Why Indianapolis Motor Speedway is committed to IndyCar-NASCAR doubleheader, road course for Cup race
INDIANAPOLIS — Doug Boles always has a plan but last year's NASCAR Cup series race on the IMS road course, marred by stock car splitters digging into a bolted-down curb and turning the race into a demolition derby caught him by surprise. A piece of the course that had been a staple since it was updated in 2014 proved pivotal in deciding not only the outcome of the race, but how an event that was once viewed by many as one of NASCAR's most important races would be viewed moving forward.
Throughout media availabilities a year ago, many veteran members of the NASCAR paddock weren't shy in their frustration at being kicked off the historic oval where so many of racing's biggest stars have competed for decades. Some compared it to racing in a parking lot. Others simply said the catastrophe with the Turn 6 curbs was the result of a poorly-formed plan.
Boles and his Indianapolis Motor Speedway team have been hard at work in the 12 months since, hoping to create a foundation of a one-of-a-kind race weekend that can have serious staying power and excite fans and members of all series.
Across an expansive, exclusive interview with IndyStar this week, Boles discussed Cup's future racing on the road course, why having IndyCar on-hand is so important and how they went about fixing the notorious curbing issues.
Could the Brickyard 400 on the IMS oval come back?
"I don’t know that we really lobbied drivers, in terms of getting them on board (with the oval after last year’s Cup driver criticism). If I’m Kevin Harvick, I want to be on the oval. I’ve been successful on the oval. I’ve been around a long time, and I know the value of the oval, so I never felt like I needed to call Kevin or someone else up and say, ‘Hey, man, give us a chance.’
“We switched (Cup) to the road course, transparently, because we wanted to refresh the Brickyard weekend a little bit. This is an extremely important place in racing history and we want to be on the NASCAR schedule, so we said, ‘Let’s experiment with the road course.’
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“We’re pretty committed to the road course, but we’re also open to the oval conversation – as is NASCAR. When I say we’re committed to the road course, it doesn’t mean I don’t think the oval will back at some time because there is absolutely value in the oval and something special about winning on the oval in the same direction Ray Harroun and A.J. Foyt and Al Unser Sr. and Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson won on it."
When could we expect to see a potential change to the Cup race?
“I don’t see us changing from the road course for 2023, and I think NASCAR would probably tell you the same thing. But that doesn’t mean that at some point in time we won’t experiment with the oval again or with some kind of rotation or something along those lines. Right now, especially as NASCAR has branched out a bit into road racing, it’s nice, and it allows us to have that doubleheader weekend.
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“Before you decide to go back on the oval, you’d want the teams to have had time to really think through this new car and how it performs on ovals, and we’re unique in that we’re flat and massive, not flat and short or big and banked. And we’d want to be sure that if we experiment or come back to racing on the oval that we’re pretty sure we’re going to put on a decent show for the fans.”
Does the Indy 500 have to be IMS' only oval race?
“It’s not an issue. I think the Cup series is the premier stock car series in the world, and I’m fine with them running on the oval. To me, that wouldn’t be a problem – it just needs to be the right timing, and we need to sit down with NASCAR and decide what works. Right now, the road course is where we’re committed, and I think the racing’s been good and will continue to be good.
“But (NASCAR running the oval during an IndyCar doubleheader) gets an awful lot more complicated. We’re not going to run IndyCar on the oval as part of a NASCAR weekend in July, so then you have to figure out, either IndyCar’s not here or how do you convert the track back and forth? And that creates its own set of challenges.”
Could this weekend ever drop IndyCar?
“This race weekend (as a doubleheader) was born out of necessity, and I love the race with IndyCar here as part of it, but first and foremost, if IndyCar looked at their schedule longer term and said, ‘The best thing for IndyCar to grow is to replace the (July) IndyCar race at IMS with X, then I’m going to be the first person to be supportive of that.
“Right now, I don’t see that happening in the near-future. I think this is a big piece of (the IMS) schedule, but the most important thing for all of us is that the IndyCar schedule across the board is the best that can be created, and if there’s something else that works well, then great.”
When could we start to see more series crossover?
“We’re always talking to Cup drivers about ‘The Double’ (for Memorial Day weekend), and this is another opportunity when they’re at the Speedway to actually see and talk to them and have them go experience an Indy car in-person. As we have conversations, we say, ‘Hey, we want you to come to Indy and then go do Charlotte the same weekend.’ This gives an opportunity for a Cup driver that hasn’t seen IndyCar up-close, because we’re running at the same time they are, to interact with drivers in-person. We hope long-term, that creates more interest for ‘The Double.’”
Did IMS alter the configuration of the road course to help the Cup race?
“Later last year, we modified the way we raced at our track with our sportscar race, and instead of using the chicane, we used the ‘inner-loop.’ And when IndyCar did their engine testing here this spring, they tested using the inner loop because we were curious how it would race. When we designed the road course, we had IndyCar driver input because we wanted it to be fast, fun and entertaining for the drivers, and we wanted at least two – and maybe three – passing zones. That’s road course Turns 1, 7 and 12; so if we use the inner loop, that takes away the importance of Turn 4 because now, that one determines how you go through the chicane and how fast you go through Turn 7. If you run the inner loop, you completely eliminate that.
“We also learned that if you have an incident coming out of (the inner loop), it can turn pretty difficult pretty quickly because there’s no runoff to drivers’ left before you run into the guard rail without us reconfiguring and removing those spectator mounds that would also impact the golf course. So we felt like it was best to keep the course as-is.”
How did you fix the Turn 6 curb issue that plagued the Cup race in 2021?
“Our FIA Grade 1 certificate says we have to leave (the Turn 6 curb from 2021 that caused issues) where it is. Ultimately, we settled having it where it was, but we excavated where it is and filled it with concrete so it’s a permanent curb – so you won’t get splitters going underneath it any more, and we also made the peak-to-valley more severe (3 inches, rather than 2 inches). You can drive over it, but it creates a bit more vibration, and it should be enough of a deterrent. You’re not going to put your whole car over it because it’s so tall that it might scrape underneath your car.
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“On drivers’ left, IndyCar had a small curb that had been there since 2014 that they don’t use. It’s only to mark boundaries for the timing line, but NASCAR guys drive over it, and we removed that so it doesn’t create too much a side-load issue. So we just painted the surface where it used to be to help the IndyCar guys to know where that used to be.”
Why not put in gravel or grass to deter drivers from ignoring track limits?
“Last year, NASCAR mandated the turtle curbs (at drivers’ right through the chicane as a deterrent for cutting the course). They’ve wanted to avoid having to police the areas where people can cut through, but it looks like they’re going to have to. They asked us if we’d paint drivers’ right on the inside of the curbs so drivers knew they weren’t supposed to drive there, and it’s also a lot easier for NASCAR looking at video to show the contrast to prove a car’s gone out-of-bounds. And it’s temporary (yellow) paint that we can spray wash off.
“We didn’t put gravel there because if someone ends up in it, it pushes that gravel out onto the track, and we chose not to do grass and leave asphalt there because it allows us flexibility for the racetrack in the future."