Hendrick Now the NASCAR Penske at Indy

Roger Penske and winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an IndyCar seem to fit together just like a glove.

After all, the car owner has won the Indianapolis 500 a record 14 times in his illustrious career, including most recently with Sam Hornish Jr. in 2006.

After Sunday's Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, Rick Hendrick can lay claim to also being one of the top owners to ever bring race cars to the hallowed grounds of Indianapolis. Jimmie Johnson's 400 victory -- the second at IMS for the California driver -- brings Hendrick's total to six in NASCAR's second-biggest race.

The closest other owner? Joe Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing has three total victories at IMS with Bobby Labonte's win in 2000 and Tony Stewart's pair of victories in 2005 and 2007.

Richard Childress and Robert Yates both have two wins at the Speedway, while Ray Evernham and Ricky Rudd each have one car owner win.

Granted, this isn't a comparison between the Indianapolis 500 and the Allstate 400 in terms of wins -- Penske's eight more victories at the track isn't a record that Hendrick could catch any time soon -- but it is interesting that Hendrick has found his way to the front at Indianapolis in 40% of the stock car races run at Indy.

Hendrick's wins haven't been flukes, either, with his cars leading an incredible 623 of 2,401 laps (25 percent) raced at the Brickyard, including a single-race record of 124 laps led set by the four-time winner Jeff Gordon in 2004. The extra lap came in 2004 on NASCAR's first-ever green-white-checkered finish.

So next year at the Brickyard? I'm still taking a Hendrick car to win it.

Of course, that's hoping that drivers will actually be able to race without worry in the 2009 edition.