Speedway, Indiana – The Indianapolis 500’s subsequent running is 341 days away. But before, the track hosts another significant racing weekend in August.
“It’s always a little bittersweet when the Indy 500’s over, but it’s nice to be able to have that Brickyard weekend to be able to have more racing,” IMS president Doug Boles said.
The enthusiasm for the annual Brickyard weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is up, and so is the banner. When NASCAR joins IndyCar in August, IMS intends to build on a busy month of May.
“The NTT IndyCar Series drivers and the NASCAR Cup Series have had some great years in terms of attendance, so I think our attendance is going to be really strong,” Boles said. “For us, I think just having such a strong May with the Indy 500 but even with the AMR Grand Prix to kick things off in the Month of May – qualifying weekend was really busy. I think we’ll have a great crowd, and we’re excited about it.”
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway has hosted a NASCAR race for the organization 30 times. For the third year in a row, the Cup cars are back on the road course. Boles claims that 2024 might bring about a change, nevertheless.
“I think it’s no secret that we talked to people about the potential of maybe going back to the oval at some point in time. I think we’ll sit back down with our friends at NASCAR and try to determine what we want to do with Brickyard weekend as we lead into 2024,” Boles said. “I love the uniqueness of IndyCar and NASCAR on the same weekend, same track. Only place you can see that. I think there’s some value there, but we’re going to have to just look and see what we want to do in 2024 and beyond, and does the oval come back for the Cup cars in some point in time.”
It’s a weekend created for racing lovers, regardless of the track NASCAR is running on.
“There are still some NASCAR fans that aren’t IndyCar fans, and IndyCar fans that aren’t NASCAR fans, so when you get them to come the same weekend, I hope they leave here being fans of both series,” Boles said.
The fun starts on Friday, August 11.
