The more things have changed over the past four years, the more things have stayed the same.
It’s been four years since NASCAR Cup Series cars have turned laps on the oval at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and despite coming back with independent rear suspension, a wider composite body, lower-profile tires and everything else different about the NextGen, it’s going to be the same race.
The Brickyard 400 will still be about track position with passing at an extreme minimum.
Alex Bowman says he’s so removed from the Gen6 car that he doesn’t have the best memories from his last race here but …
“The race is going to look the same, right,” Bowman said. “It’s going to be a very track position-oriented race. If anything, it might be tougher. Where we used to be able to move the car ahead with air, these cars don’t lend themselves to that.
“I feel like (the Ford and Toyota cars) do a better job of that but ours doesn’t allow you to drive behind someone and get the guy loose. That’s way harder to do everywhere these days.”
The hope would be that these cars, which have way more drag than its predecessor, would punch a large enough hole in the air so that it would allow for passes down the straights. That doesn’t seem to be viable this weekend.
It does allow for drafting down the straightaways but drivers say such runs end immediately upon reaching the corner and the air getting disturbed.
“It’s interesting how the draft works,” says fastest in practice Tyler Reddick. “There is some sort of tow you get but then also the dirty air that comes with it is a challenge.”
Reddick said that if the driver in front of him missed his entry the corner before, there was a slipstream affect until reaching 15 car lengths and then there’s turbulence.
“I don’t know how that’s going to work out,” Reddick said. “We were pretty spread out so we could all run our best pace but I think drivers will make more mistakes in a pack on Sunday.”
Bowman echoed that sentiment.
“The same,” he said. “We got a draft down the straights but then slower in the corner — standard issue aerodynamics 101. I wish we built the big runs like the Indy cars did because that would change the racing for sure.”
To wit, there was also some hope that the steering rack and independent rear suspension on these cars could allow it to hang better on the outside if drivers decided to carry the momentum of that draft into Turns 1 and 3 to complete the pass.
That was pretty much impossible with the old cars and Bowman says it’s more impossible with the wider NextGen.
“No way,” Bowman said. “Zero percent chance of doing that unless the guy you’re passing messed up big. You would have to be clearing him once you got to the corner. We just don’t have those big runs like Indy cars do.”
In other words, prepare for the obligatory talks of dirty air all day Sunday.
Denny Hamlin says the car felt the same on Friday as it did when he tested at IMS earlier in the summer but with more than four cars on track, the dirty air was way more pronounced and told him everything he needed to know about the racing product on Sunday.
“The air was very dirty, very dingy,” Hamlin said. “Dirty, dirty air.”
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So difficult to pass?
“It will be very difficult to pass.”
Ultimately, as Christopher Bell expressed, this is still a new car and it’s a much different Cup Series so no one really knows until the green and checkered flags fly.
“We’ll find out on Sunday,” Bell said. “I feel like racing on the oval at Indianapolis is where we need to be here. It’s going to be hard to pass but it always has been. It’s special, it’s Indianapolis and it’s where we need to be.”
Practice results
Reddick was fastest overall during the one hour session with a best lap of 49.293 seconds around the 2.5-mile true oval, with an average speed of 182.582 mph.
That was enough to top reigning Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney who posted an average speed of 181.928 mph. Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell and Alex Bowman was next fastest.
The session was mostly uneventful with just a caution at the 30 minute mark to clean up debris and a Erik Jones single car spin, with no contact, in the final minute.
Chase Elliott ran the most lap at 36.
Reddick was also fastest amongst those who ran 10 consecutive laps or more over Kyle Larson, Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric.
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.