The goal for 39 drivers on Sunday will be to kiss the bricks.
NASCAR’s Cup Series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 25. The green flag on one of the sport’s crown jewel races will drop at 2 p.m. ET.
Carson Hocevar is the race’s pole-sitter, with Spire Motorsports teammate Daniel Suarez joining him on the front row.
Bubba Wallace is the reigning winner at the track and he’s coming off a sixth-place finish last weekend at North Wilkesboro. Ranking 13th in the point standings this season with just five races to go before the postseason Chase begins, the driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing isn’t taking anything for granted.
“Just because we won it last year doesn’t guarantee us to win it again,” Wallace
said. “So, we got to go and work for it. The way I look at it is, two back-to-back good races for us and we're firing all cylinders when we need to.”
Also near the cutline for the Chase is Shane van Gisbergen, saddled in 14th place for the 16-car postseason. A road course ace who captured checkered flags this season at Watkins Glen and Sonoma, the 37-year-old from New Zealand is improving on NASCAR’s traditional ovals in his second full-time season in the Cup Series. He finished sixth at Atlanta and fifth at North Wilkesboro in two consecutive races, keeping playoff hopes alive for his No. 97 Chevrolet for Trackhouse Racing.
“It's just time and getting to drive for good teams, good equipment and that makes it really fun. It's all just experience and time racing. You know, learning how other people race, how to approach it, restarts — just experience,” van Gisbergen said. “I’m still weak on intermediates. I think that's probably my lowest-ranked track. Getting better at drafting ones, but intermediates we're weak, I'm weak, weak as a team, we really need to step up there.”
The Brickyard 400 will also serve as the finale for NASCAR’s In-Season Challenge, pitting a pair of Ford drivers — Todd Gilliland and Ryan Blaney — against each other for the $1 million prize. While Blaney was seeded third, Gilliland is NASCAR’s Cinderella story of the tournament. Seeded 25th, the driver of the No. 34 for Front Row Motorsports bested Suarez, Hocevar, Alex Bowman and Chase Elliott to reach the finals.
Gilliland is coming off an eighth-place finish at North Wilkesboro and has traditionally raced well at Indianapolis, notching sixth-place finishes in each of the past two seasons.
“We're going to need another really, really good run. I know we're capable of that. So I'm excited about it,” Gilliland said. “This whole in-season tournament, it’s just kind of given my team something to talk about and work really hard for. They've been hyped up about it since the beginning.”
Denny Hamlin remains the leader in the standings heading into the Brickyard 400 with a 68-point advantage over Tyler Reddick. Hamlin, the veteran 45-year-old driver of the No. 11 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, has never won the Brickyard 400 before. A victory on Sunday would complete NASCAR’s grand slam for him, with a win in each of the four crown jewels.
“I've got a couple shots at this left, so I think (I’m) more desperate. I'm certainly willing to take a few more risks here, whether it be on restarts or whatever it might be, if it's a strategy, something to give us a shot to win,” Hamlin said. “I think that my team knows what I want them to do this weekend.”
Follow along here for live updates of the Brickyard 400:
Bubba Wallace can join exclusive group with win at the 2026 Brickyard 400
Driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing, Bubba Wallace will have the opportunity on Sunday to join some elite company. Only two other drivers in NASCAR Cup Series history have won back-to-back Brickyard 400s: Kyle Busch and Jimmie Johnson.
Wallace will have a lot of work to do to get to the front as he's starting in 29th place.
What time does the NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis start?
The Brickyard 400 is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, July 26 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis.
What TV channel is the NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis on?
The Brickyard 400 will be broadcast on TNT and truTV. It's the final of five races to be broadcast on the network this season. A pre-race show on TNT will begin at 2 p.m. ET, with a post-race show after the race. Adam Alexander, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be on the call for live race action, while Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson will join host Marty Smith the pre- and post-race shows.
Will there be a live stream of the NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis?
Yes, the Brickyard 400 can be streamed on HBO Max. The platform also features live streams for individual driver cameras.
How many laps is the NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis?
The Brickyard 400 is 160 laps around the 2.5-mile track for a total of 400 miles. The race will have three stages — Stage 1: 50 laps; Stage 2: 50 laps; Stage 3: 60 laps.
Who won the NASCAR Cup race at Indianapolis last year?
Bubba Wallace overcame an 18-minute rain delay and two overtimes while holding off Kyle Larson to win last year’s Brickyard 400. He became the first Black driver to win on the storied oval in Indianapolis in NASCAR, IndyCar or Formula 1. The victory, the third in his Cup Series career, snapped a 100-race winless streak for Wallace and netted him his first win on one of NASCAR’s crown jewel tracks.
Jeff Gordon has the most Brickyard 400 victories with five.
What is the lineup for the Brickyard 400?
(Car number in parentheses)
- Carson Hocevar (77)
- Daniel Suarez (7)
- Tyler Reddick (45)
- Ty Gibbs (54)
- Denny Hamlin (11)
- Michael McDowell (71)
- Corey Heim (67)
- Alex Bowman (48)
- AJ Allmendinger (16)
- Kyle Larson (5)
- Chase Briscoe (19)
- Cole Custer (41)
- Ryan Blaney (12)
- Erik Jones (43)
- Chris Buescher (17)
- Brad Keselowski (6)
- John Hunter Nemechek (42)
- Riley Herbst (35)
- Joey Logano (22)
- Austin Dillon (3)
- William Byron (24)
- Ross Chastain (1)
- Christopher Bell (20)
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (47)
- Shane van Gisbergen (97)
- Josh Berry (21)
- Chase Elliott (9)
- Ty Dillon (10)
- Bubba Wallace (23)
- Zane Smith (38)
- Connor Zilisch (88)
- Austin Hill (33)
- Noah Gragson (4)
- Ryan Preece (60)
- Austin Cindric (2)
- Todd Gilliland (34)
- Cody Ware (51)
- Casey Mears (62)
- Daniel Dye (78)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR at Indianapolis: Live updates, leaderboard for Brickyard 400
