NASCAR Brickyard 400: A Look Back at the Iconic Event’s Turbulent History

A crown jewel race, the Brickyard 400, finally returns to the NASCAR schedule this Sunday after a three-year hiatus. And with it, the sport returns to one of the most famous oval racetracks in the world: the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. While the reunion is cause for celebration, the event may never regain the original glory it enjoyed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

NASCAR first visited the 2.5-mile oval layout in 1994. Roger Penske, the track’s current owner, said of the decision to host stock car racing at the track: “We all thought it was crazy 30 years ago. When you own a facility like this, and you have the investment, you should capitalize on it, and it enhances the sport and the appeal for fans who want to come here to a race.” And that happened.

The Brickyard 400 became very popular at the venue with 250,000 people in attendance when Jeff Gordon won the first race. More than a decade later, in 2008, the event still drew 270,000 people. But that’s where the problem began. The 2008 race saw NASCAR and Goodyear use a new tire compound on the Car of Tomorrow. This change had negative consequences.

The track eats rubber at an abnormally fast rate, and tires had to be changed every few laps. Six preventative competition cautions were called during the 160-lapper to give teams the opportunity to change tires before they failed. There were 11 cautions totaling 52 laps. The longest green flag run was 12 laps. And just like that, the Indianapolis Oval fell out of favor with fans.

The Aftermath of the Disastrous 2008 Brickyard 400

As fate would have it, the event’s failure coincided with the economic recession that hit the world that year. The confluence of several such problems hit NASCAR hard, and race attendance began to decline. 180,000 people attended the 2009 race, and 140,000 in 2010. By the time 2019 rolled around, just 60,000 fans filled the largely empty grandstands.

Low demand caused NASCAR to take a break and start racing at the Indianapolis track. Times have changed, and so have fans. The oval’s comeback has renewed hope after the success of the heavy tire-fall race that took place earlier this year in Bristol.

Attendance for the upcoming event is up 25% from 2019. It is very possible that an upward journey of redemption will begin this Sunday.