NASCAR's Brickyard 400 weekend has arrived, and we're live at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – as well as Lucas Oil Raceway – for all the activities.
It's a big weekend in Indianapolis. Not only is the Brickyard 400 the second-biggest race of the season – trailing only the Daytona 500 in prestige – but Travis Pastrana is making his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut on Saturday night.
Though NASCAR undoubtedly is happy to race at IMS, the sanctioning body and the track can't be pleased with the severe dropoff in attendance since the Goodyear tire debacle in 2008.
Whether that incident was to blame for declining ticket sales or whether it was another reason, the Brickyard 400 only draws a fraction of the crowd it once did.
Can NASCAR and IMS rebound and get back in the right direction? One thing that would help is an entertaining race with lots of passing; most of the Brickyard races in the last five or six years haven't been overly interesting.
Despite that, it only takes one race to change the perception. We'll find out together how it all shakes out on Sunday.