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INDIANAPOLIS — Two-time NASCAR Cup series champion Terry Labonte is retired, but he will take a break from his break to compete in Sunday’s Brickyard 400 for Michael Waltrip.

Labonte drove in place of Waltrip — owner of a three-car Toyota team — last month on the Infineon Raceway road course and will get the NAPA-sponsored car in the 43-car field here. Labonte has champion’s provisionals and is guaranteed a spot in the field.

He tested recently at Kentucky Speedway in preparation for this race.

“It went pretty well,” Labonte said. “I am glad we went because we made some gains on the car that I feel will help us in Indy.”

Labonte has made 11 starts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and had a top finish of third in 1996.

“It takes everything to run well at Indy,” Labonte said. “The car needs to handle well. It needs a lot of downforce to get through the corners and it has to have a lot of power. Indy is a track where the teams with big power usually run well.

“The car has got to handle well because it has four turns that require you to get through them well so that you can carry your momentum heading into the long straightaways. It is a lot easier to run well there when you have a car that has a lot of horsepower. It is definitely a horsepower track.”

Waltrip intends to drive at Pocono Raceway next weekend.

“I just felt like we needed to continue the momentum we were building,” Waltrip said of his decision to put Labonte in the car. “We are starting to run better. We are making races on a more regular basis, so in order to make sure we don’t run into a lull, I asked Terry to go to Indy to look at my oval-track program.

“I think he helped us out a great deal at Infineon Raceway by giving us great feedback and he really helped us prepare our car for Indy by climbing into our car at Kentucky. In my opinion, two heads are better than one. Terry continues to be a great addition to the team.”

Stock vs. open wheel

David Stremme grew up north of Indianapolis in South Bend, which means he probably had open-wheel leanings when he was younger, right?

Not so fast.

“Sprint car and everything is big throughout Indiana,” said Stremme, who drives for Chip Ganassi Racing. “Growing up in the northern part of the state, stock cars were always pretty big. Probably one thing is I always say a lot of wrecks in open-wheel racing. They were pretty bad. I was like, I don’t really find much interest in that.”

Stremme said he likes the fact he competes in a long, 36-race season, as opposed to a 17-race schedule in the Indy Racing League.

“I think that’s what makes it fun,” Stremme said.

Win one for Penske

Roger Penske has long been associated with the Indianapolis 500. After all, Penske, the Bloomfield Hills-based businessman, has 14 victories as an owner.

Now, Kurt Busch , who drives for Penske’s Cup team, would like to add a first to Penske’s resume.

“He’s still looking for his first NASCAR win at Indy, and there is nothing we would like more than to give ‘The Captain’ that elusive victory,” Busch said. “Rusty (Wallace , former driver of the No. 2 Penske/Miller Dodge) came so close several times and it would be an unbelievable accomplishment if we could finally take Roger and Miller to Victory Lane at Indy.”

Quotable

Driver Jeff Burton on why it’s so thrilling for the Cup drivers to race at Indianapolis: “There is nowhere we go where you get the sense of people like you do at Indy with the grandstands on both sides of the front straightaway. When you walk out on Sunday afternoon to start that race, it’s like nothing else.

“The driver’s introductions are pretty cool. It’s amazing to see that many people and the excitement at Indy is cool. It’s an open-wheel sacred-ground race track, and the fact that we can go there and race is truly an honor.”