Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Doug Boles shared Friday that the speedway has had conversations a few return for NASCAR competitors on the monitor’s signature 2.5-mile oval configuration. The IMS oval hosted the NASCAR Cup Collection Brickyard 400 from 1994 till 2020, which was the speedway’s first main race exterior of the Indianapolis 500.
As a part of a schedule realignment mixed with points that had plagued the Brickyard 400, the speedway has held its NASCAR occasions on its highway course configuration over the previous two years and can accomplish that once more in 2023. Nonetheless, Boles flung the door vast open for a return to the oval throughout an look on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, citing driver preferences in addition to the status of the oval.
“These conversations have occurred. The truth is, they proceed to occur,” Boles mentioned. “… We by no means mentioned we’re not gonna return to the oval after we switched to the highway course. We needed to see the way it labored. That is why we began with Xfinity after which rolled it into Cup, after which we needed to provide it a while to essentially see the way it labored as a substitute of only one yr.
“Nonetheless, we have talked concerning the significance of the oval. And if you concentrate on loads of the drivers … Successful on the oval is particular. So we do need to get on the oval in some unspecified time in the future in time.”
The inaugural Brickyard 400 served as a serious level of conquest for NASCAR, and the race shortly turned one in all inventory automotive racing’s majors and probably the most prestigious the Indianapolis Motor Speedway needed to provide. However over time, the race misplaced a few of its luster and far of its reputation — significantly after a 2008 race that was marred by fixed tire failures and noncompetitive racing — and its attendance suffered tremendously, with swaths of empty grandstands serving as poor optics.
With the Verizon 200 on the Brickyard having rebuilt NASCAR’s fairness at Indianapolis, Boles advised that the speedway is grappling with the query of whether or not to carry again the Brickyard 400 completely or have the speedway rotate its annual NASCAR race weekend between the oval and highway course shifting ahead.
“We’ve not determined precisely how that appears,” Boles mentioned. “I’ll let you know that I do suppose you will see that sooner reasonably than later. After which we’ll simply determine what the long-term seems to be like by way of our cadence with the highway course and the oval.”
The newest Brickyard 400 in 2020 was received by Kevin Harvick, who leads all energetic Cup drivers with three wins at Indianapolis. The highway course race the previous two seasons has been received by AJ Allmendinger and Tyler Reddick.