{"id":96388,"date":"2025-07-27T09:41:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T09:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/96388\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T09:41:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T09:41:14","slug":"what-to-watch-for-in-todays-nascar-cup-race-at-indianapolis-motor-speedway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/96388\/","title":{"rendered":"What to watch for in today’s NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The challenges will be immense for NASCAR Cup drivers and teams in today\u2019s race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.<\/p>\n

A narrow track and high speeds make it tough to pass. That impacts what happens on the track and how the strategy goes.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at what to watch for today.<\/p>\n

Cautions breed cautions<\/b><\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s race saw half of the 10 cautions come after restarts, including crashes that eliminated, among others, William Byron, Joey Logano, Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin.<\/p>\n

Logano was eliminated by a crash on a restart that started behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came forward,\u201d Logano said of the accident that ended his race a year ago. \u201cYou don\u2019t see that every day, do you?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone knows it\u2019s hard to pass. If (a restart is) your opportunity to pass, everybody\u2019s willing to ship it in there and figure it out later. Unfortunately, it causes accidents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s ability to pass later on, then everybody probably would have a little more respect for each other, more grace out there, a little more give and take.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Logano, Johnson wreck on restart at Indianapolis<\/p>\n

Joey Logano and Jimmie Johnson both wreck on a restart in the final stage of The Brickyard 400 after three-wide racing clipped the right quarter panel of the No. 84.<\/p>\n

The last three Cup races on the Indy oval have seen at least one crash on a restart.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>I think without fuel saving, restarts are kind of one of your only opportunities to pass here,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThey got super crazy there at the end (last year).\u201d<\/p>\n

Tight pit road <\/b><\/p>\n

A majority of the fast cars selected pit stalls near pit exit because the width of pit road at Indianapolis (not including the pit boxes) is 24 feet. Only World Wide Technology Raceway has a narrower pit road width at 22 feet.<\/p>\n

Ryan Blaney knows the challenges of pitting near pit entrance. In the 2020 race at Indianapolis, Zach Price, who remains the rear tire changer for Blaney, was struck on pit road when there was a chain-reaction crash just after pit entrance that blocked pit road.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m like ultra vigilant here,\u201d Blaney said of pit road. \u201cLet\u2019s say I\u2019m done with my stop and I\u2019m cruising down pit road (in the far right lane), I\u2019m always watching those cars on the left who are in their stall. I\u2019ve got to look at are they about to drop the left-side jack, and what that looks like because you can\u2019t bail anywhere. The only way you can bail is to slow down and stop. It makes it pretty tough. Hopefully \u2026 you don\u2019t see any issues on pit road and guys stay safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"AUTO:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Chase Briscoe has won five poles this season, including at the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and now the Brickyard 400.<\/p>\n

Teams pick pit stalls based on how they qualify. The pole winner gets first choice, the No. 2 starter the second choice and on down to the final car.<\/p>\n

Most teams select closer to pit exit to avoid potential incidents near pit entrance or the middle of pit road.<\/p>\n

Bubba Wallace will start second and that gives him a good pit stall. He will be in pit stall 5, which has an opening in front of it, allowing Wallace to exit his stall without worry of being blocked in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the sketchiest pit road, for sure,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cObviously, we\u2019ve seen a lot of crashes (on pit road) here, a lot of injuries. So, we can keep ourselves out of harm\u2019s way, the better. I\u2019m excited. That\u2019s what we want, a good qualifying effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guess the right strategy<\/b><\/p>\n

Crew chiefs will be busy devising the strategy they think gets their car to the finish line first. Brad Keselowski tried to stretch his fuel in last year\u2019s race but a late caution sent the race into overtime. As the field headed toward the restart zone, Keselowski, who led, pulled off to pit road because he was out of fuel.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Syndication:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

There are only three former winners in the field of the crown jewel event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we were really aggressive last year and we almost won the race,\u201d Keselowski said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect anything to change there, and we\u2019ve got no reason not to be very aggressive. I certainly don\u2019t want to just do dumb things just to do them, but this is a race that lends itself to aggressive moves on the track and off the track with pit strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playoff picture<\/b><\/p>\n

Twelve drivers have won this season, leaving four playoff spots open at this time via points. Those in a playoff spot without a victory this season are Tyler Reddick (156 points above the cutline), Alex Bowman (+63), Chris Buescher (+44) and Bubba Wallace (+16).<\/p>\n

Ryan Preece is the first driver outside a playoff spot. He lost 13 points to Wallace last weekend at Dover and is 16 points back. Kyle Busch is 39 points below the cutline. Ty Gibbs is 52 points below the cutline.<\/p>\n

$1 million at stake<\/b><\/p>\n

NASCAR\u2019s inaugural In-Season Challenge comes to an end at Indianapolis. Ty Dillon, the last seed in the 32-driver event, faces Ty Gibbs. Whoever finishes better will claim the $1 million prize.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we execute our race and do the best to our abilities – no mistakes and out execute everybody in the field – we might not have the most speed to win the race, but we\u2019re going to do plenty to put pressure on him,\u201d Dillon said of Gibbs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 The challenges will be immense for NASCAR Cup drivers and teams in today\u2019s race at Indianapolis…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-96388","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114924544652260086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96388"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96388\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}