What Happened?
A Kyle Larson redemption story arc concluded after Larson blazed through the field and survived overtime to win the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. After the Memorial Day double attempt came to a dismal end without Larson even turning a lap in the Cup car at Charlotte Motor Speedway, he returned with the same paint scheme to find victory lane for the fourth time this season.
Behind Larson, Tyler Reddick finished second, his third top three in the last five races, and a heated Ryan Blaney crossed the line in third.
What Really Happened?
In its return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval for the first time since 2020, NASCAR’s top series showed an uncanny resemblance to the famous open wheel race that happens at this same venue each year: the Indianapolis 500. In fact, the Cup Series has grown to be more like the NTT IndyCar Series than many people realize.
Before a rash of cautions set up a myriad of fuel strategies in the final stage, the opening segments of the race featured a narrow groove with little passing, which has sort of been the norm for stock cars at Indianapolis. But the need for the Next Gen to have multiple lanes only amplified the problem, and drivers couldn’t quite find the momentum they needed to get a run down the long straightaways to make a pass.
The Next Gen machine — a kit car — involves raised corner speeds, leaving a bigger wake and making it harder for drivers to follow the car in front on tracks with a narrow groove. When you look at IndyCar racing, they have a kit car and a similar issue with passing on narrow race tracks.
In IndyCar, quick tire changes make fuel strategy ultra important, and it often comes down to who can take the least fuel latest. This weekend, and for much of the season, quicker Cup pit stops make fuel savings ultra important, leading to conversations like Chase Elliott had with Alan Gustafson about “biting the bullet,” or Reddick being told to wait on one stop so the team can pack it full.
With the increased emphasis on strategies, crew chiefs are becoming superstars in their own right. Much like the IndyCar race strategists get a lot of mentions on the broadcasts, crew chief names Chris Gabehart, Cliff Daniels, Matt McCall and Paul Wolfe no longer help control the conversation. They are the conversation.
The identity of the Cup Series has shifted. If you need further proof, just look at how differently Cup and Xfinity Series races progress on a weekly basis.
In nearly every race this summer, track position and fuel strategy have played a role in creating some wild moments and putting pressure on the bubble. From the strategy aspect, along with the on-track product and the disadvantage of dirty air, the Cup Series has some striking similarities to the IndyCar product.
The difference? The chaos.
The open wheel cars are so light and quick that they have many rules, written and unwritten, about contact and blocking. It rarely happens, but when it does, it gets ugly, leading to big, unsafe crashes.
On the other hand, stock car drivers, with their closed cockpits and fenders, have adopted a new driving style. In fact, it’s been on display for the past few races.
The first and second stages stay relatively green, as guys let each other go and figure out what they have. But once the third stage starts, all of that goes out the window.
Because of the difficulty to pass, restarts have a heightened sense of urgency. This summer, we have seen so, so many restart crashes in the third stage, because guys make bold moves, followed by even bolder blocks, and more often than not, somebody refuses to give and a crash happens.
We saw it in stage two at Sonoma Raceway, where drivers seemed to spin each other around all 11 turns at the track. It happened again at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. While the rain didn’t help, overzealous moves both before and after the track got damp lead to 68 of the final 119 laps occuring under caution.
Nashville Superspeedway eatured a rash of yellows in stage three before the five-overtime madness. More rain in Chicago short-circuited drivers as they ran each other — and themselves — into walls and tire barriers both during the race and after the checkered. At Pocono Raceway, a rash of yellows brought out a couple more restart wrecks before the 23-lap run to the finish.
And this weekend featured more restart ugliness at the start and end of the final stage.
Strategy racing can be fun, but only when the race runs green, and I don’t think many NASCAR fans want to see the IndyCar style of fuel-saving strategy racing become the weekly norm.
At the same time, the extreme difficulty of passing at more and more tracks as the cars grow more and more even is leading to some pretty ugly crashes and chaotic overtime finishes.
Ultimately, this style of racing and the patterns of the last few months will lead NASCAR in one of two directions: There will be major rule changes, or there will be major car changes. Hopefully NASCAR picks the latter.
Who Stood Out?
How about Bubba Wallace? After he climbed out of the car, he still had some self-criticism, but he has made up some major ground on the cut line the last few weeks. The No. 23 unloaded a step behind Reddick, but Wallace made up for it in qualifying, which set him up to earn stage points and a win, before finishing fifth.
Todd Gilliland and Austin Cindric also stood out at the end. Gilliland sat in position to capitalize had Larson and Blaney come together, and he still wound up in sixth with his strategy. After running way in the back early, Cindric also salvaged a great finish in seventh.
One other driver who deserves a shoutout is John Hunter Nemechek. While he got caught up in the first overtime restart melee, Nemechek unloaded fast, made the final round in qualifying and led laps, gapping the field while he ran out front.
Who Fell Flat?
For the second week in a row, Ty Gibbs’ engine fell flat. To this point, Gibbs has had a solid, consistent season, but the last few weeks have caused him to slide closer to the playoff cutoff line as well.
Entering this weekend, the No. 24 car had won the Brickyard 400 in every 10 years since winning the first race in 1994. That ended when William Byron went spinning down the backstretch after a Stewart-Haas Racing tag team elimination from Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece. However, the flat part of this comes from Byron’s crew chief Rudy Fugle.
Let me explain: In the age where crew chiefs are becoming superstars, Fugle certainly is making a name for himself. Fugle brings fast cars to the track each weekend, and he has employed some great strategy calls that have been key in many of Byron’s wins over the past two seasons.
However, much like Larson always has speed but can sometimes make mistakes that take himself out of the race, Fugle will also at times make a different strategy decision that puts the car in an unfavorable position. This weekend, when teams on the same strategy stopped for two tires and a splash of gas, Fugle held Byron for four tires and a fill up. Byron restarted further back and got caught up in a mess because of it.
Better Than Last Time?
Despite its flaws, this race cleared both last year on the road course and the last race on the oval in 2020. The fuel strategies this summer have made many of the races extra interesting, and this race definitely had that.
While some drivers at the front ran partial throttle for lap after lap, Larson put on a show for the fans driving up through the field.
And the fans loved it.
You know what? It actually kind of looked like the Indy 500, where Larson would take advantage of the early lifters and make a late dive to the inside. Larson likely picked that up in May, and it made for an epic show at the end before the overtime attempts.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Because of the story of this scheme, Larson’s HendrickCars.com blue mixed with McLaren papaya takes the award this week. After Larson missed out on running this scheme at Charlotte in May, the team decided to bring it back to Indy to pay homage to McLaren and Larson’s run, and it was pretty cool to see it end up in victory lane this time around.
Jimmie Johnson’s Brickyard return didn’t go to plan, but his Carvana scheme had some extra cool details. After all, it was designed by his daughters.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series has its first and only break of the season. Thanks to the Olympics, the Cup Series will not race for the next two weeks. NASCAR returns Aug. 11 at 6:00 p.m. ET for another night race at Richmond Raceway. The race will air on USA Network.
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
Well, all I can say is, it wasn’t as boring as I remember past races on the Indy oval.
Saturdays race was better than Sundays race.
Two things Indycar has that might help NA$CAR in its current state: A no-blocking rule (lead car cannot react to movement of trailing car), and avoidable contact penalties. However, in NA$CAR I would suggest only applying a penalty for avoidable contact if said contact results in a caution flag.
On one hand I hate the idea of NA$CAR making such decisions (due to their long history proving a total lack of impartiality and all), but on the other hand blocking and the proliferation of low % “hail mary” moves which turn races into big demolition derbies has deteriorated the on track product to such a degree that something needs to be done. I’m speaking of ALL tracks here too, not just Indy.
The proliferation of low percent hail mary moves is a direct result of the stupid “win and your in” playoff format. Too many drivers have no other choice, and when 20 guys all decide to throw hail marys at the same time, it doesn’t end well.
As for blocking, I’m sick of that too. Some of the more blatant blocks make me hope that the guy being blocked doesn’t lift. If enough drivers didn’t lift others would learn. Sure,. it will take a season, and there will be lots of incidents, but in the end it will make a driver think twice about throwing a blatant block.
Don’t lift, like last week at Pocono?
Exactly
I hope Larson sends Keselowski a Thank You card. Kind of reminds me of Harvick’s move at Talladega knowing he was going to have issues getting going and creating a pile up taking out a few cars on the restart. At least Keselowski pulled off and not causing the same results but owes Blaney an apology for giving Larson the inside spot and the race win.
Nah… Kes was dealing with the situation the only way he could and still have a chance. Fate is a fickle bitch sometimes.
This. And it was Blaney’s fault for not looking out for #1 and putting himself in that position. Nice guys finish last – you take the preferred line on restarts, always. Let the other team figure out their own problems.
I still preferred the road course, but I like 400 miles of racing better than 200 miles.
Also F the olympics.
Funny, I love the Winter Olympics but the Summer games bore me. Maybe I have Viking blood. Anyway, it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if they skipped Indianapolis altogether.