Brickyard 400

Crown Royal Presents the 'Your Hero's Name Here' 400 at the Brickyard (formerly and commonly known as simply the Brickyard 400) is an annual 400-mile (640 km) NASCAR Sprint Cup points race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The inaugural race was held in 1994, and the 400 was the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 to be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1916. In its inaugural season, the Brickyard 400 became NASCAR's most-attended event, drawing an estimated crowd of more than 250,000 spectators in 1994. It also pays NASCAR's second-highest purse, second only to the Daytona 500.

The term "Brickyard" is a reference to the nickname historically used for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. When the race course opened in 1909, the track surface was crushed stone and tar. That surface was the cause of numerous and sometimes fatal accidents, so the track was repaved with 3.2 million bricks in time for the inaugural Indy 500 in 1911, giving rise to the name Brickyard. Over time the bricks have been covered with asphalt, and now only a one-yard strip of brick at the start/finish line remains exposed.

The Brickyard

The Brickyard may refer to:

The Brickyard (NC State)

University Plaza, or more commonly The Brickyard, is a public plaza at the heart of North Carolina State University's North Campus in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is the university's most active court and has been the site of numerous special events.

Details

The plaza, conceived of and designed by landscape architect Richard C. Bell, FASLA, is mostly covered with red and white bricks which have been organized into various decorative mosaics. There are two main green areas on the plaza, one on the east side and one on the west. The east green area features two concrete chairs which serve as parabolic reflectors, amplifying and focusing sound waves so that someone sitting in one chair can easily hear the person in the other chair from a far distance. Harrelson Hall, a cylindrical classroom building is situated on the southeast corner of the plaza; D. H. Hill Library is located on the north side of the Brickyard.

Special events

2007 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard

The 2007 Allstate 400 at The Brickyard, the 14th running of the event, was the twentieth race of the 2007 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season and the first race under the ESPN/ABC section of the TV coverage. It was held on July 29, 2007 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

Pre-Race

Two NEXTEL Cup teams announced changes in their ownership just before this race:

Brickyard

A brickyard or brickfield is a place or yard where the earthen building material called bricks are made,fired, and stored, or sometimes sold or otherwise distributed from. Brick makers work in a brick yard. A brick yard may be constructed near natural sources of clay or on or near a construction site if necessity or design requires the bricks to be made locally.

See also

References

2014 Brickyard 400

The 2014 Crown Royal Presents the John Wayne Walding 400 at the Brickyard Powered by BigMachineRecords.com, the 21st running of the event, was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stock car race that was held on July 27, 2014, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. Contested over 160 laps, it was the 20th race of the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Twenty years after he won the inaugural race, Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports took the lead on the final restart and drove away from the field for his 90th career victory and a record-breaking fifth win at Indianapolis. Kyle Busch finished second, while Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Joey Logano rounded out the top five. The top rookies of the race were Kyle Larson (7th), Austin Dillon (10th), and Justin Allgaier (27th).

Previous race

Two weeks prior, Brad Keselowski held off a green-white-checker charge by Kyle Busch to win the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Keselowski described the performance as "definitely good for when we come back here in September", but also stated that his team "have to keep working and plugging away".

2004 Brickyard 400

The 2004 Brickyard 400, the 11th running of the event, was the twenty-first race of the 2004 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series season. It was held on August 8, 2004 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. Jeff Gordon of Hendrick Motorsports won the race.

Background

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, located in Speedway, Indiana, (an enclave suburb of Indianapolis) in the United States, is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400. It is located on the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road, approximately six miles (10 km) west of Downtown Indianapolis. It is a four-turn rectangular-oval track that is 2.5 miles (4.023 km) long. The track's turns are banked at 9 degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, has no banking. The back stretch, opposite of the front, also has a zero degree banking. The racetrack has seats for more than 250,000 spectators.

Summery

For the first time in Nextel Cup Series history, the Green-white-checker finish rule caused a race to be extended, in this case for one additional lap. On the extra lap, Casey Mears blew a tire, Ricky Rudd hit the wall, then Mark Martin and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. suffered tire failures. Jeff Gordon retained the lead to become the first four-time winner of the Brickyard.