Indianapolis is no longer the crown jewel of the NASCAR crown, but the Brickyard is still a special place for racing stock

Brickyard is no longer a Brickyard.

Yes, the race still has the word in the title – Verizon 200 at Brickyard. Indy is still Indy and Indy will always be great. The trophy AJ Allmendinger after his shocking win a year ago looks similar to the one won by the likes of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jimmie Johnson and their fellow legends. And like every Indianapolis winner – vintage car or otherwise – since Dale Jarrett in 1996, “The Dinger” got down on one knee and kissed the brick yard.

It’s the summer now. That’s Indianapolis. Those are the cars available at Indianapolis in the summer. But let’s be honest: It’s just… different.

“When you retire as a driver, what will they do to gauge you against the greatest ever racers? NASCAR? ” Denny Hamlin asked eloquently. “They want to know how you did in the ‘jewel’ events. For me, it’s always been the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, Southern 500 and Brickyard 400. I still want to win Indianapolis because I never did. I do, I’ll be excited. I’ll win at Brickyard, but I’m not going to win Brickyard 400. I don’t think anyone will, from now on.”

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On Sunday, the NASCAR Cup Series will carry the green flag at the 29th World Racing Capital. That’s a staggering number for those old enough to remember when the old Indianapolis 500 crowd said “the cars taxi” on their track is like spitting on the church floor. But for the second summer in a row, vintage cars won’t race on the 2.5-mile-highest sacred ground in horsepower, the 113-year-old rectangular track that specializes in modern motorsports. . Instead, they will only roll down a portion of a short stretch and a sizable portion of the front fork but will enter and exit those straights after weaving left and right through the larger portion of the road course. Speedway’s 2,439 miles.

“I think that was the weirdest part of last year, just restarting the way your brain approaches the whole weekend. Even the way you drive around the area in your car on the street is different.” admission Kevin Harvic, a three-time Brickyard 400 winner and winner of the two most recent ovals in 2019 and 2020. He grew up wanting to follow another racer’s tire tracks in Bakersfield, California, a four-time champion. Indy 500 Rick Mears. “I’m not going to lie and tell you I like it. For me, driving through that tunnel, looking through the museum and getting to the 2nd intersection and the turn around, I get chills just thinking about it. Last year I thought, ‘Wow, heck, we’re not even going to race there anymore.’ “

To be clear, the new race isn’t bad, at least as far as one can tell from the one-year sample size. Last year’s Cup Series race track opening weekend was very exciting. And this year’s schedule is packed with a rare IndyCar/NASCAR duo. Again, it was a concept that had long seemed impossible. See: IMS owner, Tony Hulman, is commissioned by Bill France Sr. escorted off the grounds when the founder of NASCAR was spotted prowling around Petroleum Alley in May 1954.

But other than that, again, being in Indy and driving one’s race car clockwise out of the Turn 1 oval and then slamming into the courtyard before it’s Turn 4, it’s just… yeah … other.

“I don’t think anyone is going to try to sell you the idea that the Indy road race is the same as the race on the oval,” explains Kurt Busch, one of eight drivers to start 20 Brickyard 400 or more. His best finish was in his first start, in fifth place as a rookie in 2001. In 2014, he made his only Indy 500 start, finishing in first place. Friday brought him Rookie of the Year. He won’t be in this weekend’s race, still recovering from a practice crash at Pocono.

“My sadness is that I never won that race and now I think I’ll never get the chance,” he said. “But none of us long-timers can’t help but be saddened to see what’s happened to the rugby race over the years.”

Oh, yes, that’s it: The whole reason for the decision to switch layouts.

Some of the most remarkable images of NASCAR’s greatest glory days were created by the first iteration of vintage cars at the Brickyard. Gordon’s win in the 1994 inaugural event came in front of more than 250,000 spectators, as they watched the boy graduate from high school in nearby Carmel, Indiana, claiming his second of 93 wins in Cup Series career. In the years that followed, the winners of the silver trophy were a host of NASCAR Hall of Fame companies, from Earnhardt and Jarrett to Bill Elliott and Tony Stewart. The Brickyard has become the ultimate reminder every August that NASCAR has held the torch from open wheel racing as the dominant force in American motorsport.

But as the novelty wore off and the bulkier stock cars continually struggled to make any side-by-side races on the IMS’ narrow shape, attendance dwindled. Then came one of the most frustrating days in NASCAR history, when Car of Tomorrow joined forces with a badly planned tire strategy from Goodyear to create a race that wasn’t a race at all. The field will run a few laps and then will change their crumbling tires – over and over again. By the time Johnson held off Carl Edwards, thousands of fans had left in outrage. Most never return.

When racing moved to the weekend of July 4, 2020, the idea was to create an all-American holiday for racing fans. But the pandemic has other plans. When the 2021 schedule was announced, the oval was dropped. Road course, originally designed for Formula one and then added to the IndyCar calendar (after another tire failure, this time in F1), was included. Last year, an estimated 60,000 fans attended the new NASCAR event, nearly double the attendance of Brickyard 400’s lowest score, which drew 30,000. in 2017, and 3 million viewers on television, double the audience in 2018.

As with all things NASCAR, judging success now against the great Gatsby-like days of the late 1990s and early 2000s is a mistake. No one believes the era of 250,000 Brickyard fans is returning, but when measured by the 2022 yardstick – 1999 isn’t by any distance, but is certainly a much larger scale than the year. 2017 – it’s easy for the curators to argue that last year’s numbers look like a step in the right direction.

“I don’t know that anyone really wanted to do what we did, but we also knew that something had to be done,” Allmendinger explained after the win a year ago. The 40-year-old racer had 10 starts in the original Brickyard 400 and finished 7th in his only Indy 500 start, which came in 2013. He’ll be back to defend his win. with Kaulig Racing this weekend. “I also think it’s easy to say, ‘Well, it’s not really Indy’ before the race, but I think if you see the way I just celebrated out there, this is still a special place and this is it. special race.”

Exceptional, but not a gem. No longer the cornerstone event of the season-long NASCAR schedule, but when Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Douglas Boles — whose energy level makes Energizer Bunny look like a sloth — tirelessly reminded Noting race fans through its social media, Sunday’s Brickyard 200 is the basis for a week-long racing calendar held throughout Indianapolis and Speedway, Indiana.

“It’s not the same and it never will be,” Harvick added. “But I also don’t think anyone won’t race harder to win it.”