Jeff Gordon Divulges NASCAR’s Fatal Flaw That Led to Indianapolis’s Brickyard Losing Its Luster

From 1994 until 2020, NASCAR used to race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway with the event name being Brickyard 400, the oval, unlike the current Verizon 200, which is a road course event. For the most part, the IMS is a fairly iconic venue, on par with Daytona and the Charlotte Motor Speedway. In fact, it also plays host to the Indianapolis 500 for the IndyCar Series. However, the track has not been particularly kind to NASCAR.

In addition to that, the Brickyard 400 is far from achieving the iconic status that its IndyCar counterpart enjoys. In light of this, Hendrick Motorsports legend Jeff Gordon gave his theory of what went wrong.

Jeff Gordon highlights the primary issue that NASCAR faced at Indianapolis

During his appearance at the latest episode of the ‘NASCAR Live’ podcast, the VP for Hendrick Motorsports said, “First and foremost, what we need to do is get the cars to race properly on the oval.”

“I know NASCAR is working really hard in the wind tunnel engineering group, with the teams. To find some solutions, to try to find a way where the cars can stay connected a little bit better. To make more passes and so they’re trying a bunch of different gadgets or whatever you want to call them, on the cars.”

“It’s not just for a New Hampshire or an Indianapolis, get it to work at some other tracks too.”

Of course, one has to wonder whether the Next Gen cars would buck the trend or if it would be the same as before. According to the HMS veteran, the biggest problem was the inability to overtake. Obviously, no one likes to see processional races, as racing demands some form of overtaking to make things exciting.

So it is important to figure out how to remedy the situation and help the Indianapolis Motor Speedway return to glory days.

Gordon continued, “One of the reasons why it lost its luster at the Brickyard for the oval, is we just couldn’t pass. It seemed like we were just following the leader, so I don’t think we need to go back there and follow the leader round the oval.”

“We need to go there and put on a show for the fans and show people what they get to see on all the other big ovals. That NASCAR puts on the best show of any motorsport, any day, all day long, to anybody who wants to hear it. We put on the best show in the best competition. Look at what we’re doing on the mile and a half, so there’s no reason why she shouldn’t be able to do this at Indianapolis”

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Jeff Gordon hopes to see the Brickyard 400 back in NASCAR

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Currently, the venue is on the 2023 Cup Series calendar, but only in its road course avatar. It may be a while before the cars can tackle the oval, confident of putting up an exciting race. Until then, the rest of the 2023 Cup Series season will roll by. Gordon’s team, Hendrick Motorsports, have always been the favorites, and once again, the drivers are in championship contention. However, not all of them are performing well this season.

So far, only Kyle Larson and William Byron are flying the flag. Chase Elliott has been struggling ever since his 6-week absence, and the same applies to Alex Bowman with his injury.

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