How the Brickyard 400’s Return Will Highlight Contrast in Racing Between NASCAR & Indycar

The highest echelon of American stock car racing is all set to return to one of the country’s biggest and most iconic racing venues this weekend with the 2024 Brickyard 400. The NASCAR Cup Series will return to racing on the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s quad-oval layout after a 3-year-long hiatus. Teams and drivers will be looking to gear up for what is regarded as one of the sport’s crown jewel events.

Owing to the history and allure surrounding the 2.5-mile-long setting of the upcoming race, the Brickyard 400 is bound to be one event every driver wishes to tick off their list of victories once during their career. The rectangular oval also plays host to the country’s premier open-wheeled series IndyCar, as well as one of the biggest spectacles in global motorsports, the Indy 500.

While the track is identical for both the IndyCar and NASCAR machinery, both races will be seen panning out differently from each other. Owing to car characteristics and how overtaking and racecraft are tweaked according to the needs of the car, IndyCar-style drafting/slingshot overtakes might not be as exaggerated this Sunday as the stock cars roar around the facility.

The Next Gen Cup Series car in its characteristic way will be affected by dirty air off the rear of other cars as drivers attempt to follow through the four corners on the track while keeping close enough to the car in front to draft and attempt an overtake into the next corner.

Track position will be deemed key during the 160-lap-long event. The best overtaking chances for drivers could be around turn 1 as the field barrels down the long straightaways of the track, mustering a slipstream to slingshot past their rivals. Another opportunity could present itself at turn 3 after a similarly long backstretch.

However, overtakes on the outside of cars through turns are something that fans can only expect from IndyCar owing to their superior aerodynamics and ability to create faster runs via an enhanced drafting/slipstream effect.

What do the drivers think?

Hendrick Motorsports driver and a contender during the 2024 postseason after breaking his winless streak during the Chicago Street Race weekend, Alex Bowman has been one driver who looks revitalized in his performances lately.

Speaking on how he expects the Next Gen Cup Series car to behave at Indy, the #48 Chevrolet Camaro driver said, “We don’t build those big runs like the IndyCars do I think it’ll look quite a bit different. The race is going to look the same (to Pocono), a very track-position-oriented race. If anything, it might be tougher.” Bowman told Fronststretch

Bowman further elaborated on how the Next Gen car behaves while driving in the dirty air of another car up front and added, “You get a draft on the straightaway but then you are slower in the corner so standard-issue aerodynamics 101.” It remains to be seen how the seventh-generation Cup car facilitates racing on the big 2.5-mile-long oval this Sunday.