SPEEDWAY, Ind. – Oval or road course?
It’s the hottest question in the NASCAR Cup Series garage this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
With the historic track hosting its doubleheader weekend with the NASCAR Cup and NTT IndyCar series on the facility’s road course for a second year, should the return of the Brickyard 400 be in play?
It won’t be back at least in the short term, with track owner Roger Penske confirming Friday (July 29) the Cup Series would compete on the road course again in 2023. But the Team Penske owner said the possibility of alternating between the historic 2.5-mile oval and the road course is being considered.
When it comes to Cup drivers themselves, opinions are passionate, indifferent and everywhere in between.
Michael McDowell is “biased” on two fronts.
He loves IMS, but he also really likes road courses.
“I love the history of Indy,” McDowell said Saturday after qualifying seventh for Sunday’s (July 31) Cup race. “I grew up an IndyCar fan and came up through the Road to Indy program. This is so much history and just a special place. But I’m biased, because I would rather it be the road course, because one more road course, I think it’s an advantage for us.”
McDowell enters this weekend with a career-best eight top-10 finishes through 21 Cup races this season. Two of those came Sonoma Raceway (third) and Road America (eighth).
“I think that (the Next Gen) car would race well on the oval, I think it would be a better race than we’ve seen in years past,” McDowell said. “But if they asked me, which they haven’t it, I would vote for the road course.”
Then there’s the other end of the spectrum.
“Not running on the oval is embarrassing for our series.”
Tell us how you really feel, Kevin Harvick.
A three-time winner of the Brickyard 400, Harvick is one of the few drivers left in the Cup field who experienced the race’s — and the sport’s — popularity peak in the early 2000s, then its rapid decline after the 2008 tire debacle.
“We’re the biggest series in America at the most popular track in America,” Harvick said before adding that he “loves” that NASCAR and IndyCar are occupying the historic track on the same weekend.
“Look, racecar drivers love being around racecar drivers,” Harvick said. “I like watching other divisions race. I just don’t like racing on the road course. I feel like it’s a parking lot track. Doesn’t flow very well. It’s just not a…
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