With the merging of the open-wheel circuits this year under the Indy Racing League (IRL) label, today just might be the biggest day in a long time in American motorsports.

Over the years since the IRL and the Indianapolis 500 split from the old CART circuit, NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 has supplanted the Indy 500 as The Race on Memorial Day, killing the legendary Indy race in viewership and sponsorship dollars.

But this year, the Sodie 600 will have some competition from Indy, which puts forth its best 33-car field since the split in the mid-90s.

It’s kind of cool to have all the big guns in each circuit going at it on the same day, Indy in the morning and NASCAR at night. And it’ll be interesting to see which of the super teams at Indy (Penske, Andretti, Ganassi) and at Charlotte (Hendrick, Roush, Childress, Gibbs) win the day in their respective series.

Graham Rahal of Newman-Hass could ruin the big boys party at Indy, while at Charlotte, Penske (Ryan Newman, Kurt Busch) or an Evernham team (Kahne) could sneak through.

There are many storylines today.

– Could Penske sweep? Perhaps, with Dancing With Stars winner Helio Castroneves or Ryan Briscoe at Indy and with Newman or Busch in NASCAR.

– Will drivers with “long-suffering” attached to their names as an adjective sweep? Could be, with Marco Andretti of the hard-luck Andretti clan at Indy, and with drought-plagued Dale Earnhardt Jr. in NASCAR.

– Will drivers whom some believe have pretty faces rule the day? Could be, with Danica Patrick at Indy and, uh, the Budweiser guy with the stalker commercials (Kahne) in NASCAR?

– What about a sweep by the Tonys? Maybe, with Kanaan at Indy and Tony Stewart at Charlotte.

– The fence climbers? Castroneves would dance up faster than Stewart, tho.

– What about the Reeses boys? That would be Kanaan, who was forced to walk around slurping a jar of caramel while Kevin Harvick carried a Reese’s cup in a cross-over commercial a few years ago.

– Or will the best-performing drivers of the season sweep? Probable, with Castroneves and Kyle Busch.

My upset picks: Graham Rahal at Indy, and Kahne at Charlotte.

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