James: Has NASCAR's Brickyard 400 lost its luster?
INDIANAPOLIS — When stock cars rumbled into Indianapolis Motor Speedway and across the yard of bricks in 1994, it was a sacrilege to true faithful, an economic enabler for track president Tony George as he launched the breakaway Indy Racing League and a decision that altered the course of open wheel racing, to NASCAR’s benefit.
By Sunday night, 23 installments of the Brickyard 400 will have passed since NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series first visited the speedway with local hero Jeff Gordon winning the inaugural race. And by then it will be ever clearer that although it took nearly a quarter century, a series of centennial celebrations and the 100th running of the Indianapolis 500 this May, open wheel racing has reclaimed its palace.
Certainly, open wheel purists who decried the “taxi cabs” and “tin tops” their rightful place as an important factor in IMS history will assert that nothing ever changed. That would be disingenuous.
There were years of crowds in the hundreds of thousands as the race became a coveted Sprint Cup major for drivers. But things certainly feel different now.
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In excess of 100,000 fans jammed into the speedway during Carb Day for the 100th Indy 500 and around 350,000 sold out the voluminous grand stands and roamed the infield because of Hoosier and Midwestern nostalgia on Memorial Day weekend. Speedway officials wouldn’t release an attendance figure, but cheekily equated it to the cumulative populations of Indiana cities South Bend and Ft. Wayne.
The figure Sunday is more likely to resemble Columbus plus Pittsboro — the respective suburbs of Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon, who will make their expected final starts in their home state race — plus Goshen and tabulate.
Turnstiles matter even in an era when television revenue is life blood. A report in the Indianapolis Business Journal this week suggested hosting a NASCAR race is crimping the margins of profitability given recent attendance shortfalls.
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The buzz factor has clearly been reclaimed by IndyCar with several scintillating recent Indianapolis 500 finishes and NASCAR’s struggles to make stock cars look less lumbering on a track built in 1909.
Yes, the 100th Indianapolis 500 spiked attendance to a historic level and who knows what 101 is worth. But it felt like a place to be.
Judging by the dearth of fans, front-yard hawkers and energy at the speedway this weekend, many chose to be somewhere else. It’s all part of a broader NASCAR attendance malaise, for sure.
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The scant attendees strewn about the massive IMS grounds will optically suggest, scream, decline by comparison to the crowds in excess of 250,000 that once stuffed the Brickyard 400 on weekends of sunburn, beer and rumbling stock car motors. Watching cars labor around the low-banked 2.5-mile track apparently isn’t the same spectacle anymore.
It’s still a career-defining stop for drivers who seek to include their names with the history of the place, but they must wonder where the luster went. It went back to May.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
