Posted 2 days ago by Jonathan FjeldCup
SPEEDWAY, Ind. — After three years of racing the road course layout of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, NASCAR is back on the famed 2.5-mile oval.
Many drivers wanted it, aspiring to win on the same track as open-wheel greats like Harroun, Milton, Unser, Mears, Foyt and Andretti – and even NASCAR greats like Gordon, Stewart and Johnson who cultivated legacies of their own at the height of the Brickyard 400 in its first run.
That run began smoothly for its first 14 editions. Crowds consistently neared a quarter-of-a-million people, rivaling the Indy 500 each year. It was a firm conviction of NASCAR’s rise in popularity amid The Split.
The 15th edition, not so much.
In 2008, coincidentally the year open-wheel racing unified, NASCAR experienced a tire debacle that proved to be fatal for the first run. According to Racing-Reference, estimated attendance dropped from 240,000 people in 2008 to 70,000 in 2013.
Empty bleachers and perceived lackluster racing persisted through 2020. By then, people craved change – enough to where a well-received workshop Xfinity Series race on the road course was enough to guide Cup Series drivers the wrong way across the Yard of Bricks in 2021.
A.J. Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick and Michael McDowell each won on the IMS road course in the NASCAR Cup Series. Indiana boy Chase Briscoe took his turn in 2020 with an emotional Xfinity Series win. Then, Austin Cindric, Allmendinger and Ty Gibbs went to victory lane in the following NXS races on the road course.
While there were some thrills, there were some big spills – right from the get-go in the Cup Series and again the next year.
By last year, drivers longed for the oval again. With a new car getting NASCAR on-board, we’re here now.
So what do we need from the return of the Brickyard 400 weekend on the oval?
Solid attendance
Empty bleachers are never a good sight at any track, especially at IMS. But let’s be real, in a place that can fit as many as 300,000 people in it, even 150,000 people – the suggested attendance for this year’s Daytona 500 and the largest Cup Series crowd this year – can look small.
Even 60,000 people – on-par for a good crowd these days and your average NFL attendance – looks miniscule.
The first year of the race being back will surely draw more interest to the track. NASCAR stopped giving attendance estimates 12 years ago and outside attendance estimates are often sparse so it will be heard to get a read on how many people will attend the Brickyard 400 this weekend. However, if the eye test shows good crowds of people in the bleachers, that is a success.
Should we get estimated attendance numbers, somewhere around 70,000-80,000 could start to ensure longevity for the oval.
Footnote: To fill in the gaps, estimated attendance was 180,000 in 2009; around 140,000 in 2010-11 and 125,000 in 2012. It reportedly dropped to 35,000 people at the finish in 2017 before rebounding to ~60,000 in 2019 and in subsequent years.
Good competition
Attendance is a big factor but the racing is even bigger.
After the bubble burst on the Brickyard 400 in 2008, fans sharply criticized the race, saying clean air dominated the race and turned it into a single-file parade.
NASCAR heard the fans’ complaints and tried a new, high-downforce package in 2015. When that failed, they went back to lower downforce in 2016, ’17 and ’18, the latter year when the sanctioning body tried a new high-downforce package in the Cup Series at the All-Star Race and in the Xfinity Series at Michigan and Indy, which led to the 550 HP package the Cup Series raced at Indy with in 2019 and 2021.
Based on the performance of the Gen 7/NextGen car at Michigan, Pocono and other speedway tracks that, like Indy, drew sharp criticism back in the day, there is hope that Indy will reap the same benefits. The downforce of the car and just enough horsepower on the long straightaways should lend itself to drivers generating big runs that they can take into the turns. In the turns, the new car has been remarkable at giving the drivers the option to race side-by-side.
There is some concern. The diffuser and the massive wake it produces in a single-concentrated area has been the Achilles Heel for this car on single-groove racetracks.
Indy is mostly a single-groove track.
Still, in the past, there have been inklings of drivers being able to move around. Drivers have run a half-to-three-quarters of a groove higher, either to the bottom or the top, to generate a run.
The new car has opened up opportunities for drivers to run different grooves like that (see Gateway). We could see that at Indy.
Good TV ratings
While TV ratings slipped twice due to moving the race to a TV station with smaller viewership – from ABC in 2009 to ESPN in 2010 and ESPN in 2014 to NBCSN in 2015 – they rebounded in 2011 and 2016. 2017 cemented the race’s return to network TV as ratings climbed 10% and viewership climbed 8%.
Viewership took a hit in 2019 due to competition from the NFL and 2020 due to an overall decline in ratings. Still, the race remained a hit on TV.
This year, the race is on NBC. There is also no competition from major events, like the NFL. The Brickyard should draw similar numbers as the Chicago Street Race, which drew 3.87 million viewers.
TV talks. When attendance sharply declined at the track in 2013, Indianapolis was the leading TV market with a 13.7 rating, which was up 26% from the year before. If there is a TV audience of, say, 3.5-4 million viewers, that could ensure a running start for the return of this race.
Poor ratings may drum up discussions of rotating the race between the oval and the road course that has already been drummed up.
Indianapolis NASCAR TV Ratings
- 2023: 1.67 rating, 2.838 million viewers (up against preseason NFL, Aug, NBC)
- 2022: 2.05 rating, 3.373 million (July, NBC)
- 2021: 1.8 rating, 2.831 million (August, NBC)
- 2020: 2.7 rating, 4.343 million (July 4, COVID; up 46%, NBC)
- 2019: 1.9 rating, 2.97 million (early-September, NBC)
- 2017: 3.4 rating, 5.6 million (late July; up 10% ratings, 8% viewership, NBC)
- 2016: 3.1 rating, 5.2 million (late July; up 3% ratings, 11% viewership, NBCSN)
- 2015: 3.0 rating, 4.7 million (late July; NBCSN)
- 2014: 3.4 rating, 5.196 million (late July; ESPN)
- 2013: 3.6 rating, 5.46 million (late July; ESPN)
- 2012: 3.3 rating, 5.054 million (late July; ESPN)
- 2011: 4.0, 6.377 million (late July; ESPN)
- 2010: 3.6, 5.709 million (late July; ESPN)
- 2009: 4.1, 6.487 million (late July; ABC)
- 2008: 5.1; 6.7 million (late July; ABC)
Categories
Cup, Feature
Tags
2024, Brickyard 400, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Jonathan Fjeld, NASCAR, NASCAR Cup Series
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Jonathan FjeldView All
Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.
A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.
Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick's final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen's stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers' stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.
Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com
