The NASCAR Cup Series' final fan-attended oval race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was in 2019Getty Images
Indianapolis Motor Speedway President Doug Boles said that ticket sales for the Cup Series’ first race on the 2.5-mile oval since 2020 have “been up year-over-year since the announcement of its return last September,” according to Utter & Barnes of MOTORSPORT.com. After "lagging attendance," NASCAR and IMS moved the annual Cup race on to the IMS Road Course in 2021, 2022 and 2023. With the introduction of the Next Gen car in the Cup Series, NASCAR “decided to return to oval layout this year.” Boles said ticket sales “are up and we’ve been up really every day since we announced we were going back to the oval.” Boles: “We should be in a lot better spot in terms of attendance. I just think there’s excitement and prestige obviously with the oval that that brings that back.” He added that the track “will do heavy promotion" of NASCAR’s return during its month of May activities leading up to the Indianapolis 500. Utter & Barnes noted one “popular advantage” of NASCAR utilizing the road course layout “will disappear with the move to the oval” -- holding a combination weekend with the NTT IndyCar Series. Boles said that the series “isn’t likely to return anytime soon at IMS” (MOTORSPORT.com, 1/30).
