What Happened?
Corey Heim collected his second career NASCAR Cup Series victory in the Brickyard 400 on July 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway during his 2026 part-time campaign.
Christopher Bell finished second for the sixth time this season as he shockingly remains winless this season. Bell and third-place finisher Joey Logano got close to Heim in the final laps but were unable to make a move for the win as Heim didn’t slip up enough from the lead spot.
Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five while Brad Keselowski, Josh Berry, Ryan Preece, Carson Hocevar and Tyler Reddick completed the top 10.
What Really Happened?
A debris caution with 45 laps to go spoiled the chance to see a final run to the finish where drivers would have had to pit under green and blend back into traffic, depending on how much fuel they needed.
Instead, the differing strategies took place under caution, and with a crowded pit road, the field was flipped on its head. Bell and Logano were running mid-pack all race but got up to the front with their calls on pit road.
Meanwhile, Ty Gibbs, who led 46 laps and won stage one, had to wait longer on fuel and ended up outside the top 10 on the next restart.
From there, it was a slow, painful run to the checkered flag that saw Bell hound Heim for the entire last segment of the race without being able to make a pass despite Heim fighting a loose car.
Logano chased down the two Toyotas, but once he caught them, he too became stuck in third with no momentum to build up a pass.
There was some talk leading up to this race if the Brickyard 400 should be considered a “Crown Jewel” race, and even if NASCAR belongs at Indianapolis at all.
I believe that the Brickyard 400 is a crown jewel event from the prestige revolving around the track and how iconic it is. Every driver talks about how they want to win this race and kiss the bricks. It’s more so the fans and some media members that introduce the thoughts of this race not being that special.
It’s also true that this race was a tough watch, as Indianapolis has been compared to a fast and large track like Pocono Raceway, the type to showcase little passing after restarts.
However, the difficulty of passing at Indianapolis, especially for the lead, has not always been the case. It’s just another unfortunate example of how the Next Gen car creates so much dirty air that it is impossible to pass for the lead unless the leader makes a huge mistake.
During the week, I saw the battle between Tony Stewart and Kevin Harvick in the 2007 running of the event get posted to social media multiple times.
It was the first Brickyard 400 I ever watched, and nostalgia aside, it was refreshing to see Stewart work hard to get Harvick loose and take the lead from him in front of a massive crowd. This is something that is missing from the racing product in today’s age as several factors contribute to this, including “spec” cars and reduced horsepower.
With NASCAR experimenting with the superspeedway package for the upcoming race at Daytona International Speedway and how they have made tweaks to the short track package, hopefully they will continue to attempt to make the Next Gen car better to race, no matter the track type.
Who Stood Out?
RFK Racing had a much-needed day with all three of their cars finishing in the top 11 spots.
Chris Buescher remains ninth in the standings while Ryan Preece is the first car outside of The Chase, -38 to the cut line. Brad Keselowski is back in 19th, -50 points out.
It has been a difficult year for Josh Berry, but he had a strong run on Sunday afternoon, coming home in seventh. It’s his third top-10 finish of the season and his first since Martinsville Speedway in late March.
Who Fell Flat?
Kyle Larson‘s brutal month of July came to an early end at the conclusion of the first stage after his left rear tire cut down, causing him to back into the wall hard and finish dead last.
Larson looked like he was about to cycle to the lead off of green flag pit stops when his tire let go. He is now eighth in the standings after his third finish of 34th or worse this month.
Larson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott joined him behind the wall in the next stage after he smacked the wall following contact between he and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Elliott finished 41 laps down in 37th, and he dropped to sixth in the standings after going through a tough stretch of his own. Elliott only has one top-10 finish since his win at Texas Motor Speedway in early May.
Lastly, Ryan Blaney struggled to find speed and gain track position, and a restart crash with 39 laps to go made matters worse.
Blaney stayed on the lead lap but fell behind Todd Gilliland and ultimately finished two spots below him, costing him the $1 million prize in the In-Season Challenge finale.
Paint Scheme of the Race
Shane van Gisbergen brought back the Wendy’s colors this weekend after debuting them last week at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Van Gisbergen finished 16th and maintained his gap over the cut line, as he is now +57 over Preece for a spot in The Chase.
What’s Next?
All three NASCAR series will be idle next week for a rare off weekend for the industry before returning to action the following weekend.
On August 9, the Cup Series will race at Iowa Speedway for the third time in the 23rd race of the season.
The race will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by USA Sports, its first broadcast of the season. William Byron is the defending winner at the track.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
The Cup cars have never raced well at Indy, and it has nothing to do with the Next Gen car. Cup cars just don’t race well on tracks with flat, square corners. They didn’t work at Homestead so they reconfigured the track, they still don’t work at New Hampshire in spite of the track getting a slight alteration, and they’ve never really worked at Indy. It’s nice the writer went back through 30+ years at Indy to find a highlight of somebody pulling off a racing pass, but generally most of the races there have been long boring, single file affairs.
The teams may not realize Indy sucks for stock cars, but the fans know. Indy covered half the grandstands and the remaining uncovered stands were still empty. NASCAR went to the road course there in 2021 because the races were so boring and attendance was dismal. That was a year before the Next Gen first raced. That stock car racing there stinks is not the Next Gen car’s fault!
I love the Speedway, but it’s time for NASCAR realize that Cup cars just don’t work there.
gbvette62 is on a roll today! Couldn’t agree more.
The IMS oval has always produced boring NASCAR races, irrespective of which generation of Cup car has run there. Third week in a row I’ve skipped watching NASCAR, after decades of rarely missing a race. This was always going to be a processional race, has always been a processional race, and scheduled cautions meant nothing would matter for the first 2/3 of the race other than not stuffing your car in the wall, and leaving pit road near the front on the final run.
The brickyard is a “Crown Jewel” only because NASCAR and drivers feel it is. NASCAR does not have a storied history there, and fans understandably don’t care. NASCAR fans care about Daytona, and its history. Indy fans care about the Indy 500, and its history. F1 fans care about the Monaco GP, and it’s history. Those races can get away with not always being entertaining (Monaco especially), because fans know they’re seeing another chapter for the history book.
Dirty air is mentioned at every race. Indy might be iconic but terrible for Nascar.
benny parsons said it was it was like racing taxi cabs running at indy.
“I believe that the Brickyard 400 is a crown jewel event”
I believe that nascar saved IMS’ bacon during the indy/cart split era & the “crown jewel” thing is just hype. The racing there has never been good so much to the point they tried the road course. The big track / road course at Indy should be removed from the schedule entirely.
On the other hand, if they traveled west a few miles, there’s a marvelous 7/10 mile oval that produces fantastic racing.
đź‘Ť
Agree 👍🏼
Nascar needs to stay out of the car business and let the teams build their own. Stop with the STUPID saving gas, just let the fans enjoy their money spent on coming to the tracks
It was comical how Jr and Letarte were desperately trying to create hype over the last 30 laps. Apparently they were watching a different race because anybody else paying attention could see that there was no way a car would get closer than a couple tenths before the “dirty air” kicked in.
This is not a crown jewel race for the fans. I agree 100% with Mike above, move the race over to the little track.
It seems Berry managed to stay away from Nemechek during this event.
Too bad Blaney didn’t.
Blaney never realized he was getting that close.
Next year send the O’Reilly series to IRP and bring the trucks to the big track. The trucks also run a spec body and engine, so maybe there are some lessons the Cup series can learn if they are insisting on keeping that series spec. The O’Reilly cars are not spec and put on a great show just about anywhere, but the JRM domination is getting old.
Kyle Larson is getting his wish. Shorter races.
Seems everyone driving a Hamlin mj car runs up front all year. Gibbs made them give the secret to ty Gibbs and look how he’s running. It’s the car folks
Here comes the whining crying titty babies again. “NASCAR done needs to change them thar rules cause I didn’t win.” BS on the dirty air, plenty of cars made passes, those that sucked, didn’t.
And congrats to Dale Jr, on a new personal best. He made it seven seconds into the race before he started crying about Hocevar and SVG. Dale Jr is the biggest pussy in the history of NASCAR. Couldn’t win race so he cried and quit. Now he’s the GOAT, even though he had a very low winning percentage.