NASCAR Brickyard 400 moves to USA during red flag heading to double overtime
A very late change in programming. The conclusion of the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis is now going to be on USA Network. NASCAR fans can catch overtime for the 400 on USA as the race hit the time limit on NBC.
Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney are in a battle for the crown jewel race. A red flag has everything on hold at the moment following a wreck during the first overtime attempt.
NASCAR is going to have a Brickyard 400 winner for the first time since Kevin Harvick in 2020. Who is it going to be? Catch it on USA.
The start of the race today was moved to USA Network due to breaking news. President Joe Biden announced he is dropping out of the Presidential election. NBC moved to breaking news coverage soon after and it pushed Brickyard 400 coverage to USA.
Right as the race was coming to the overtime green flag, Brad Keselowski ducked onto pit road. He had run out of fuel. Kyle Larson then jumped up in line from P3 and was side-by-side with Ryan Blaney.
By the time the field was entering Turn 1, John Hunter Nemechek was being wrecked by Daniel Hemric, who he tried to block. Into the inside wall, up the track and into the outside wall. Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin were also involved.
The red flag lasted for 17 minutes total.
Brickyard 400 has largest crowd since 2017
The reason why NASCAR went away from the Brickyard 400 in favor of the road course was to inject energy into what had become a stale product. Well, it didn’t work. Coming back to the oval for the 30th anniversary of the inaugural 400, now that appears to be working.
In fact, Indianapolis Motor Speedway made a little bit of history. Ticket sales are hitting numbers they haven’t seen since the early 2010s.
Roger Penske addressed the media at IMS today. He revealed that ticket sales in the week leading up to the race are better than they have been in a decade or more. There will be a crowd of about 70,000 or more, with tickets sold up 20-25% compared to the 2019 race.
Everyone loves to talk about attendance and what that does or does not mean for NASCAR. Let’s not act like 70,000 people is a small number. For Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which can hold roughly 300,000, it might be a little light. But 70K is a sold-out football game, that’s a ton of people.