Indianapolis ? Ryan Newman and Rusty Wallace each have lists of reasons why they would love to win Sunday’s Brickyard 400. Both start with giving team owner Roger Penske another trip to Indy’s Victory Lane.

Newman was born and raised in South Bend, Ind., and is a graduate of Purdue University, about 60 miles away from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

He also is aware that the stock car race at the historic track is considered second only to the Daytona 500 in prestige, even though the Daytona race is 45 years old and Sunday will be only the 10th running of the Brickyard. It would certainly be the biggest win of his budding career.

“Those are both good reasons, but Indianapolis is up there in importance because of the third reason: Roger Penske,” Newman said. “My car owner has multiple Indianapolis 500 winners, but hasn’t gotten a Brickyard win, yet.”

Wallace, who has driven in all nine Cup races here, says Indy probably owes him a win after three runner-up finishes — including last year to Bill Elliott.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again that we’ve been so close to winning the thing that we could almost taste it,” Wallace said.

A victory would end an 82-race winless streak for the longtime standout and would be the 50th stock car win for Penske, whose team owns more than 100 open-wheel victories, including a record 13 at Indy.

“The accomplishments of Roger’s open-wheel teams at Indy are legendary,” said Wallace, who enters this weekend’s activity 11th in the points.

Penske drivers have won the last three 500s. Helio Castroneves, nicknamed Spiderman because of his post-racing fence-climbing celebrations, won for Team Penske in 2000 and 2001, while fellow Brazilian Gil de Ferran beat his teammate to the finish line in May and Castroneves climbed the fence with him.

“I’m not sure I’d be climbing any fences like Helio and his team, but I can’t say for sure,” Newman said. “I’d definitely be kissing those bricks, though.”

He was referring to the already-accepted tradition of the stock car winner kneeling to kiss the yard of original bricks that represent the start-finish line on the famed 21/2-mile Indy oval.

Newman, last year’s top rookie, has driven in this race twice.

In 2001, while driving a handful of Cup events for Penske, Newman started fifth but was nudged into the wall by another driver and wound up 31st.

Last year, as an official Cup rookie, he again started fifth and finished fourth.

Newman, who leads the series with six poles this season, will go into today’s practice and qualifying as one of the favorites to start from the front of the 43-car field Sunday.

No matter where he starts, the youngster also will be a favorite Sunday after sandwiching two victories around a fourth-place finish in his last three starts. He comes here with a series-high four victories.

The Penske Racing South team intended to bring the same cars they ran last August but decided instead to build two new Dodge Intrepids.

“We tested our new car at Indy,” Newman said. “It seemed to be good during the test. Plus, we raced Pocono just a few days later. It wasn’t the same car, but the tracks are similar.”

Indy, the 21st of the 36-race season, is important to Newman and Wallace for yet another reason: points.

Despite his successes, Newman is a disappointing ninth in the season standings, a daunting 614 points behind leader Matt Kenseth. But Newman is just 182 points from fifth-place Bobby Labonte.