{"id":72046,"date":"2024-07-17T05:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-07-17T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racer.com\/?p=361773"},"modified":"2024-07-17T05:00:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T05:00:14","slug":"nascars-back-on-the-ims-oval-but-will-it-be-worth-the-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/nascars-back-on-the-ims-oval-but-will-it-be-worth-the-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR’s back on the IMS oval – but will it be worth the wait?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Indianapolis Motor Speedway will not produce the best race of the NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday. But what it will<\/em> be is back on the Indianapolis oval.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad we\u2019re back on the oval where we should be,\u201d Brad Keselowski said.<\/p>\n

It is a common sentiment throughout the series; one called for by many over the last three years. NASCAR moved its Indianapolis events to the infield road course in 2021, which at the time made sense. Cup Series competition at Indianapolis was lacking, and road courses were popular.<\/p>\n

The pendulum has now swung back in the other direction. Fittingly, it brings Indianapolis back to the schedule 30 years after NASCAR\u2019s first invasion of the Brickyard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good for the sport,\u201d Kyle Larson said. \u201cThat race means a lot more on the oval, so I\u2019m happy to have a crown jewel race back, and hopefully, we can have a good showing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indianapolis is prestigious. It is hallowed ground; a place coveted by many who dreamed of driving an open-wheel car around the Speedway. No matter how hard some might have tried over the last three years, the road course didn\u2019t bring the same sense of affection. A winning driver might still have kissed the bricks and proclaimed they won at Indianapolis, but no, they didn\u2019t really<\/em> win at Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

Daytona. Charlotte. Darlington. Indianapolis. The four major events on the NASCAR schedule. Or crown jewel events, as Larson noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine kissing the bricks after winning on the oval means way more than winning on a road course,\u201d Larson said.<\/p>\n

Keselowski will be one of three active Indianapolis oval winners in Sunday\u2019s race. Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson are the other two. It\u2019s a stat that stumped Keselowski initially, but it made sense after considering how many of his peers have retired in recent years. He is glad to be in the group that will race on Sunday and not amongst those no longer on the scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling of winning it is (one) I\u2019ll never forget,\u201d Keselowski said of his 2018 triumph. \u201cIt had been a rain out, so I remember going down that frontstretch on a Monday and just hauling the mail. The track was so fast with those cars down the straightaway. And just knowing that we were going to win it, and that feeling of \u2018finally.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\" Keselowski got to kiss the bricks in 2018. Nigel Kinrade\/Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really thrilling for me. I\u2019ll never forget that day. It\u2019s a special track to win at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson has never won at Indianapolis but appreciates what the track is and how much it would mean to succeed there.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sound is different \u2013 the echo is really cool,\u201d Larson said of the recognizable Indianapolis frontstretch with its grandstands on both sides. \u201cThat place and what Roger (Penske) and the whole Penske organization has done to take it from being the best to even better is pretty incredible. The facility is just so nice, and the history there is what really makes it special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Busch won two consecutive races at Indianapolis in 2015 and \u201916.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty special,\u201d Busch said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome to win at the Brickyard. It\u2019s such a tough place and to figure out. It took me a long time, but once we got it, we seemed to hone in on the things that we knew that we needed to be good that we could find again each time going back. I should have had three in a row there, but that last one <\/em> always stings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whoever triumphs on Sunday will have earned the dirty but satisfying kiss that awaits them during the celebration. No race is easy to win, and Indianapolis will be no different. As special as the Speedway is, and as much as the series will revel in being back on the oval, the racing product leaves much to be desired. But it offers something else, as Hamlin breaks down.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re crazy about side-by-side racing, it\u2019s probably not going to be too exciting for you, but it\u2019s still a big event,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cOver time, it\u2019s been the cars with the best engines, aerodynamics, execution of pit road, all those things that equal a winner at that track. It will be an execution-type race. You\u2019re going to need to qualify well, but you never know what can happen – strategy is a big deal there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do hope that these cars have enough drag down the straightaway to create slingshot-type passes like we\u2019ve seen on the IndyCars at that track. The only thing that will limit that is, I think our corner speeds are a hair too fast for the second-place guy to stay close enough to make that work. It\u2019ll be tough, but I think on new tires, you have a shot to see something great. Other than that, the purist needs to be looking at the strategy part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

No matter how much time passes, or if the car design and rules package change, NASCAR stock cars are still not a match for the fast 2.5 miles of flat Indianapolis Motor Speedway. No matter \u2013 the racing is not the main attraction. One goes to Indianapolis because it’s Indianapolis.<\/p>\n

And so, the series will celebrate oval racing Sunday, but don\u2019t be surprised if that\u2019s the only story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super-excited,\u201d William Byron said. \u201cThis was a decision a lot of drivers wanted. It\u2019ll be difficult to pass, which isn\u2019t abnormal with this car, but it\u2019ll come down to strategy, execution, and qualifying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for it. The track is fun to make laps on. I\u2019m sure it\u2019ll be tricky with the Next Gen car; probably a little bit edgy. But it\u2019ll be everything we want as drivers to be back on the oval with the history that it has.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indianapolis Motor Speedway will not produce the best race of the NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday. But what it will be is back on the Indianapolis oval. \u201cI\u2019m glad we\u2019re back on the oval where we should be,\u201d Brad Keselowski said. It is a common sentiment throughout the series; one called for by many …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72047,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-racing","has-thumb","has-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72046"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}