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Brickyard 400 Fan Fest kicks off race’s 30th anniversary

Gearing up for the Brickyard 400 – News 8 at 10

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Indianapolis Motor Speedway is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Brickyard 400 with the first-ever Fan Fest.

IMS President Doug Boles said doing these events during the Month of May inspired them to kick off the Brickyard 400 NASCAR race with a Fan Fest.

The party was at the Bottleworks District’s Garage Food Hall, and included food, drinks, music, and NASCAR driver Joey Logano.

Logano signed autographs for fans, and did a meet and greet to get people excited for the milestone race.

“I love Indy, what it stands for, not only for this town, but the history on this racetrack,” Logano said. “It’s always a special thing when you get to go to Indy, and try and win there. You get one opportunity a year to win at Indy, right? We look at it as the crown jewel event. One of the biggest ones of the year. So, we want to make it happen.”

Outside of the race celebrating 30 years this year, the Brickyard 400 is also celebrating a return to the oval.

“I enjoy the oval the most. It’s kinda my roots,” Logano said. “That feeling when you’re in qualifying day is always kinda fun because you’re sitting there on the start-finish line and the cars are coming by you at 200 miles an hour, and there’s only just a wall between you and you really have the sensation of speed.”

“I haven’t got to see NASCAR on the oval,” said Dean Coffey, an Indianapolis NASCAR fan. “It took me a few years to convince my dad to be a NASCAR fan, but last year, we went to see it on the road course and that was cool, but NASCAR is for ovals and I’m really excited to see how it is on an oval in person.”

“We’re all really excited about it. We haven’t been on the oval since 2020, so getting everyone back on the oval, I know the drivers are excited,” Boles said. “These cars are brand new. They’ve never run on the oval before, so it will be interesting to see how they perform.”

Boles said ticket sales are pushing upwards of 70,000 tickets for this race.