Home to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, Indianapolis Motor Speedway hosted 78 IndyCar events before topening up the rectangular facility to another series: the NASCAR Cup Series.
The stars of the NASCAR Cup Series make their 31st appearance on Indy’s hallowed grounds, but it’s only the second time since 2020 that the Cup Series has driven on the oval.
With so little data to pull from, this race could go anyone’s way; if you’re familiar with the mystique surrounding this facility, Indianapolis is known to choose its victor.
While not a 500-miler like the race in the month of May, this 400-mile odyssey around the Brickyard tests a driver’s bravery as their high-speed acrobatics could easily end in disaster.
Only five races remain until the regular season comes to a close, so a possibility of a new winner to shrink the field that makes the playoffs on points are high.
With 24 drivers having their season on the line while a crown jewel victory sits on the table, today’s Brickyard 400 will show us a battle of wills unlike any other track on the Cup Series calendar.
Last Week at Dover…
Rain washed out qualifying, and it threatened to wash out the race late in the going while Denny Hamlin held the advantage over teammate Christopher Bell. After a delay that lasted a little over an hour, the racing got back under way with a flurry of cautions marring the final 15 laps.
In the end, Hamlin saw Bell fall out due to a spin, forcing him to battle teammate Chase Briscoe on fresh tires on an overtime restart to earn his fourth victory of 2025 at the Monster Mile.
This Week in NASCAR
At the top of the work week, NASCAR broke out the pen and started making adjustments to their rulebook that were made in an attempt to cover their tracks in their current legal struggle against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports:
In another strange move from the sanctioning body, it was widely thought that the money for this season’s In-Season Bracket Challenge finale would go to the winning driver, but it turns out that the money goes to the winning team instead, with the $1 million heading straight for the team owner’s pocket.
As for the third preliminary injunction, a hearing has been set for August 28 with NASCAR guaranteeing the six drivers that are now on open teams into the field on owner’s points and promising not to sell the charters off until a decision is made on the preliminary injunction.
NASCAR’s best decision came in the middle of the week when they announced a new race in San Diego slated for the middle of June next year on the Coronado Naval Base.
The course layout has yet to be announced, but NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy confirmed that all three national series will race in San Diego next year.
Racing simulation service iRacing appears to be close to the finish line with their newly-developed console game NASCAR 25 as the team announced an October 14 release date. The game will be available for the XBox Series systems as well as the PS5 on launch with a PC version through Steam on the way as well.
While he might be duking it out with NASCAR in the courtroom for the race team he owns, Denny Hamlin made headlines this week as the 44-year-old inked a two-year extension to stay with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Jey and I dropped the newest update to our NASCAR Cup Series power rankings this week with little change at the top while the final few spots continue to shuffle as the regular season comes to an end.
In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series at Indianapolis Raceway Park, Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs put on a clinic, climbing up from the 11th starting spot to lead 160 of 200 laps en route to his second triumph of 2025 in the TSport 200.
As for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, their crop of drivers took to the historic speedway for a 100-lap event that received threats throughout the day from Mother Nature.
A brief rain delay in the middle of stage 3 looked to hand the win to Justin Allgaier, but on a late-race restart, Kyle Larson slid into the defending series champion and put him in the turn 2 wall. Shockingly, this collision failed to bring out the caution, but it ruined Allgaier’s mayo mobile and his race.
From there, the story centered around the audacious maneuver by Austin Hill to seemingly take out Aric Almirola in the short chute with 10 laps to go as Hill appeared to use the same right-rear hooking move on Almirola that resulted in suspensions for Cup Series drivers Bubba Wallace and Chase Elliott.
Connor Zilisch remained cool as a cucumber at the top of the stack, even when Taylor Gray passed him on the final restart. Using a push from Sam Mayer down the backstretch with two laps to go, Zilisch powered by his fellow rookie and scooted away to victory, his fifth of the season.
When the Cup Series took to the track Saturday afternoon, a familiar face took the pole when Chase Briscoe’s No. 19 Toyota logged the fastest time with Toyota teammate Bubba Wallace joining him on the front row. For a full lineup, click here.
Since there has only been one race at Indy in the NextGen era, I’m not going over the averages this week like I normally do, but just to let you know, today’s Brickyard 400 will air on TNT at 2pm Eastern time with Adam Alexander, Steve Letarte, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the booth.
Today’s Brickyard 400 will be the final race on TNT before the Cup Series shifts over to the NBC family of networks for the rest of the 2025 season.
In addition, today’s Brickyard 400 will run for 400 miles over 160 laps at this 2.5-mile behemoth. Those 160 laps will be split into three stages, ending on the following laps: 50-100-160.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Denny Hamlin, and even after NASCAR and Mother Nature threw everything including the kitchen sink in Denny’s way, he still came through for the victory to give me three wins in a row.
In my bid for four consecutive victories, I am going with one of Hamlin’s 23XI drivers: Bubba Wallace.
It’s not much of a stretch to call this Bubba Wallace’s best track as he’s landed three straight top-10s on the oval, including a stage win and a top-5 last year.
One thing is certain, though: Bubba Wallace has a fast Toyota Camry underneath him today, and I have no doubt that he will find himself in contention at the end of the race.
(Top Photo Credit: Paul Hurley/Penske Entertainment)
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