Roger Penske details historic ticket sales ahead of Brickyard 400 at IMS

As NASCAR makes the return to the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400, attendance is looking solid. No, it isn’t Indy 500 attendance or the crowd size of the 90s and early 2000s, but there are positive numbers here.

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.

Nathan Brown of the Indy Star shared the details from Penske on his X.com account.

Roger Penske says @IMS has sold more tickets in the 1-week lead-up to this year’s Brickyard 400 than they have in a decade-plus.

Also notes the expect to be up 20-25% on ticket sales compared to 2019.

I’m told they expect roughly 70,000.

— Nathan Brown (@By_NathanBrown) July 21, 2024

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.

This tells me that NASCAR and racing fans want to see the oval. They don’t want to see the road course at Indy. It is all about that 2.5-mile-long oval and seeing those cars come down the frontstretch in front of the crowd.

Tyler Reddick on pole for Brickyard 400

On Saturday, the NASCAR Cup Series had qualified. After a 50-minute practice on the oval Friday, teams were able to dial in their cars for their fast laps. The new qualifying format that NASCAR insists on keeping for Cup is frustrating, but the fastest car is starting P1.

Tyler Reddick beat out Denny Hamlin and Chase Elliott for the pole award. He has a pole on the road course and on the oval now. When Reddick won the pole at IMS for Richard Childress Racing, he went on to win the race as well. Does he have another one in him?

The race today is going to be very exciting for many reasons. I’m mostly excited about the fact that Elliott, Hamlin, Reddick, and Kyle Larson are all starting in the top-5. Elliott is the points leader with Larson three points back, Reddick 15 back, and Hamlin 20.

The regular season is winding down. Today’s Brickyard 400 could drastically change the race for the regular season championship, and the NASCAR Playoffs.