When Tony Stewart finished third in the 2001 Coca-Cola 600, he climbed from his car and immediately collapsed on the ground, lying on the pavement next to the fuel pumps at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Dale Earnhardt walked over to Stewart, pushing his way through a crowd of media, grabbed Stewart by the arm, pulled him up and hugged him.

Stewart had just completed 1,100 miles of racing, finishing sixth in the Indy 500 earlier in the day before flying to Charlotte to compete in the 600.
He’s the closest anyone has ever come to winning at Indy and Charlotte on the same day. Robby Gordon and John Andretti have also run the Indy-Charlotte double, with Gordon the last to do it in 2004.

When the Indy 500 concludes Sunday afternoon, there will be no drivers hopping on airplanes for the flight to Charlotte to run the 600.

Bruton Smith, Chairman of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the Charlotte track, would like to change that. So much that he has floated the idea of offering a $20 million bonus to any driver who can win both races.

Smith and IZOD IndyCar Series CEO Randy Bernard have discussed the idea and both have stated publicly that they would like to see it happen, but as of yet, no plan has been announced or put in place.

Sunday is considered the biggest day in American motorsports, with the IndyCar Series running its biggest and most famous race and NASCAR’s running one of its Big Three (along with Daytona and Indy).

Running both races was a remarkable feat, both physically and logistically.

It is not feasible now, though, due to scheduling. The Indy 500 starts at 1 p.m. ET with the Coca-Cola 600 scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. With post-race activities and flight time, it is virtually impossible for a driver to compete at Indy and make it to Charlotte by the green flag.

Smith has urged Indy to change the starting time of its race to make the double more feasible, and Bernard and other IndyCar officials have said they are willing to consider it.

Still, running both races and winning them are two different things.

Though a $20 million bonus might be incentive enough to persuade some drivers and teams to try, the chances of one of them doing it is remote.

Only a handful of drivers have experience in both types of cars, and even fewer have been successful at both.

Stewart hasn’t driven an Indy car since 2001, Gordon since 2004. Andretti is attempting to run both this season, but has made just one start in each series and is not with competitive teams.

Danica Patrick, one of IndyCar’s biggest stars, is attempting a transition to NASCAR, but has struggled in three Nationwide starts and has yet to run a Sprint Cup race.

The two most qualified drivers to make a run at the bonus are three-time IndyCar champion Sam Hornish Jr. and former Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya, both now full-time Sprint Cup drivers.

Hornish drives for Penske Racing, which has won the Indy 500 16 times, but he has struggled in NASCAR.

Montoya won the Indy 500 with team owner Chip Ganassi, and is now a contender in NASCAR, having won one Sprint Cup race and making the Chase last year.

“I think the only one that has a shot at doing that is Juan Pablo Montoya,” Jeff Gordon says. “Guys want to go run the double, that is great, it is cool. But they are not going to win it.

"The only one [who has a chance] at that is Juan Pablo. … If you took Ganassi over there and over here, you know, it seems like they are the only ones that can pull it off."

Montoya, who has yet to win an oval-track race in NASCAR, hasn’t given the prospect much thought.

“Not thinking about it too much at the moment,” he said earlier this week. “I heard some rumors about [the bonus]. I haven't really heard officially it's going to happen.

“As a team, we would probably have one of the better chances, but I don't know. I don't even think about it right now, to be honest.”

Would a top NASCAR driver give Indy-car racing a try just to take a shot at the bonus?

Doubtful, Gordon and others say.

"It doesn't affect my decisions on doing it,” Gordon said of the bonus. “To me, they could offer a $100 million to run both of those races or win both of those and it wouldn't affect my decision because I'm only going to go there if I feel like I can be competitive.

“To be competitive, I would need to be in those cars all of the time. This whole Mario Andretti jumping from one car to the next, to the next, to the next, that doesn't happen anymore. It's not like that. You have dedicated teams with engineers and drivers, and that is why they go fast.” Says Jeff Burton: “For a Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, that top-notch driver that can affiliate himself with a top-notch Cup team and put the effort it takes to be successful at this level, and also have that same effort there, it’s just very difficult to do.

“If you run IRL cars every weekend and test them and do all the things they do, it’s very difficult to imagine that our best driver, a Jimmie Johnson, could go and just pop in there and do as well as [Helio] Castroneves and those guys.

“I’m not saying it won’t be done, I just saying it would be very difficult to be successful at both.”   Jeff Owens