The NASCAR Cup Series is back on the oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Brickyard 400 after a three-season hiatus.

There has been good and bad throughout the 27 Cup Series races at the IMS oval, and those experiences have helped tell the story of why oval-reliant NASCAR shifted to the road course at the world’s most recognizable oval in 2021 and back again.

Here’s a quick run through the history of NASCAR at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway:

NASCAR debut at Indianapolis in 1994

NASCAR first approached the idea of running a race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1992 with a tire test. A year later, IMS and NASCAR announced the race date for the first weekend in August 1994.

Think of IMS and the Indianapolis 500 at that time as the motorsports version of Augusta National and the Masters in terms of exclusivity and exposure. The Masters takes place in early April, and that was the lone major golf tournament at Augusta National year-round. The Indianapolis 500 took place throughout a few weeks in May, and that’s all race fans around the country saw of IMS until the next year’s race.

The inaugural Brickyard 400 was a true spectacle in the modern history of NASCAR. Eighty-six cars entered the race for 43 spots. Among other drivers, 59-year-old A.J. Foyt made the field while Charlie Glotzbach failed to qualify in his final career Cup Series race attempt.

Jeff Gordon, who moved from California to Indiana as a kid to jumpstart his young racing career, won the inaugural race after a late-race duel with Ernie Irvan. The Charlotte Observer’s Tom Higgins wrote in the next day’s edition that “there are predictions (the Brickyard 400) will widen the popularity of Winston Cup racing.”

The 400 almost instantly became one of the crown jewel events on Cup schedule, and the popularity of NASCAR did increase through the 1990s and 2000s. Until it stopped.

Kissing the bricks is Indy tradition, born from the Brickyard 400 and Dale Jarrett in 1996

The Brickyard 400 has had a long-term impact on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the Indy 500 in at least one aspect.

After wining the 400 in 1996, Dale Jarrett and crew chief Todd Parrott led their Robert Yates Racing team to the brick-laid start-finish line to kiss the bricks at the Brickyard.

The late Scott Brayton did kiss the bricks after winning the pole for the 1995 Indy 500, but Jarrett, Parrott and the entire No. 88 Robert Yates Racing team sealed the tradition with a postrace kiss of the bricks.

Kissing the bricks is now synonymous with winning at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, much like drinking milk in victory lane.

Tire issues in 2008 was lowpoint of the Brickyard 400

NASCAR and Goodyear have never missed the mark so badly as they did with the tire they brought to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2008.

The track failed to take on rubber throughout the weekend, leading to major tire degradation during the 400. Several cars suffered cut tires and major damage because of it during the race, forcing NASCAR to stagger competition cautions and use extra tire sets to get through the full 160 laps. NASCAR president Mike Helton even joined the ESPN broadcast booth to assuage concerns.

The race, won by Jimmie Johnson, contained six competition cautions for tire wear, with the longest green-flag run at 13 laps. By the end, race pace had notably slowed as drivers shifted into survival mode.

“You don’t need me to tell you what happened on Sunday was a joke,” The Charlotte Observer’s David Poole said to lead off his race-day observations in the July 28, 2008, edition of the paper.

“The lamest spectacle in racing,” read one headline in the July 28, 2008, edition of the Indianapolis Star.

Race shifts to IMS road course in 2021

Attendance at Indianapolis Motor Speedway sagged significantly in the 2010s, and the quality of racing waned.

Still, it was notable in the fall of 2020 when NASCAR announced the IMS race date would take place on the road course in 2021. The Cup and Xfinity Series ran races on the IMS road course from 2021-2023, and both the track and the racing wasn’t a clear step up. For one, the inaugural Cup road course race featured an issue with curbing through turns 5 and 6, which caused multiple issues and many wrecked race cars for simply trying to race through the corners.

But it also was the preeminent oval-racing series in the world running a road course at the preeminent oval track in the world.

That has changed in 2024, and the Brickyard 400 is back.

NASCAR Indianapolis: Brickyard 400 previous winners

• 2020: Kevin Harvick
• 2019: Kevin Harvick
• 2018: Brad Keselowski
• 2017: Kasey Kahne
• 2016: Kyle Busch
• 2015: Kyle Busch
• 2014: Jeff Gordon
• 2013: Ryan Newman
• 2012: Jimmie Johnson
• 2011: Paul Menard
• 2010: Jamie McMurray
• 2009: Jimmie Johnson
• 2008: Jimmie Johnson
• 2007: Tony Stewart
• 2006: Jimmie Johnson
• 2005: Tony Stewart
• 2004: Jeff Gordon
• 2003: Kevin Harvick
• 2002: Bill Elliott
• 2001: Jeff Gordon
• 2000: Bobby Labonte
• 1999: Dale Jarrett
• 1998: Jeff Gordon
• 1997: Ricky Rudd
• 1996: Dale Jarrett
• 1995: Dale Earnhardt
• 1994: Jeff Gordon

NASCAR Cup Series Indianapolis race TV schedule, start time

• Green Flag Time:  Approx. 1:30 p.m. CT on Sunday, July 21
• TV coverage: NBC (watch FREE on Fubo)
• Radio:  IMS Radio Network (102.5 FM in Nashville)
• Streaming: FUBO (free trial available); NBC Sports app (subscription required); NASCAR.com and SiriusXM for audio (subscription required).

The Brickyard 400 will be broadcast nationally on NBC. Streaming options for the race include the NBC Sports app and FUBO, which offers a free trial to potential subscribers.

We occasionally recommend interesting products and services. If you make a purchase by clicking one of the links, we may earn an affiliate fee. USA TODAY Network newsrooms operate independently, and this doesn’t influence our coverage.

INDIANAPOLIS – Austin Cindric attended races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway most of his life, dreaming of the day he could compete on the historic 2.5-mile oval.

On Sunday, he’ll finally get a chance to join his racing heroes.

Yes, NASCAR and race officials ended their three-year attempt to rev up fans with a 200-mile road-course event by returning to the track’s more revered oval and original title, Brickyard 400, for the 30th anniversary of Cup racing in Indy.

“I do love this racetrack and I’ve watched way more laps on the oval than I’ve driven,” said Cindric, the son of Team Penske President Tim Cindric. “You know, I haven’t experienced the Brickyard 400 myself, so I’m certainly excited to see what it’s all like and at least drive the correct direction around the track.”

It won’t be an entirely new experiences for Cindric.

He did start two Xfinity races on the oval before becoming a full-time Cup driver in 2022. But even this 25-year-old rising star recognizes that winning on the road course, as he did in the 2021 Xfinity race in Indy, wasn’t the same.

Cindric is hardly an anomaly. He was one of 10 drivers turning their first official Cup-level laps in Friday’s lone practice session. Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday afternoon with the race set for Sunday.

Like many drivers, though, Cindric and many other drivers thought the change was long overdue.

“Even when I won here in 2020, it was on the road course and to me, I still kissed the same bricks, I still climbed the same fence, I was still inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway and I was a winner here,” Chase Briscoe said. “But I mean, it certainly means a little bit more, when it’s on the oval. When you think about the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the history is on the oval. It’s not on the road course.”

Series and track officials have spent decades searching for ways to bring back the large crowd that welcomed the inaugural Brickyard race 1994 and really started waning after the 2008 race was marred by tire wear.

They changed the dates, moving it to September, even making it the final race before the playoff before settling on July. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, they added an IndyCars to the weekend schedule, creating a rare double feature of America’s top two racing series in one place and they used the Xfinity race as a road-course test run.

One year later, all three series were on the road course, and the complaints never really dissipated. So the decision-makers heeded the calls and returned to the oval — minus the open-wheel cars — to the delight of many.

“I don’t think anyone considered the road course a crown jewel race, so it kind of returns back to that status,” said Brad Keselowski, whose 2018 race win makes him the most recent Indy oval winner in the field. “I think that’s huge for our sport and it means a lot to me as a driver and I’m assuming it does for the other drivers as well. So, a welcome return. For me, winning this race and having your name on that crown jewel list, it’s really special.”

Whether racing on the oval helps ticket sales remains unclear though the brief practice session in these newer Cup cars had some drivers, such as Keselowski, contending they behaved more like IndyCars on the track.

Clearly, that won’t be the only difference Sunday. Pit lane may be more crowded, strategies will change and even Michael McDowell acknowledged he would have a significantly better chance defending his 2023 race win — on the road course.

Still, most believe changing courses is the right call.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for us to get back to that tradition,” Tyler Reddick said after posting the fastest lap in practice at 182.582 mph. “This is a really tricky race and there was an outcry for wanting to try something different. But I think it’s just the nature of Indianapolis, it desires perfection. If you want to win the race, you can’t have a mistake,”

Reddick sits third in the standings, 15 points behind Chase Elliott with five races left before the playoffs begin.

But to Cindric, who spent his childhood mingling with some of history’s best racers and around one of the world’s most famous tracks, nothing compares to what he’ll experience for the first time this weekend.

“My earliest memories of racing are at this racetrack, watching cars go around this track more so than anywhere else — on both sides of my family,” he said. “So from that standpoint, when I think of racing, this is what I think of.”

___

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

INDIANAPOLIS — The semifinals and championship of the 2025 National Invitation Tournament will remain in Indianapolis and be played at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse for the second consecutive year.

Indianapolis will also host the 2026 NIT semifinals and championship as part of the combined Divisions I, II and III Men’s Basketball Championships previously announced.

The 2025 semifinals will take place Tuesday, April 1, with the championship game set for Thursday, April 3. Butler University and the Indiana Sports Corporation once again will serve as hosts for the event.

The 88th NIT will continue to feature a 32-team field with the first round, second round and quarterfinals played at campus sites. For the fourth year, the 2025 NIT will seed only the top 16 teams (top-four teams in each pod) and place the remaining 16 teams selected into the bracket geographically where possible.

In the 2024 NIT, both the semifinals and championship game were sold out at Hinkle Fieldhouse with more than 9,000 in attendance over both nights.

Additionally, the NIT added former men’s basketball coach Phil Martelli and Conference USA Associate Commissioner for Basketball Clifton Douglass to the NIT committee starting with the 2024-25 season.

A legend among Big Five coaches, Martelli is the winningest coach in the history of Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball. With an all-time record of 444-328 during his 24 years as head coach of the Hawks, Martelli led Saint Joseph’s to the NCAA tournament seven times and to six NIT appearances. In 2003-04, Martelli’s team reeled off 27-straight wins finishing the regular season undefeated and ranked number one in the country before being upset in the Atlantic 10 Conference quarterfinals. That team then won three NCAA tournament games before losing to Oklahoma State in the East Rutherford Regional final.

Douglass joined the Conference USA staff in 2016 and became associate commissioner for basketball in 2021. In addition to his responsibilities with both men’s and women’s basketball, Douglass also provides oversight for women’s soccer and women’s golf and served as chair of the NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee for two years. As a student-athlete, Douglass was a two-year captain of the men’s basketball team at Alcorn State.

Martelli and Douglass will join an NIT committee that will be chaired by Tim Duncan, vice president of athletics and recreation at New Orleans. Other members of the 2024-25 NIT Committee are Morgan State Vice President and Director of Athletics Dena Freeman-Patton, and former Division I men’s basketball coaches, Bob McKillop, Gary Waters and Bob Williams.

All NIT games will be broadcast live across ESPN platforms. For more information on the championship visit ncaa.com/NIT.