When Scott Speed exited pit lane and drove on the world-famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval during NASCAR Goodyear tire testing Oct. 6, he joined a very small club of racers who have turned laps on both the IMS road course and oval.

Speed raced in Formula One in 2006 and 2007, including the United States Grand Prix at IMS, with Scuderia Toro Rosso. Following a split with the team midway through the 2007 F1 season, Speed returned to the United States and focused his career on stock cars with stints in the ARCA/REMAX and NASCAR Camping World Truck series. After a successful transition from open-wheel cars to stock cars, Speed drove in the final five races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season for Team Red Bull. He will drive full time for the team in the 2009 Sprint Cup Series and will attempt to qualify for the 16^th Allstate 400 at the Brickyard on July 26 at IMS.

"So far everything's gone really well," Speed said of his transition to stock cars. "But I think that's most attributed to making good decisions - Red Bull making good decisions on where they've put me. They've put me with really good teams in ARCA and in the truck, and now that we are running in Cup, the product is better than it was last year."

During the two-day Goodyear tire test in October, Speed got his first taste of only turning left at IMS and not left and right as he was accustomed in the F1 car. Now that Speed has become familiar with turning left and the layout of the IMS oval, he's looking forward to racing on it with 42 other competitors.