INDIANAPOLIS — Brickyard weekend is here!
After three races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's infield road course, the NASCAR Cup Series is back on the oval to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400.
Here are five key storylines to watch heading into this weekend:
First 'Gen7' race on the oval
NASCAR's "Gen7" race car is now in its third season of competition. Having debuted in the 2022 season, the car has never seen competitive laps on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval, meaning Friday's practice session will be a learning experience for both teams and drivers.
Last August, NASCAR held a tire test on the oval, marking the first time that generation of stock car took to the legendary 2.5-mile speedway. Goodyear followed that test up with another one last month to help determine the best tire to bring in order to produce the best racing.
For Sunday's race, Goodyear says it is bringing a right-side tire with a "softer" tread compound to give the Cup cars more grip, while also introducing more wear. Goodyear says the compound is similar to the compound it brought to Pocono last weekend.
“Once we knew that racing on the oval was a possibility, we held a test last August to establish a baseline with the Next Gen car on the track, since we hadn’t raced on it in three seasons," said Greg Stucker, Goodyear's director of racing in a news release. "We followed that up with another on-track session there this June. That test yielded a new right-side compound for additional grip, and adjustments to the tread thickness on both sides of the car.”
The Gen7 car has generally improved speedway racing in NASCAR's Cup Series, but has been criticized by fans and drivers for its performance on short tracks and road courses. While it's impossible to know what kind of racing the Gen7 car will produce on the oval before Friday's practice session, fans and teams can look at last weekend's race at Pocono to get a general idea of how the cars might race. Turn 2 at Pocono is modeled off the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's Turn 1, and the track also features long straights followed by tight, flat turns much like IMS.
Nearly a full field
The Brickyard 400 entry list features 39 cars attempting to qualify for 40 available spots. While that's less than half the number of entries the inaugural race in 1994 received (86), it's a good number for a modern day Cup field.
A typical NASCAR race sees at least 36 chartered entries with usually one or two "open" entries filling out the field.
The "open" drivers entered in the 2024 Brickyard 400 are: No. 33 Ty Dillon; No. 66 B.J. McLeod; and No. 84 Jimmie Johnson.
Ty Dillon will return to the site of his lone win in the NASCAR Xfinity Series on Sunday. Dillon, the youngest grandson of car owner Richard Childress, won the 2014 Lilly Diabetes 250, holding off Kyle Busch in the closing laps. On Sunday, Dillon will make his first Cup start for his grandfather's team since 2015.
Hoosier natives, fan favorites
Two Hoosiers are entered in Sunday's Brickyard 400. Winamac's Justin Haley will race Rick Ware Racing's No. 51 Ford Mustang while Mitchell's Chase Briscoe will pilot the No. 14 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing.
In his rookie year of 2021, Haley finished eighth at IMS for his first top-10 finish of the season and his first top-10 on a non-superspeedway track. In 2019, Haley won the rain-shortened July race at Daytona for his first career Cup win in just his third start.
Briscoe has tasted success at Indianapolis before, having won the Xfinity race in 2020 as part of his incredible 9-win season that year. During his rookie season in 2021, Briscoe was battling Denny Hamlin in the first Cup race on the IMS road course when he was penalized for exceeding track limits. Briscoe then spun Hamlin, allowing A.J. Allmendinger to score his second career Cup win.
There are three former winners of the Brickyard 400 in Sunday's race. Four-time winner Jimmie Johnson will make his sixth Cup start of the year. Two-time winner Kyle Busch is searching for his first victory of the season and 2018 winner Brad Keselowski is hoping to score his second win as an owner as well as his second Brickyard win.
Sunday's race will mark Jimmie Johnson's return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway after being named 2022 Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. Johnson has not made a Cup start at Indianapolis since 2019. He missed the 2020 race after testing positive for COVID-19.
Penske going for a sweep
Team Penske is riding a wave of dominance across multiple series in 2024. On the heels of Josef Newgarden's second Indianapolis 500 victory, Roger Penske has a chance to once again win both major races on the IMS oval for the first time since 2018. That year, Will Power won the 500 and Brad Keselowski won the 400, both driving for Penske.
Unlike his 20 Indianapolis 500 victories, Keselowski is the only driver to take a Team Penske car to victory lane in the Brickyard 400.
Additionally, Team Penske is riding a hot streak heading into the weekend. His IndyCar team swept the weekend in Iowa with Scott McLaughlin and Will Power picking up respective victories. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney won for the second time this season in the Cup race at Pocono.
Playoff picture
The Brickyard 400 is the last NASCAR race before a two-week break for the Olympics. When the Cup Series returns to action Aug. 11 at Richmond Raceway, there will be just three races remaining until the Playoffs begin with the Southern 500.
Chase Elliott leads the regular season points standings over Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick. Meanwhile, the Playoff cut line is shrinking. There have been twelve different winners so far in 2024, meaning just four spots remain in the Playoff standings.
Martin Truex Jr., who is making his final scheduled Brickyard 400 start, sits 13th in the Playoff standings, 137 points above the cut line. His teammate Ty Gibbs is 70 points back in 14th. Chris Buescher and Ross Chastain also have yet to win and are just barely above the cut line.
There are some wildcards below the cut line that could spoil the Playoffs with a Brickyard win. Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch have both had success at Indy, but sit 18th and 19th respectively in the Playoff standings without wins. Busch has won at least one race every year he has been in Cup — dating back to 2005. He won the Brickyard in dominating fashion in both 2015 and 2016.
