Rick Mast still a favourite at Indy.

Seven years and several teams later, veteran Rick Mast is still clinging to his place on the Winston Cup grid with the tiny Midwest Transit Racing squad but he is still a big fan favourite at Indianapolis where he swept to pole in the first ever Brickyard 400 in 1994.

Rick Mast will be forever remembered as the first pole winner for the Brickyard 400, and that tag still remains with him on the autograph trail.

"Here it is 1994, and here it is 2001," Mast said. "I still, today, this is no joke, I don't go more than three autograph sessions now that somebody doesn't throw an inaugural Brickyard something at me to autograph. For years and years and years, it went every single autograph session, and there'd be all kinds of inaugural stuff to sign.

"Then it finally got to where you might get two or three per session. Then it got to where it was every other session. But now, even seven years later, about every third session somebody will have an inaugural Brickyard thing. I definitely don't want this to be a footnote in my career. That's not a footnote. That particular week was about the most special period in my racing career."

Many of Mast's fond memories of the inaugural Brickyard 400 centre around late seven-time NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.

"When we came to Indy for the first time, it was a big, big deal for NASCAR," Mast said. "It was a big deal for all of us. It was a big deal for Dale Earnhardt. We all kind of judged what we did off Dale Earnhardt for years. Indy was a great big deal for Earnhardt, so all the rest of us thought, 'OK, it must be a big deal. If he thinks it's a big deal, it's a big deal for us, right?'

"He went out before I did, and he sat on the pole. I think maybe he thought he was going to get the pole, then I knocked him off, and it was me and him for the rest of the day because both of us went out early.

"Then when the race started, Dale was going to lead that first lap, no matter what. We hit down in Turn 1, and then it was over, and I got to lead the first lap. Then the second lap, coming off Turn 4, I dropped a cylinder. Even today, that's been the most devastating thing in my career. Probably the highest of highs right here at this racetrack and lowest of lows, just because Happy Hour and the practice sessions and everything leading up to the race, nobody could run with my race car.

"My car was just as perfect a race car as I've ever had anywhere. It was just a matter of getting to the end of the race. I ran on seven cylinders all day, still ended up seventh. But to be able to win the first competition on the racetrack was a very, very big deal."