The NASCAR Cup Series will join the Xfinity Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, while the Truck Series will compete down the street at Lucas Oil Raceway Park. It is nice to see NASCAR return to the Brickyard. The race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a Crown Jewel Race for the Cup Series. It always felt weird racing at Indy on the road course. It should be fun to see which team is kissing the bricks after the race Sunday.
Here is the schedule for the on-track activity at Indianapolis Motor Speedway….
RACE REWIND: INDIANAPOLIS 2024
NASCAR made the switch from the road course to the speedway track at Indianapolis last year. I watched the Race Rewind for the 2024 Brickyard 400 and I forgot just how wild this race was. The draft comes into play at this 2.5-mile flat track. The reduce horsepower of the Gen-7 cars made it easy for the drivers to make some risky moves and throw some crazy blocks when another driver got a run. This led to 10 cautions during the race. Most of the cautions happened in the final Stage. Kyle Larson won the race, but Tyler Reddick led the most laps and Denny Hamlin scored the most Stage Points.
You can see the highlights from last year’s race at Indianapolis here:2024 Brickyard 400 Race Rewind
FANTASY STATS FOR INDIAPOLIS
Indianapolis is a 2.5-mile flat track. The drivers who run well at Pocono Raceway typically run up front at the Brickyard. The Cup Series just raced at the Tricky Triangle last month. We need to look at the stats from that race and combine it with the stats from the race last year at the Brickyard to figure out which drivers would be the best picks for our Fantasy NASCAR lineups this week.
Here are the stats from the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last year and the race at Pocono Raceway last week, sorted by Driver Rating…
INDIANAPOLIS PREVIEW
FANTASY LIVE: There are five races left in the regular season for the Fantasy Live game. The races at Iowa Speedway and Richmond Speedway are the easiest to predict. We need to make sure we have allocations left with Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin for those two races. We can get away with using road course aces at Watkins Glen (Shane van Gisbergen, AJ Allmendinger, Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell). The last race at Daytona really does not matter. We can easily create a lineup with the drivers we have allocations left at Daytona. I mapped out the picks for the final five races and I have the some good drivers left for the race this week in Indianapolis.
FANTRAX / SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE: The Cup Series teams that are locked into the playoffs have a habit of trying new setups over the summer to prepare for the playoffs. That is not the case this week. Every owner wants to be with their team kissing the bricks in the Crown Jewel Race Sunday. The cream typically rises to the top at Indianapolis, so we need to make sure we use our top drivers in Group B. I am not too worried about allocations in Group A, because there is enough talent to get use through the season in that Group. You can take some chances in Group C in FanTrax and Group D in the Speedway Collective game. This race was filled with wrecks last year and that allowed some of the drivers from those groups to finish up front (Todd Gilliland finish 6th, Noah Gragson finished 9th and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 11th).
EARLY WEEK PICKS FOR INDIANAPOLIS
ONE & DONE PICK: BUBBA WALLACE
FANTASY LIVE PICKS
FANTRAX PICKS
SPEEDWAY COLLECTIVE
EARLY WEEK BEST BETS FOR INDIANAPOLIS
Here is my early-week, Best Bets for the Brickyard 400…
DENNY HAMLIN (+500): I hate betting a driver at 5-1 odds, but I do like winning. I had Hamlin as a Best Bet last week at 5-1 odds and he won the race. I think the same could happen Sunday. Hamlin has checked every box for the Hall of Fame except a championship and a crown jewel win at the Brickyard. He finished 2nd last month at Pocono and he had the car to beat in this race last year until he was caught up in a crash. The No. 11 car is going to be up front Sunday. I would not be surprised if Hamlin beat your favorite driver two weeks in a row.
RYAN BLANEY (+900): Indianapolis Motor Speedway is owned by Roger Penske. The Brickyard 400 is a very important race for The Captain and I expect his cars to be fast this weekend. Blaney finished 3rd at Pocono last month and he finished 3rd at Indianapolis last year. The No. 12 car will have the speed. They just need some better luck in order to kiss the bricks Sunday.
CHASE BRISCOE (+1100): I was looking for some longer odds on Briscoe, but I will take 11-1. He has been the best driver in the Cup Series over the last two races. Briscoe finished 2nd at Sonoma and 2nd last week at Dover. Briscoe also won on a similar track last month at Pocono. I expect Briscoe to keep his hot streak going this week at his home track in Indiana.
* I will update these picks after qualifying this weekend.
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