Discover the history of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including NASCAR race winners for the Cup, Xfinity, and Truck Series, detailed track facts, and a full gallery of past race images.
CUP Race Winning Drivers
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Mother Nature wasn’t going to deprive Bubba Wallace of the most important win of his career, not on this Sunday afternoon.
Unsure of the amount of fuel left in his No. 23 Toyota, Wallace survived a rain shower and two overtime restarts at Indianapolis Motor Speedway to win the Brickyard 400 presented by PPG in two overtimes he punched his ticket to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
Wallace was comfortably ahead of runner-up Kyle Larson with four laps left in regulation, but the sudden shower forced NASCAR to call the fifth caution of the afternoon.
The rain was gone almost as quickly as it appeared, and after a short stoppage to dry the track, Wallace pulled ahead of Larson on the first overtime restart. A five-car accident on the backstretch, however, sent the race to a second extra period.
Wallace stayed on track for the next restart—hoping his fuel would last—again pulled away from Larson and this time took the white flag without incident. After one more circuit, he crossed the finish line 0.222 seconds ahead of Larson to claim the trophy in the Crown Jewel event.
The third victory of Wallace’s career ended a 100-race dry spell dating to Sept. 11, 2022 at Kansas Speedway. He led 30 laps, including the last 26, as the race went eight circuits beyond the scheduled 160.
“Oh, my gosh, I’m just so proud of this team,” Wallace said. “That adrenaline rush is crazy, ‘cause I’m coming off that right now—and I’m worn out.”
After pausing to hug wife Amanda and hold his 10-month-old son Becks aloft in front of the cheering crowd in the grandstands, Wallace continued.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “To win here at the Brickyard, knowing how big this race is, knowing all the noise that’s going on in the background, to set that all aside is a testament to these people here on this 23 team. It’s been getting old right around the cut line (for the Playoffs).”
Wallace, who started on the front row beside pole winner Chase Briscoe, ran consistently in the top five but didn’t take control of the race until after he pitted on Lap 119 during a cycle of green-flag stops early in the final stage.
He took the lead for good when Ryan Blaney pitted on Lap 142 and enjoyed an advantage of more than five seconds after the stops cycled out. Though Larson made inroads into Wallace’s advantage, he wasn’t in position to challenge for the victory until the rain came.
After the shower, Wallace prevailed on the restarts against one of the top drivers in motorsports.
“There’s nothing you can do here to pass, so, no, I don’t really think there was anything I could do differently,” said Larson, the defending Brickyard 400 winner. “I was second gear on the first restart, and honestly, that one worked out a little bit better, but he almost got clear of me down the frontstretch.
“And then on the second restart, he brought the pace down a little bit slower, so I needed to be first gear. It was kind of the same thing with me last year—he had the preferred lane on the inside, and it’s really hard to beat that.”
Denny Hamlin, who co-owns Wallace’s 23XI Racing car with former NBA superstar Michael Jordan, finished third after crashing in Turn 2 during qualifying and starting the race from the rear in a backup car.
In the finals of the NASCAR Cup Series In-Season Challenge, Ty Gibbs claimed the $1-million prize by finishing 21st to Ty Dillon’s 28th. The battle wasn’t as close as the respective finishing positions might suggest.
Dillon went a lap down to then-leader Austin Cindric on Lap 78, sustained damage to the nose of this No. 10 Chevrolet during a restart and finished three laps in arrears.
“One million is a lot of money, so I’m going to donate $10,000 to whichever charity Ty Dillon wants to give to,” Gibbs said. “It’s his choice.”
“But we had a fast SAIA LTL Freight Toyota Camry. Didn’t end up where we wanted to in the end. We just lost track position and (were out of the running) to win the race.”
Ryan Preece finished fourth on Sunday but remains 42 points below the current elimination line for the Playoffs with four races left in the regular season. Brad Keselowski was fifth, posting his third top-five result of the season.
Todd Gilliland, Blaney, Christopher Bell, Alex Bowman and Carson Hocevar completed the top 10.
Cindric led a race-high 40 laps to 34 for Briscoe.
William Byron saw his bid to retake the series lead from Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott fall apart on the final lap. Byron took the green flag for the final overtime restart in third but ran out of fuel and fell to 16th at the finish.
Byron trails Elliott by four points in the chase for the regular-season championship. Larson is 15 points back in third.
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Only two months after competing in the Indianapolis 500, Kyle Larson returned to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway Sunday afternoon to claim the trophy in one of the NASCAR Cup Series’ crown jewel events, the 30th Anniversary Brickyard 400 Presented by PPG – holding off the field in a dramatic double overtime finish.
Larson led only eight of the race’s 167 laps in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet – seven of them coming in the overtime periods when he needed them most – ultimately holding off the race polesitter, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney on the white flag lap. A caution came out moments later to officially end the race after Ryan Preece’s Ford spun and became stalled on track.
The 31-year-old Californian Larson climbed out of and onto his Chevrolet Camero to wave his arms toward the grandstands and encourage the cheering crowd, clearly elated with his first win in one of NASCAR’s most prestigious races – a return to the 2.5-mile oval after four years racing on the infield road course. And it comes 30 years after his Hendrick Motorsports team executive Jeff Gordon won the inaugural stock car race at the historic 2.5-mile oval.
It’s the third NASCAR crown jewel win for Larson, also including the Southern 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway and the sport’s longest race, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It comes only eight weeks after a 18th-place showing for Larson in his Indianapolis 500 debut. Bad weather delayed his trip to Charlotte to compete in NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600, the second half of racing’s “Double” so this week’s work at Indy felt like redemption.
“This is just such a prestigious place, such hallowed ground,” said the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Larson, who now leads the series with four wins this season.
“Pretty neat to get an opportunity to race here on the oval again. What a job by our team. I mean, never gave up at all.
“And to all the fans, I love it here,” he added with a grin. “I think everything has come full circle with what was meant to be and today was meant to be for us.”
For much of the closing laps, the third-place finisher Blaney thought it was meant to be for him and his No. 12 Team Penske Ford team. He was lined up on the front row alongside fellow Ford driver Brad Keselowski for the first overtime restart when Keselowski suddenly pulled onto pit road after running out of gas – not taking the green flag.
That opened a hole for Larson – who was positioned behind Keselowski for the start – to rush forward and claim the lead over Blaney. It was a position he would never relinquish.
“It’s no fun, had a really good shot to win today,” a visibly disappointed Blaney said. “Our car was fast. Thought we had really good strategy. Kind of was the front guy having to save a little bit of gas. I thought we put ourselves in a great spot.
“I know the 6 [Keselowski] was probably going to run out if it went green. Came to the restart, I couldn’t believe they stayed out. I knew there was no way they were going to make it. So, I obviously chose the top because he might run out in the restart zone. He runs out coming to the green so he gets to do to pit road and the 5 gets promoted.
“Luck of the day right there, I guess. I don’t know. I don’t know what to be mad about. Mad at losing this race because I thought we were in the perfect position.”
Reddick’s runner-up effort – passing Blaney on the white flag lap – keeps him right in the mix for the Regular Season Championship. Larson takes a 10-point lead into in the sport’s summer break and Reddick is only 15 points back with four races remaining in the regular season to settle the 16-driver Playoff field.
“Obviously a lot of cars and a lot of things had to happen for us to get second,” said Reddick, who led a race best 40 laps in the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota. “Honestly, it was a good day. Obviously return to the Brickyard, it’s tough coming up one spot short. Once we got off of turn two there, I knew I was pretty much it. He [Larson] was going to have to make a mistake.
“Glad we had a good recovery. Another solid points day. We didn’t close the gap on the 5 [Larson] that much, but a little bit on the 9 [Elliott]. In the big picture, it was a great day for the team.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell finished fourth and 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace turned in an impressive fifth-place performance. Wallace also claimed his first stage win since 2022, leading the field at the second stage break.
There was never real rhythm to the race with varying pit stop strategies putting drivers out front. There were 13 leaders and 17 lead changes on the afternoon.
Denny Hamlin, who led 21 laps earned the first stage win – his sixth stage victory of the season and the first ever for the veteran at Indy. He finished 32nd after being involved in a multi-car accident during the first overtime restart and now is fourth in the championship standings, 43 points behind Larson.
Front Row Motorsport’s Todd Gilliland, Team Penske’s Austin Cindric, Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, Stewart Haas Racing’s Noah Gragson, and Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott rounded out the top-10.
It was an important points-grab for Bubba Wallace, who is still trying to become Playoff eligible. Wallace now trails Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain by only seven points for the 16th and final Playoff position. Roush Fenway Keselowski’s Chris Buescher is 15th in points, only 17 points up on Wallace.
XFINITY Race Winning Drivers
DATE | RACE | WINNER | # | MAKE | ST | TEAM | CREW CHIEF | LAPS | TIME |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
07-2025 | Pennzoil 250 | Connor Zilisch | 88 | Chevrolet | 7th | JR Motorsports | Mardy Lindley | 100 | 02:22:59 |
07-2024 | Pennzoil 250 | Riley Herbst | 98 | Ford | 2nd | Stewart Haas Racing | Davin Restivo | 100 | 02:28:08 |
09-2019 | Indiana 250 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 1st | Joe Gibbs Racing | Ben Beshore | 100 | 02:11:21 |
09-2018 | Lilly Diabetes 250 | Justin Allgaier | 7 | Chevrolet | 2nd | JR Motorsports | Jason Burdett | 100 | 02:13:53 |
07-2017 | Lilly Diabetes 250 | William Byron | 9 | Chevrolet | 3rd | JR Motorsports | -- | 100 | 01:58:50 |
07-2016 | Lilly Diabetes 250 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 1st | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle | 63 | 01:09:20 |
03-2016 | Axalta Faster. Tough… | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 3rd | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle | 200 | 01:45:11 |
07-2015 | Lilly Diabetes 250 | Kyle Busch | 54 | Toyota | 1st | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle | 100 | 01:49:52 |
07-2014 | Lilly Diabetes 250 | Ty Dillon | 3 | Chevrolet | 3rd | Richard Childress Racing | -- | 100 | 01:49:22 |
07-2013 | Indiana 250 | Kyle Busch | 54 | Toyota | 1st | Joe Gibbs Racing | Adam Stevens | 100 | 01:51:26 |
07-2012 | Indiana 250 | Brad Keselowski | 22 | Dodge | 8th | Team Penske | Jeremy Bullins | 100 | 01:59:00 |
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
As contrary as it might seem, there was ambivalence in Connor Zilisch’s victory in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
Yes, Zilisch won his third straight NASCAR Xfinity Series race and added to his inarguable credentials as a budding superstar.
What’s more, Zilisch delivered victory No.100 to JR Motorsports , the organization founded by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his sister, Kelly Earnhardt Miller.
But Zilisch’s victory came at the expense of teammate Justin Allgaier, who made a heroic move on the outside to retake the lead from Kyle Larson on Lap 74 and had the win in his sights until the following restart on Lap 87.
That’s when Larson’s No. 17 Chevrolet broke loose in Turn 1 and turned Allgaier’s Chevrolet into the outside wall and out of the race.
That left Zilisch and Taylor Gray to battle for the lead after a restart with four laps left. With a push from the Ford of Sam Mayer, Zilisch took control on Lap 99 of 100 and held on to win by 0.339 seconds over Mayer as Gray slipped to third.
“I see some bricks that look kissable, and I’m going to kiss them,” Zilisch said, referencing an Indianapolis tradition started by NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett. “This is awesome. One hundred wins for JRM. Congrats to Dale, Kelley, L.W. (Miller), everybody who’s raced for JRM, everybody who works at JRM.”
“I’m the smallest part of this team, and I’m so glad to be a part of it.”
Zilisch’s fifth victory of the season and sixth of his career followed wins at Sonoma Raceway and Dover Motor Speedway in his last two starts. With Allgaier finishing 36th after the wreck, Zilisch, who turned 19 on Tuesday, cut his teammate’s lead in the series standings to 21 points with five races left in the regular season.
“I hate it for Justin, because he’s been the cornerstone of company for so many years,” Dale Earnhardt Jr. said of the reigning series champion. “He’s been dependable, reliable, great with our partners, and he want to do these things for us.”
A violent accident involving the cars of Aric Almirola and Austin Hill set up the final restart with four laps left. On Lap 91, Almirola looked to the inside of Hill’s No. 21 Chevrolet exiting the short chute leading to Turn 4.
Hill’s car got loose but recovered, then turned left into Almirola’s Toyota, sending the Supra hard into the outside wall.
“Of course it was intentional,” Almirola said after a mandatory trip to the infield care center. “It was time to go, and I got him loose, and he just turned left and hooked me in the right rear. Honestly, it was one of the biggest hits in my entire NASCAR career.”
NASCAR held Hill’s Camaro on pit road for five laps for rough driving and will review the incident in the coming week for additional penalties, if warranted.
Larson survived the accident with Allgaier to finish fourth, and Ryan Sieg came home fifth. William Sawalich, Sammy Smith, Daniel Dye, Jesse Love and Dean Thompson completed the top 10.
Jeb Burton ran 15th and leads his cousin, Harrison Burton, by 10 points in the race for the final Xfinity Series Playoff spot. Harrison Burton finished 18th.
By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service
In one of the most dramatic NASCAR Xfinity Series finishes in recent memory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst took the lead in the final corner of the final lap to claim his first victory of the season in Saturday’s Pennzoil 250 – formally punching his ticket to the 2024 Playoffs.
Three different drivers led the final three laps in the series’ return to the famous speedway’s 2.5-mile oval after four years of competing on the track’s road course. Ultimately, the 25-year-old Herbst drove his No. 98 SHR Ford sideways exiting Turn 4 to negotiate his way past veteran Aric Almirola and race off to a .167-second win over his SHR teammate Cole Custer and Almirola.
Custer led Lap 98. Almirola led Lap 99. And Herbst held the lead for the most important, Lap 100. The three were three-wide on the white flag lap, signaling one lap to-go with Almirola taking the white flag out front. Herbst caught him and dove low to claim the lead coming out of Turn 4 on the next lap and Custer raced past Almirola in the closing feet to give SHR a 1-2 finish.
“This is Indianapolis, this is the most famous race track in the world and it’s an honor just to walk into the place, let alone win,” said Herbst, whose only other series win was in at his hometown Las Vegas track last year. “We’ve had speed all year and I felt like we could win. I just messed up on restarts a little bit but just continued to work and continued to work.
“I’m proud of these guys. Proud of Stewart-Haas Racing. Obviously, with the news of us (the current Stewart-Haas Racing team) shutting down these guys could have given up on me and Cole but they stuck behind me and Cole and it’s back-to-back wins for Stewart-Haas Racing.”
The teammates combined to lead 77 of the 100 laps with Custer’s 47 laps out front most in the field. Custer, Saturday’s polesitter was smiling when he climbed out of his No. 00 SHR Ford and was the first to congratulate Herbst.
“What an awesome day for SHR, two cars up front all day, qualified one-two and finished one-two, so an unbelievable day for SHR,” said Custer, who started his day with a big announcement that he would be driving for the new single-car Haas Factory Team in the NASCAR Cup Series next year.
The defending series champion – who claimed his first win of 2024 last week at Pocono, Pa. – continues to lead the points standings and with his second place showing now has a 56-point advantage over JR Motorsports’ Justin Allgaier, who finished ninth Saturday.
The former fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver Almirola, 40, making his first start in the Xfinity Series since May 11, finished third in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. The former Stewart-Haas Racing driver was also among the first to congratulate Herbst on the hard-fought victory.
“They (Herbst and Custer) were the class of the field but I knew if they got racing there was going to be an opportunity to steal it and I got the lead and thought and just got too tight in [turn] three and he got back inside me,” Almirola said, adding, “Those guys deserve it. I know all the guys on the team. They’re a great group of guys and proud and happy for those guys.”
Rookie Shane Van Gisbergen, the former Australian SuperCars champion, finished a strong fourth-place, making his way forward after opting for fresh tires on a final pit stop and turning in an inspired final restart with 10 laps remaining. A three-time road course winner this season, that fourth place was his best finish on an oval since a third place finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in February.
“It’s tough and I’m obviously still learning and I’m probably still a bit too conservative but I feel like the car got better and I got better,” Van Gisbergen said. “This Xfinity Series is so fun, the way the cars move around and the way they’re all sliding.
“I had a blast.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed finished fifth. Richard Childress Racing’s Austin Hill, who started from the rear of the field after some last minute adjustments on his Chevrolet, rallied to a sixth-place finish.
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series regular Daniel Dye was seventh, followed by two-time Indy winner A.J. Allmendinger, Allgaier and 21-year-old Carson Kvapil, who was making his sixth start of the year driving for JR Motorsports.
It was perhaps a fittingly dramatic ending to a race that got off to a tumultuous start with a 12-car accident taking multiple cars out of contention early. JR Motorsports Sam Mayer, a two-time race winner this year, spun out after making a three-wide move in Turn 3 collecting multiple cars and damaging more as they tried to avoid.
Fulltime NASCAR Cup Series driver Josh Berry, who was driving the No. 15 AM Racing Ford was among those collected in the melee and was officially scored last. He and Mayer were unable to complete one lap.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith retired on Lap 37, his No. 81 Toyota never able to overcome the damage from the first lap incident.
RSS Racing’s Ryan Sieg holds a slim three-point edge over JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith for the final points Playoff transfer position with six races remaining to set the 12-driver Playoff field.
Track groupings used in my driver projections.
Compare the degree of track banking at this and other groups of tracks.
No trivia for this track.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is an automobile racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, (an enclave suburb of Indianapolis) in the United States. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, and formerly the home of the United States Grand Prix. It is located on the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road, approximately six miles (10 km) west of Downtown Indianapolis.
Constructed in 1909, it is the second purpose-built, banked oval racing circuit after Brooklands and the first to be called a 'speedway'. It has a permanent seating capacity of 257,325. It is the highest-capacity sports venue in the world.
Considered relatively flat by American standards, the track is a 2.5-mile-long (4.0 km) rectangular oval with dimensions that have remained essentially unchanged since its construction. It has two 5/8-mile-long (1,000 m) straightaways, four geometrically identical 1/4-mile (400 m) turns, connected by two 1/8-mile (200 m) short straightaways, termed "short chutes", between turns 1 and 2, and between turns 3 and 4. Altogether, the current grounds have expanded from an original 320 acres (1.3 km2) on which the speedway was first built to cover an area of over 559 acres (2.3 km2). Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, it is the only such site to be affiliated with automotive racing history.
In addition to the Indianapolis 500, the speedway also hosts NASCAR's Brickyard 400 and Indiana 250. From 2000 to 2007, the speedway hosted the Formula One United States Grand Prix, and from 2008 to 2015 the Moto GP.
On the grounds of the speedway is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum , which opened in 1956, and houses the Hall of Fame. The museum moved into its current building located in the infield in 1976. The track is nicknamed "The Brickyard", and the garage area is famously known as Gasoline Alley.
Source: Wikipedia