NASCAR, IMS revitalize Brickyard 400
Drivers chasing last 2 playoff slots
INDIANAPOLIS – The Brickyard 400, Doug Boles starts, is like a car that’s struggling to find pace in the final practice session before a race. And the Indianapolis Motor Speedway boss, his team and NASCAR are the crew that’s charged with coming up with an overnight Hail Mary to find some speed.
“You go back to the garage that night and say, ‘We’re not doing one tweak, we’re changing everything so that hopefully tomorrow, when the green flag drops, we’ll go to the front,’ ” Boles told The Indianapolis Star this week. “Over the past few years, we’ve made a whole bunch of little tweaks to the Brickyard. This year is a complete reset.”
A new date. A new dirt-track race leading into the weekend. These are wholesale changes IMS and NASCAR are trying to revitalize an event that once drew hundreds of thousands of fans but now sees fractions of those once-great crowds.
Before the green flag flies Sunday on the 25th Brickyard 400 (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN), we grade some of the newer initiatives and one major issue still plaguing the race.
Changing the date: B
Boles said he expects more people in attendance Sunday than last year. Right out of the box, that’s a win. Outside of Jeff Gordon’s farewell race in 2015, Brickyard attendance has waned every year for the past decade. For IMS and NASCAR to have stemmed that tide is commendable.
For its first 13 years, beginning in 1994, the Brickyard was held in early August, before moving to late July in 2007. NASCAR officials shuffled a handful of dates, including the Brickyard, ahead of this season, which should be to the race’s benefit.
The primary consideration behind this date swap was to keep fans from having to suffer the sweltering summer heat while sitting on metal bleachers.
But another huge motivation was to make the race the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular-season finale. While there doesn’t seem to be too much excitement building around the crowning of a regular-season champion, it does add some intrigue. Fourteen drivers have clinched berths for the 16-driver playoff field, leaving two slots up for grabs.
Most eyeballs are likely to be on seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who has never missed the playoffs since NASCAR introduced The Chase in 2004. But Johnson, a four-time Brickyard winner, has gone winless this season and has not locked up his spot. He sits 15th in the standings, so barring a new winner and a disastrous performance from the Hendrick Motorsports star, Johnson has wiggle room.
The biggest reason this grade isn’t higher, however, is that NASCAR and IMS slated their race to go head-to-head against the Indianapolis Colts on NFL kickoff weekend. NASCAR provided IMS a few other options for date changes, but none offered the cool temperatures of September, and Boles was adamant about a date with better weather, so he opted to face off against the TV ratings/attendance monster that is the NFL. That’s bold.
Competition: D
Among the biggest problems the Brickyard has suffered in recent years is ugly racing. Kyle Busch ran away with a pair of snoozers in 2015 and 2016 and nearly did so again last year before crashing into Martin Truex Jr. on a restart.
For a hot minute, it seemed as if NASCAR had discovered its answer to creating more competitive racing at IMS with the “All-Star” package the Xfinity Series featured last year. That aerodynamics package uses a restricted engine, higher rear spoiler, aero ducts in front and a larger splitter with the goal of slowing cars down and preventing them from running single file. While a bit contrived, the Xfinity race was easily the cleaner, more competitive race. Following that weekend, NASCAR appeared to be on the verge of announcing it would employ the All-Star package at this year’s Brickyard but later pulled the plug in fear of teams creating “Indy-only cars.”
NASCAR was concerned “that the package would spread the field out more when the idea behind it was to pull it together,” Boles told The Star in June. “We’re an advocate for anything that helps the on-track product. The only caveat is we want to test it before we do it.”
I get all that. But what’s the hold up? If the All-Star package isn’t the solution, fine, but NASCAR needs to find another one — fast.
Big Machine partnership: B-
The “Big Machine Vodka 400 at the Brickyard Powered by Florida Georgia Line.” Boy is that name a mouthful. As was last year’s “Brantley Gilbert Big Machine Brickyard 400.”
But once you get beyond the jokes, you can see the benefit of IMS and NASCAR aligning themselves with a record company such as Big Machine that boasts acts including Gilbert, Florida Georgia Line, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts and Reba McEntire, among others.
Throughout the entire sports landscape, league executives and officials talk constantly about finding ways to engage with younger audiences. Music and concerts are as good a way as any to do it.
IMS gets the promotional assistance of a major record company and a concert such as Saturday’s — also featuring Nelly and Cole Swindell, among others — brings fans to the track the day before the race. That’s never a bad thing.