I‘m kinda thinking that Smokey Yunick was the first NASCAR pioneer to show up at Indy to tune some cars and eventually bring his own creation to the race. Thinking this was the in the early ‘60’s timeframe. Then, you had the Wood Brothers pitting Jim Clark’s 1965 winning entry. I can remember both LeeRoy Yarbrough and Cale Yarborough being in the 1967 version of the race. Most recently, Tony Stewart ran Indy five times and John Andretti qualified 12 times. Any other NASCAR drivers/car owners/crewmen that you can think of who participated in the Indy 500? Oh, and as great as they are, I don’t consider AJ, Mario, or the Unser’s as strictly NASCAR drivers.

Bobby Johns

Robby Gordon went from trucks, to Indy, to Nascar, but like John Andretti, I think of him being an Indy guy that went to Nascar (not Nascar guy that went to Indy.)

There are quite a few that did their time in Indy cars first, before giving Nascar a try, (winners of the 500 such as Hornish, Franchitti, Montoya), but as Caddy Daddy was looking for, not that many that I can think of that went from Nascar to Indy.

For those who remember the early 70's, there really wasn't much cross over between the two types of racing...  Either you liked Indy Cars, or you liked Stock Cars.  I think Indy car folks looked at Stock Car folks as a bunch of door slammin' rednecks... and Stock Car fans looked at Indy car racing as a little on the snooty side.

I had it covered though as I would always take an AM radio with me to Indianapolis, so on the bus ride out of the speedway (after watching 500 miles of Indy), I had the transister radio up to my ear listening to the World 600.  Always thought it was cool when a passengers knew what I was listening to, and would  ask me "Who's winning?"  There wasn't many of them though....

Yea... I guess I was a race fan for sure.

Kurt Busch do both the Indy 500 and the Charlotte 600 the same year.  He finished 6th at Indy.  A great accomplishment for his first time in a "guided missle with wheels".  He didn't finish the 600 due to a blown motor.  My history research shows that Donnie Allison had the best combined finish of the Indy 500/  Charlotte 600 as he finished 6th at Indy and won the Charlotte 600.  However, back in 1971, the Indy 500 was run on Saturday while the Indy 500 was run on Sunday.  Scott Ely 

Don't forget Nascar champion Jimmy Johnson was elected Rookie of the Year at Indy in 2022.