After three years of lackluster road course experiments, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is back for the 27th annual Brickyard 400.
Goodyear and NASCAR conducted test runs last week to gather continuing information on the tires and performance of the next generation car in its debut at Indy’s 2.5-mile oval track, scheduled for July 21.
Denny Hamlin (Toyota), Kyle Busch (Chevrolet) and Todd Gilliland (Ford) were each selected to represent their racing teams’ current OEMs at the Brickyard. Official schedules and results have yet to be announced/implemented.
But Hamlin may have had a potential solution in mind for quite some time, which is a rather counter-intuitive expression of his usual stance on demanding performance improvements from NASCAR. The Chesterfield native certainly hopes NASCAR’s governing body can take a few examples from IndyCar’s strategy.
Denny Hamlin’s puzzling solutions with lower speeds at the Brickyard
Before the Brickyard even got a glimpse of the NASCAR season, Kyle Larson made his stock car reputation last month in the infamous “Double Duel” between Mother Nature and Indy Charlotte.
The #5 Hendrick driver finished 17th at IMS, embroiled in a week-long exemption battle with NASCAR, but the race itself was perhaps another nerve-wracking affair in Indiana over Memorial Day weekend. Finally, Larson’s Arrow McLaren teammate and 2024 Indy 500 runner-up Pato O’Ward fought tooth and nail to the end, finishing just 0.3417 seconds behind eventual winner Josef Newgarden.
Denny Hamlin’s second-place finish at Gateway last week could be said to be in stark contrast. With Joe Gibbs Racing missing out on a second straight win, the #11 Toyota made it onto the podium after teammate Christopher Bell had trouble in the closing stages.
But before these successes, Denny advocated for two things above all else. First, an increase in displacement for the new Gen 7 cars. And second, a guaranteed exemption for Kyle Larson, who missed Charlotte due to rain.
Heading to Sonoma this week, Bob Pockrass asked Denny Hamlin a few questions about his thoughts on tire testing at the Brickyard, and especially the renewed excitement at Indy.
After a few test laps on the legendary oval track, which is back on the season calendar for the first time since 2020, Hamlin explained his conclusions and predicted: I certainly think that qualifying will be a big deal.” Noting the incapabilities presented by the NextGen car on tracks two miles and above, he then speculated about an unconventional remedy specific to the Brickyard: “I think that, in my opinion, if we could, it’s too late to do this now, but if we could slow those cars down about 10 miles an hour in the corner.
And I know that we’re already running really slow, but you want to see an Indy-type race, right? Where there’s drafting, slingshot passes at the end of the straightaway.”
But why does Denny Hamlin think this way? He continued to elaborate, “My fear is that… the second-place car or the third-place car, whatever it’s going to be in such a big wake that they’re not going to be able to make up that distance on the straightaway.
So I certainly believe (it) will be a track position type race, just because the corner speeds were just on the edge of having not enough grip there.”
Pockrass aimed to gather all the information, asking Denny if the action at Indy next month would be “more like a short track” instead of the exciting intermediate outings this year. Hamlin responded, “No, not in Kansas or anywhere. I mean, we’ve said it a million times: the wider the track, the better the racing.
By comparison, the IMS oval race track is 4.5 miles long and averages 17 metres wide.” The short and long straights are each 16 metres wide and the four 9.2-degree banked corners are approximately 18 metres wide. The width of the Next Generation car is about 79 inches or 6.5 feet.
In theory, this mathematically suggests that there will be plenty of passing opportunities. But with at least 36 cars traveling at speeds approaching 200 mph, the smallest inches can make a big difference.
Kyle Busch crashed during a test run at Indy, bringing this point home. After completing a Goodyear tire evaluation on Wednesday, the two-time Brickyard winner made headlines when social media posts painted a sad picture for RCR’s No. 8 Chevrolet at Indy. According to Goodyear and other key sources, Busch crashed in turn 2, but the accident “was not due to any type of tire failure.” Fortunately, he was able to get out of the car on his own a few days before moving to Sonoma and sustained no major damage.
It’s fair to say that KFB hasn’t had the kind of season we’d expect from the former two-time Cup Series champion. Still, Denny believes Goodyear is on the right track, ignoring criticism of the next-generation car and making incremental adjustments to optimize excitement to the highest level. During the course of the conversation, he also revealed to Pockrass: “We’re going to use a softer tire on the right side and a thicker tire on the left side at Indy. So we sneak in.”
In an unrelated interview with the official IMS social media channel, Denny Hamlin also discussed how the Next-Gen car “is actually made better for the oval.” Nevertheless, he ultimately admits, yet again, that the race in itself will fare better for those with favorable “track position.” Additionally, the Brickyard 400 on July 21st will also be the last race before the NASCAR season goes on hold for a two-week break for the Olympics. Will the governing body and its stakeholders use this downtime to craft an even better solution than the one Hamlin provided?
