NASCAR Cup Series Ready To Battle At The Brickyard

No matter its position in the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has always represented a venue with a lot on the line and a lot to deliver – for both NASCAR competitors and the sport’s fanbase.

After spending much of the last half decade as the series regular season finale, the historic 2.5-mile venue is now home to NASCAR’s Independence Day weekend slate featuring Sunday’s Brickyard 400.

The motivation to kiss auto racing’s most famous yard of bricks – as the race winner traditionally does – remains high priority for all the drivers. However, only five current drivers have sealed their race work with that treasured kiss – four-time winner Jimmie Johnson (2006, ‘08, ‘09, and 2012), two-time winners Kyle Busch (2015-16) and Kevin Harvick (2003 and 2019) and Ryan Newman (2013) and Brad Keselowski (2018).

Johnson, Busch, Harvick and Newman hold the distinction of being the race’s only four drivers to win from the pole position.

For defending race winner Harvick, who earned both his Indianapolis victories from the pole position, this event remains one of the toughest competitions of the year – no matter when it falls on the schedule. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford takes a hefty 52-point edge over Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney into Sunday’s race. And he’s fresh off one of the most dominant Brickyard performances, leading 118 of 160 laps en route to his win in 2019.

Harvick said he expects this year’s race under unusual circumstance – a one-day show with no practice because of COVID-19 health precautions – to work in the veterans favor, especially at a difficult track like Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

“You can’t sit too far out on a limb and try a bunch of things like you would in practice on a normal race weekend,” Harvick said. “The other piece of that is you don’t have a bunch of people studying what you do with all the SMT data to try to copy it and drive their car and set their car up like what you are doing because the race is over by the time all that happens.

“It has been very unique and it has been something that plays well for our team to just show up and race because I think for the most part that experience is helping us get to where we need to be quicker.”

Interestingly, many of the 2020 season’s best are among those drivers looking to celebrate in Indianapolis’ Victory Lane for a first time. Eight of the top 10 drivers in the series driver standings – Blaney, Chase Elliott, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Martin Truex, Jr., Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola and Kurt Busch – have never won a NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis.

Among those, Logano has been closest. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has a pair of runner-up finishes and was second to Harvick last year. He has seven top-10 finishes in 11 starts.

Hamlin, the season’s only four-time race winner, has eight top-10 finishes in 14 Indianapolis starts, including a career-best finish of third, three times in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Elliott, on the other hand, who leads all drivers with five stage wins in 2020, has only one top-10 finish in five NASCAR Cup Series starts at the Brickyard. His best showing was a ninth-place finish last year, and he has yet to lead a lap.

“I’ve really struggled at Indy,” acknowledged Elliott, who drives the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“We’ve just been trying to get better there. It has just consistently been a huge challenge for me every year. My excitement level probably isn’t as high as some others about going to Indy, but that’s just because of how hard it has been.

“I would love to get over the hump. I think it would be such a cool place to run well and have success at. We are looking forward to giving it our best show this weekend.’’

His Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson shares that optimistic sentiment. The seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion will be retiring from fulltime competition at the end of the season and is looking for his first win since 2017. Should Johnson win on Sunday, he would tie his former Hendrick teammate Jeff Gordon for most wins (five) all-time at the historic track. He’s had only two top-10 finishes since his last win in 2012 at Indianapolis and goes into the race highly motivated.

“Winning this race is one of the proudest I have been in my career,” said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. “There is so much effort that goes into the event back at the (race) shop. It’s high priority when you look at the race schedule. It’s a ring race. When I drive in there and see the pagoda, I get the goosebumps.”

Indianapolis Road Course To Challenge Xfinity Series

Saturday’s Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard will be the NASCAR Xfinity Series debut on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s 2.439-mile road course. The Xfinity race will be the second event of a doubleheader Saturday with the NTT IndyCar Series scheduled to run at 12 p.m. ET.

It is a highly-anticipated new venture for series drivers, who welcome the challenge of road course racing at one of the world’s most famous ovals. Unlike the NASCAR Cup Series which will show up and race on Sunday, the Xfinity Series is being given a pair of 50-minute practice sessions because of the change in race course.

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Briscoe has a pair of top-10 finishes in two starts on the traditional Indianapolis 2.5-mile oval the series used previously and he is optimistic about his chances on the road course too. His very first Xfinity Series victory came on a road course at another famous oval – Charlotte Motor Speedway – where he earned the 2018 inaugural Xfinity Series race win. Last season, Briscoe raced to top-10 finishes at all four road course venues – at Watkins Glen International, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Road America and the Charlotte infield road course.

A victory in Saturday’s race at Briscoe’s most-revered track stands to not only extend his points advantage but represent a big sentimental accomplishment too.

“I don’t know what it is about Indiana, but I feel like everybody from Indiana has a special pride about being from Indiana,” said Briscoe, whose team owner Tony Stewart is as famous a racing Hoosier as there is.

“I’m not sure if it’s like that for other states, but there is something about us Hoosiers where we want to see other Hoosiers do well. There’s just a lot of pride in being from Indiana and trying to win for Indiana and, obviously, it’s even bigger when we go to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There is something about a Hoosier at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.”

One of Briscoe’s most fierce competitors is another driver with a long family history at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Austin Cindric. The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford is the son of Tim Cindric, longtime team president of the Indy 500’s winningest organization Team Penske.

Not only does Cindric understand and share in the sentimental value of the hallowed Indianapolis track, but he’s been good at the Brickyard and both his career Xfinity Series victories have come on road courses (Watkins Glen and Mid-Ohio in 2019). In fact last year, Cindric’s worst finish on the schedule’s four road course races was third-place – on the Charlotte infield road course. He is definitely considered a master on this venue and beyond that, comes to Indianapolis feeling especially motivated as he still looks for his first win of the 2020 season.

Cindric is ranked fourth in the championship standings, 46 points behind Briscoe. He is one of three drivers among the top-eight still looking for that first trip to Victory Lane. Another with high hopes headed to Indianapolis is veteran Justin Allgaier – a road course winner and also a past champion on Indianapolis’ oval track. He sits a distant seventh in points – 113 points behind the leader Briscoe – but leads the series in stage wins (five) and is second only to teammate Gragson in laps led (344-317) among the series regulars.

A victory this weekend would be the Playoff insurance Allgaier would love to secure after a robust, yet frustrating season start. He is the only current fulltime Xfinity driver with a win on the famous Indianapolis oval and he earned that in 2018, weeks after claiming consecutive road course victories at Mid-Ohio and Road America. The driver of the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet has three career road course wins and has finished top-five in three of the last four races at Indianapolis. Last year he finished ninth or better in all four Xfinity Series road course races.

NASCAR Weekend Preview

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Brickyard 400
The Place: Indianapolis Motor Speedway – Speedway, IN
The Date: Sunday, July 5
The Time: 4 p.m. ET
TV: NBC, 3:30 p.m. ET
Radio: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 400 miles (160 laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 50), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 100), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 160)
2019 Race Winner: Kevin Harvick
What To Watch For: This weekend will mark the 27th running of a NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The first Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place on August 6, 1994; Rick Mast won the pole with a speed of 172.414 mph and NASCAR Hall of Famer Jeff Gordon took home the checkered flag. … The 26 NASCAR Cup Series races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway have produced 19 different pole winners and 15 different race winners. … Jeff Gordon and Kevin Harvick lead the series in poles at Indianapolis with three each. … Gordon also leads the series in wins at the Brickyard with five victories (1994, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2014). … Five former Indianapolis race winners are entered this weekend, led by seven-time series champion Jimmie Johnson with four wins (2006, 2008, 2009, 2012); followed by Kevin Harvick (2003, 2019), Kyle Busch (2015, 2016), Brad Keselowski (2018) and Ryan Newman (2013). … The youngest series race winner at Indianapolis is Jeff Gordon (08/06/1994 – 23 years, 0 months, 2 days) and the oldest is Bill Elliott (08/04/2002 – 46 years, 9 months, 27 days). … The pole position is the most proficient starting positions in the field, producing five wins. The most recent driver to accomplish the feat from the pole was Kevin Harvick last season. … In 2016, Kyle Busch became the first driver in history to sweep both the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from the pole and the NASCAR Cup Series race from the pole in the same weekend at Indianapolis. … The deepest in the field that a race winner has started at Indianapolis is 27th, by Jeff Gordon in 2001. The deepest an active race winner has started is 16th by Jimmie Johnson in 2009. … Hendrick Motorsports leads the series in wins at Indianapolis in the NASCAR Cup Series with 10; followed by Joe Gibbs Racing (five) and Richard Childress Racing (three). … Four different manufacturers have won at Indianapolis, led by Chevrolet with 17 victories; followed by Ford (five), Toyota (two), Dodge and Pontiac each have one. Chevrolet won 12-straight from 2003-2014. … The Indianapolis Motor Speedway NASCAR Cup Series race is considered one of NASCAR’s “crown jewel” events, and Jimmie Johnson is one of only four drivers in history to have won all four – the DAYTONA 500, the Charlotte 600, the Brickyard 400 and the Southern 500 – joining Kevin Harvick, as well as NASCAR Hall of Famers Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt.

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Next Race: Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard
The Place: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course – Speedway, IN
The Date: Saturday, July 4
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
TV: NBC, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Distance: 151.22 miles (62 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 20), Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 40), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 62)
What To Watch For: This weekend will be the inaugural NASCAR Xfinity Series event on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. The track consists of a 2.439-mile, 14-turn road course…. Prior to this weekend, the series had competed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval configuration eight times dating back to the first event on July 28, 2012 – the race was won by Brad Keselowski. … This weekend’s race will be the first road course race of the 2020 season for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. … Last season the series visited four different road courses producing three different winners. Austin Cindric took home the trophies from Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen and Christopher Bell won at Road America and A.J. Allmendinger grabbed the checkered flag at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course. Both Cindric and Allmendinger are entered this weekend. … This weekend’s race will be 62 laps (151.22-miles) the first two stages are 20 laps each and the final stage is 22 laps. … The NASCAR Xfinity Series will join an impressive lists of series that have competed on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, including Formula 1, NTT IndyCar, Indy Lights and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.