NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: What you need to know

Distance: 160 laps, or 400 miles.

Where: Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5-mile flat, rectangular track in Speedway, Indiana.

When: 2:30 p.m. Sunday.

TV: NBC.

Radio: IMS Radio.

Last year’s winner: Kyle Busch.

Also this week: Lilly Diabetes 250, Xfinity Series, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 3:30 p.m., Saturday, NBCSN.

Worth mentioning: This will be the last Brickyard 400 in July – the race moves to September next season. And that’s a good thing. The heat in Indy in July often borders on unbearable for drivers, crew members and fans. And the racing has been bad. The switch to September will solve the former. It might not help the latter, but it can’t hurt. … There have been 23 NASCAR Cup Series races at Indy, and 19 of them have been won by men who also won championships in their careers. With that in mind, keep an eye on Matt Kenseth. The 2003 champion leads all active drivers with eight top 5s at Indy, but he has never won there.

Who’s Hot/ Who’s Not

HOT

Denny Hamlin: In the past eight races, Hamlin has scored five top 5 finishes and has finished worse than 12th only once in that span (24th at Daytona because of a crash.) His win at New Hampshire last week locked him into the postseason.

NOT

Kasey Kahne: The Hendrick Motorsports driver’s lost season continued at New Hampshire, where he finished 28th. It was his ninth straight finish of 15th or worse. He has dropped from 16th to 22nd in that stretch and has no chance to make the playoffs without a win.

Matt Crossman

This story was originally published July 19, 2017 at 5:35 PM with the headline "NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway: What you need to know."