INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The 30th running of the Brickyard 400 doesn’t take place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway until July 26th, but select NASCAR drivers were in Indy on Wednesday for tire testing.
NASCAR drivers AJ Allmendinger, Cole Custer, John Hunter Nemechek, and Ross Chastain all shared their excitement to work out their tires at IMS ahead of next month’s race.
“For me, this is the most special place on the planet,” Allmendinger said. “Anytime I get to come here and run laps, drive into this race track, the history behind it, it’s pretty cool to know that I’ve kissed the bricks. Always special. It’s important for us at Kaulig Racing to come run some laps. We don’t get to really test at all during the year. Very important for us to come run these two days.”
28-year-old Cole Custer aims to race in his third Brickyard 400 this July. Custer described the fun and productive day it was to practice at the track on Wednesday.
“This is a crown jewel race for everybody here in NASCAR,” Custer said. “Everybody wants to come here and kiss the bricks. This is definitely a huge test for us, a huge test for us as a small team, too. Getting as much information as we can as a single car team. I felt like we tried a lot of stuff today. Indy is its own kind of track. It’s different than any other place in the US, really. You have to have stuff a little bit different here, and your car setup a little bit different. Having a day to kind of go through those things is huge.”
NASCAR driver John Hunter Nemechek is in his 4th full-time season in the NASCAR Cup Series, and he expressed his big takeaways from Wednesday’s tire test session.
“I’m glad to be back here at IMS, this is one of my favorite race tracks to come to,” Nemechek said. “So much history here, we’ve been really fast at Legacy Motor Club, every time that we’ve been here. I’m excited to come back here in a month or two and come back to race and try and put a whole weekend together. Overall, I feel like we learned quite a bit. Tested some different tires, learned some things about them. Hopefully, some things that work and some things that didn’t work. Overall, I feel like it was a really solid day being able to just be here and turn laps.”
The 2026 Brickyard 400 is set for Sunday, July 26th at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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