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LEWISTOWN - You may not be going to the Indianapolis 500 this year, but Lewistown resident Darrell Campbell is.

For the 24th time.

Campbell, who grew up in Yeagertown, has been to the big race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway - better known as The Brickyard - each year he's been alive.

"It started out as a family tradition. My grandfather missed only a handful of races since 1949," he said. "My mother and father started out in the '80s with me and they haven't missed a race."

In addition to his trips to the near Midwest, Campbell has seen the open wheel racers at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway - and he's been to several NASCAR races, both at nearby Dover and a few runnings of the Brickyard 400, which brought stock cars to the famed track in 1994.

But the Memorial Day race - and the racing it represents - is his favorite.

"Just the speeds of Indy Car racing is amazing," he said.

Campbell managed to get close to two of the more famous drivers, collecting an autograph from two-time winner Arie Luyendyk, and shaking hands with A.J. Foyt.

"That's basically about the only two - so far," he said.

Indy racing - which has existed under several names in the century since the Indy 500 was first run - is both the predecessor to the sprint car racing popular in the region and NASCAR, born 40 years later. While all forms of racing have changed with technology and design, the open wheelers have seen drastic impact not only to the cars, but the sport itself - in 1996, a feud erupted between CART, the longtime sanctioning body of Indy racing, and the newly-formed Indy Racing League, which controlled the famous track.

"When they first split it was a bad thing. But now, CART when bankrupt and everyone's back to Indy," Campbell observed. "I think it's going to have a good outlook."

Indy racing also has been more open to female drivers, with four women having started the 500, the first in 1976. That's created a difference of opinion in Campbell's family - his mother is a fan of Danica Patrick; he prefers a driver from the Pennsylvania family that has deep roots in the sport: Marco Andretti.

"With them being from Nazareth, I always liked Michael and then into Marco," Campbell said. "That's funny, me and my mother always joke about that.

"I really think it's a good thing having females into racing. Danica Patrick herself I think of as a little overrated," he said. "That's a hot topic between me and my mother."

Campbell admits that this racing circuit has been surpassed by NASCAR, but believes an injection of U.S. drivers could get more Americans involved.

"Indy car now goes to a lot of foreign drivers from Formula 1 or CART," he said. "I think more local (drivers), from Pennsylvania, from the Northwest, would really change it."