NASCAR Cup Series star Joey Logano has admitted that a radical solution might be necessary to improve racing at Indianapolis.
The Brickyard 400 is considered one of the sport's crown jewel events, but the quality of racing in recent years has been underwhelming, with few on-track overtakes and long runs just turning into processions.
The 'good race' poll that The Athletic's Jeff Gluck runs after every Cup race currently sits at 22.7 per cent 'good' after nearly 37,000 votes, far below any other points-paying race this season (Martinsville, 49.2 per cent) and below even the baffling All-Star Race at Dover (34.2 per cent). Fans seem to be lining up to give the Brickyard race a kicking too, with more votes cast this week than any other time this season.
Logano has joined the chorus blaming the Next Gen car for the low-quality product on track after his third-place finish on Sunday, jokingly suggesting that the only chance drivers would have of making green flag passes is a complete switch to the O'Reilly Series car.
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Logano: Brickyard 400 is still a special race
When asked what it would take to see a green flag overtake at the Brickyard, he said: “Probably an Xfinity (O’Reilly) car or whatever they’re called now. Those cars. These things just can’t do it. Can’t get close enough to make a move. It just gets stuck.
“Multiple-groove track is necessary. This one doesn’t have that but it’s forever going to be a Crown Jewel in my mind. It’s forever a special race and something you always want to say you had a shot of winning. It hurts when you don’t do it. I can tell you that much."
In separate quotes post-race, he added of his race: “We broke up the Toyotas, so that’s good, but we just couldn’t get there. I was faster than them, but I got three car lengths back and that was it. I lost the air and that was it. I couldn’t go fast anymore.
"I needed track position. Track position won the race. You had to be on the front row there and we were one row back, but, overall, I’m proud of what Paul and Joe and everyone on the team was able to do by giving us a really fast race car again. We’ve just got to qualify better and start towards the front.
"We missed it on Saturday and you start 19th and you get one or two, but everyone ran the same strategy all day, so there wasn’t much opportunity there. We got to where we had a shot at it, but not good enough.”
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