Indianapolis (AP) — Austin Cindric spent much of his youth watching races at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, hoping one day to race on the famed 2.5-mile circuit.
On Sunday, he’ll finally get to join his racing heroes.
Yes, NASCAR and race officials stopped their three-year attempt to energise fans with a 200-mile road-course event by returning to the track’s more respected oval and original moniker, the Brickyard 400, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Cup racing in Indianapolis.
“I adore this track, and I’ve watched far more laps on the oval than I’ve driven,” said Cindric, the son of Team Penske President Tim Cindric. “You know, I haven’t done the Brickyard 400 before, so I’m really interested to see what it’s like and at least drive the right way around the course.”
Cindric will have some familiar encounters.
He did make two Xfinity starts on the oval before becoming a full-time Cup racer in 2022. However, even this 25-year-old rising star admits that winning on the road track, as he did in the 2021 Xfinity race at Indianapolis, was not the same.Cindric is hardly an outlier. He was one of ten drivers who completed their first official Cup-level laps during Friday’s lone practice session. Qualifying will take place on Saturday afternoon, with the race on Sunday.
Cindric, like many other drivers, believed that the change was long overdue.
“Even when I won here in 2020, it was on the road course, and I still kissed the same bricks, climbed the same fence, I was still inside Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and I was a winner here,” Chase Briscoe stated. “But it does mean a little more when it’s on the oval. When it comes to the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the oval is where it all happens. “It is not on the road course.”
Series and circuit officials have spent decades looking for methods to bring back the massive throng that attended the inaugural Brickyard race in 1994 and truly began declining after the Tyre wear caused problems throughout the 2008 race.
They shifted the date to September, almost making it the final race before the playoffs, before deciding on July. During the COVID-19 epidemic in 2020, they added an IndyCar race to the weekend programme, resulting in a unique double feature of America’s top two racing series in one location, and they utilised the Xfinity race as a road-course test run.
One year later, all three series were on the road, and the criticisms remained. To many people’s satisfaction, decision-makers heard the requests and returned to the oval, without the open-wheel vehicles.
“I don’t believe anyone considered the road course a crown jewel event, so it kind of returns to that position,” said Brad Keselowski, the field’s most recent Indy oval victor after winning the race in 2018. “I believe it is big for our sport, and it means a lot to me as a driver, as I am sure it does to the other drivers as well. So, welcome back. For me, winning this event and having your name on the crown jewel list is quite meaningful.”
It’s unknown whether racing on the oval boosts ticket sales, but some drivers, including Keselowski, claimed the newer Cup cars handled more like IndyCars on the circuit during the brief practice session.
Clearly, that This will not be the only difference on Sunday. Pit lane may become more crowded, strategy will shift, and even Michael McDowell said he would have a far better chance of defending his 2023 race win – on the road track.Still, most people agree that altering paths is the proper decision.
“I believe it’s a tremendous chance for us to return to that heritage,” Tyler Reddick said after setting the fastest lap in practice at 182.582 mph. “This is a really difficult race, and there was a strong desire to do something new. But I believe it is simply the nature of Indianapolis to crave perfection. If you want to win the race, you can’t make mistakes.”
Reddick now ranks third in the rankings, 15 points behind Chase Elliott With five races remaining till the playoffs begin.But nothing compares to what Cindric will experience for the first time this weekend, having spent his boyhood mingling with some of history’s greatest racers and seeing one of the world’s most famous courses.
“My first recollections of racing are at this racecourse, seeing cars drive around it more than anywhere else – on both sides of my family,” he explained. “So, from that perspective, when I think about racing, this is what I envision.”
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