After falling off the schedule from 2021 through 2023, the Brickyard 400 has been back as a NASCAR Cup race for the last three years now. However, some -- including third-generation racer Kyle Petty -- believe that it should not be counted among the crown jewel races of NASCAR.
Petty even took it a step further, noting that he was never in favor of NASCAR going to Indianapolis, even before the inaugural event in 1994. "That's their hallowed ground (IndyCar) and Daytona is ours (NASCAR)," said Petty on this week's episode of NASCAR's Inside the Race. "We didn't need to cross over. Indianapolis is one of the reasons, maybe the main reason that there is motorsports in North America and the United States ... it's a sacred place. Is it big to race there? It is big to race there, but only because it's Indianapolis, and only because of the history that IndyCar has created there. Mario Andretti, Troy Ruttman, guys like that created that -- it's not big for me. I didn't see Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Junior Johnson win there. I have no history there. My DNA has no history at Indianapolis.
