Rick Mast, Launched Jeff Gordon into Superstardom

The crown jewel race that is the Brickyard 400 makes its triumphant return this weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series stars and cars will take to the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval layout for the first time since the 2020 season. The race is set for Sunday, July 21 at 2:30 PM ET with NBC carrying television coverage.

Over the last three seasons, the Brickyard 400 was replaced by a 200-mile contest around a 2.439-mile Road Course layout within the Indianapolis Motor Speedway confines. The road course was cool, and special in its unique way, but it was NOT the Brickyard 400.

The return of the Brickyard 400 this weekend, coincides with the 30th anniversary of the first edition of the iconic race, which took place in 1994.

However, before there could even be a first-ever stock car race on the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR and the speedway would need to make sure the heavy, bulky, less-than-nimble NASCAR Cup Series race cars could even navigate the tight 45-degree angle turns of IMS.

In June of 1992, Goodyear conducted a two-day tire test with NASCAR Cup Series race cars. In all, nine of the top drivers in NASCAR, including Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace, cruised through Gasoline Alley.

It was a wild, yet awkward sight at the time. So awkward that Kyle Petty declined his invitation to participate in the test.

"You know, I look at it as being Winston Cup history, going there for the first time. But still, I think in a lot of areas, I'm a purist on different things, you know? I don't think IndyCars should go to Daytona, and I don't think we should go to Indy to race," Petty said in an interview on TNN's Inside Winston Cup. "You know, testing is one thing, but going to a race is totally different. It's like I said before, you don't play polo or croquet or anything like that at Augusta, and you don't race dogs at Churchill Downs. Those places are horse tracks, and golf courses with a lot of tradition just like Indy is for IndyCars."

While Petty wanted nothing to do with running his No. 42 Team Sabco machine around the famed 2.5-mile oval at the test, he did in fact suit up and the Sabco car was part of the nine-car test. When he wasn't in the car, Petty documented the session with his camcorder.

The only question was, who would be the first to take to the track in the session?

"Everybody wanted to be the first at everything," Rick Mast recalled of the tire test. "I remember Earnhardt and Rusty beating their way out of the garage area, tearing up the sides of their cars trying to be the first one on the track for practice. It was just that kind of hype."

While Earnhardt got the upper hand on Wallace in numerous championship battles over the years, it was Wallace that won the race to pit road at Indianapolis on the opening day of the Goodyear Tire test in 1992.

"I was just having a great time. We pulled out, and I had the honor of being the very first car on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a stock car," Wallace explained in a 1992 interview. "When I fired that thing up, I pulled up going into Turn 1, there's 50,000-some-people, I guess is what they say is here, and they're just hooting and hollering all over the place, and just going crazy. It really sent chills down you."

At the conclusion of the two-day exploratory tire test, it became abundantly clear that NASCAR stock cars could in fact navigate the tight turns of Indianapolis. Even with the additional weight, underpowered braking systems, and narrow tires, stock cars were proven to be possible at Indianapolis.

The stage was set, and two years later, it was time for the inaugural Brickyard 400. And man, was that race a big deal.

"It became such a big pivotal event for our sport," Rick Mast stated back in April. "Everybody took their best stuff up there, everybody had a race car to put up there. There was 80-something cars that showed up."

An unfathomable 86 cars made the journey to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August of 1994 with the aspiration of making it into the highly-anticipated event. With 86 cars on hand, which meant just as many cars would fail to qualify for the race as the total that would lock into the race (43).

Talk about pressure. Everyone, including Mast, felt it.

But at the end of the historic qualifying session, the driver of the No. 1 Precision Products Racing Ford Thunderbird was the fastest man in Speedway, Indiana, as he topped Earnhardt with a 172.414 mph average speed.

"We go up there and sit on the pole, man. It was a cool deal, a cool deal," Mast recalled fondly at Darlington Raceway earlier this year.

In the pre-race ceremonies, heading into the Brickyard 400, Mast says he and Earnhardt were blown away by the massive crowd in the stands at the 2.5-mile speedway.

"We were riding around on the parade lap, Earnhardt and I. We come down the frontstretch, and Earnhardt looked at me and he said, 'Rick, can you believe all of these freaking people are here to watch us,'" Mast said. "The Intimidator was truly intimidated."

After the shock of the crowd size went away, Mast says Earnhardt, who had narrowly failed in testing and then qualifying to be the first NASCAR driver to do something at Indianapolis, let him know that he was going to pass Mast to lead the opening lap of the race.

Having already secured the biggest achievement of his racing career, Mast was high on confidence and encouraged Earnhardt to give it his best shot.

"He looked at me and was like, 'Rick, you know I'm going to lead that first lap,' and I said, 'Go for it, big boy,'" Mast said with a smile.

Mast said with Earnhardt's warning in mind, he knew the then six-time NASCAR Cup Series champion was going to try a power move in Turns 1 and 2 to quickly dispose of him. Mast was ready for it, and when that didn't work, Earnhardt -- determined to be the first to do something at the track -- made an uncharacteristic error by scrubbing the wall off of Turn 4 on the opening lap.

"He got in it and his car was a little tight, but he stayed wide open in it, that's why he brushed the wall. He was bound and determined to try to lead that first lap. And when I saw him brush that wall, I was like, 'We've got this now.'"

As Earnhardt struggled following the tap into the outside wall, Mast cruised to lead the opening two laps of the race. Earnhardt would eventually settle in and would take a fifth-place finish in the event. With the pressure of being the first to win at Indianapolis over, Earnhardt would go on to win the 1995 edition of the Brickyard 400.

As Earnhardt faded from contention, Sophomore driver Jeff Gordon emerged as the dominant force in the race. The driver, who was a couple of days away from his 22nd birthday, would lead a race-high 93 laps, and in the closing laps, the Hendrick Motorsports driver found himself in a late-race duel with Ernie Irvan for the prestigious win.

After the two drivers, who were named to the NASCAR 75-Greatest Drivers list a season ago, traded the lead four times over the race's final 21 laps.

Gordon, who had dreams of competing in the Indianapolis 500 before opting for a career in NASCAR, was determined to pull it off.

"It was a really special weekend," Gordon recalled. "I think the whole sport was just thrilled to be there, participating at this famous track. The history that was there before stock cars ever arrived, and the history that was being made that day. The hype was real."

Gordon tucked the nose of his No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet Lumina under the rear bumper of Irvan's No. 28 Robert Yates Racing Ford Thunderbird for laps.

Eventually, the pressure from Gordon would prove to be too much for Irvan. Heading into Turn 1 with five laps to go, Irvan slid up the track, which paved a path for Gordon to pounce.

Gordon fired his car into the open hole and never looked back. For the native of Pittsboro, Indiana, that day was a defining one for his career, and his life.

"It was a big one, and of course, that meant all of us wanted to win that race. Of course, what I remember the most was that battle at the end with Ernie, and us then taking the checkered flag and winning it. My life has never been the same since," Gordon admitted in an interview with Racing America.

As Gordon cruised to a 0.530-second win over Brett Bodine, Irvan faded as issues arose with his car, and he would finish a disappointing 17th.

Gordon says while he had scored his first career win months earlier at the Coca-Cola 600, another NASCAR Cup Series crown jewel event, he feels it was the Brickyard 400 win in 1994 that launched him into stardom.

"We had won our first race, the 600 a few months before that. So, I felt like that catapulted our team with confidence to be able to go and be competitive enough, and confident enough to win the Brickyard 400 and live up to the pressure.

"And after that, it was just a whirlwind. I mean, it was your face up on billboards, and magazines, and your autograph lines got bigger, the applause during driver introductions got louder, and souvenir sales got bigger -- it just, it really just launched what we could never imagine the next few years to be."

Gordon would finish eighth in points as Earnhardt captured his record-tying seventh NASCAR Cup Series championship in 1994. But riding the momentum of a two-win season in 1994, highlighted by his Brickyard 400 win, Gordon, crew chief Ray Evernham, and the entire No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team came out firing in 1995.

Gordon would capture an impressive seven wins that season, and he would go on to take his first of four NASCAR Cup Series championships. Still in his early 20s, Gordon would go on a run of dominance the likes of which hadn't been seen since the days of Richard Petty.

Between 1995 and 1998, Gordon amassed 40 wins in the NASCAR Cup Series, and at the end of the four-year stretch, he had three NASCAR Cup Series trophies on his mantle.

Gordon would end his full-time professional driving career at the conclusion of the 2015 NASCAR Cup Series season but would return for eight races in 2016 as a fill-in for the injured Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The now NASCAR Hall of Famer ended his career with 93 wins, 325 top-five finishes, 477 top-10s, and 81 poles in 805 starts in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Photo by Dozier Mobley/Getty Images