While NASCAR’s visit to Indianapolis Motor Speedway still remains a technical and interesting race, several drivers have often argued that the sport should return to the oval format instead. Earlier this weekend, it was Denny Hamlin who had been pretty vocal about the subject and now it seems that Kyle Busch also feels the same way about the race.
Advertisement
Over the years, NASCAR has had an interesting relationship with the legendary IMS. They started racing at the Indy Oval in the 1994 season with the Brickyard 400. But after a certain point in time, the organizers decided to move the race to the infield road course instead, which is the form of the fixture on the calendar currently, leading to some prominent names in the sport demanding to go back to the original format.
Kyle Busch sides with Denny Hamlin on Indy matter
During the driver’s press conference, a journalist mentioned that for the past three years, IndyCar and NASCAR had been racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the same time. Busch was asked if he was a fan of that weekend.
Busch responded, “Yeah, I would say so. I think it’s pretty cool. Kind of unique.”
“But you know, if I’m being selfish, I think many of us drivers, crews, and everything else. We’d rather be coming here and racing around the oval with the prestige and the history of what the oval is. Even though we’re at Indy, it just doesn’t really feel like it’s the same thing going the wrong way.”
IndyCar races with the Gallagher Grand Prix at Indy for the second time in a season. But with the road course layout during the same weekend as the NASCAR Cup Series Verizon 200 at the Brickyard, hence the question.
Earlier, Hamlin had been asked if he wanted to see the oval racing return to Indy. He mentioned, “Oh yeah, it’s a must for sure. It’s a major, whether you like racing or not. I love the debate on social media, what’s the fourth one, well there is no fourth one. You can make one up, there is none.”
“The Brickyard was it just because simply of the historic facility that we are at. So we’ll get a major back next year,” he concluded.
Why did NASCAR switch to the road course format and when?
The primary reason for NASCAR to move into the road course format was because of the years of declining attendance for the race. The decline had begun after the 2008 season’s tire debacle at the Brickyard. Ever since, there was little to no interest in the race in terms of fans attending the event.
Hence, NASCAR had sought to work their way around and introduce racing on the road course instead. However, after running the road course event for two years now, it is evident with the growing demand from the drivers who race there.
At the moment, there seems to be some hope for the Oval format to return possibly next year, as suggested by a NASCAR insider. Moreover, Goodyear has been also conducting tire tests around the ovals.
