NASCAR: Rumored change confirmed on 2024 schedule

Indianapolis Motor Speedway is indeed set to host a NASCAR Cup Series oval race for the first time since 2020 in 2024 for the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400.

Just days after it was confirmed that IndyCar‘s second race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course had been moved to the Milwaukee Mile for a doubleheader later in the season, NASCAR has confirmed a change that many had long been expecting.

Instead of running their August race at the Speedway, Indiana venue’s 13-turn, 2.439-mile (3.925-kilometer) interior road course, the Cup Series is set to return to the iconic four-turn, 2.5-mile (4.023-kilometer) oval for the first time since 2020.

The move was long viewed as inevitable following three years of racing on the track’s road course, and an announcement was seen as nothing more than a formality after several drivers tested on the oval following this year’s road course race.

The change comes just in time for the 30th anniversary of the Brickyard 400, which many NASCAR fans still view as a crown jewel event.

Next year’s Brickyard 400, which is officially the 28th running of the event, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, July 21. It is set to be the final race before NBC’s NASCAR coverage takes a three-week pause due to the network’s commitment to the Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Two-time reigning Brickyard 400 winner Kevin Harvick is set to retire at the end of the 2023 season, meaning that the most recent winner of the race among active drivers is set to be 2018 winner Brad Keselowski of RFK Racing.

The only other active former winner of the event (among full-time drivers) is two-time winner Kyle Busch of Richard Childress Racing.

Front Row Motorsports’ Michael McDowell won the third and final race at the track’s road course after Kaulig Racing’s A.J. Allmendinger and Richard Childress Racing’s (now 23XI Racing’s) Tyler Reddick won the first and second, respectively.

The full 2024 Cup Series schedule has not yet been released, but that is set to change within the next few weeks.