Are You Bricked Up For The Brickyard 400?

From Pick6 Alyssa

I’ve never been more bricked up than I am for today’s Brickyard 400. Start time is 1:18 central on TNT. I am sad that this is the last of the TNT broadcasts. 

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway put out this great video on X, talking about the history of kissing the bricks, narrated by the first guy to do it, Dale Jarrett. 

Why am I excited? Not only is the racing at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a 2.5 mile track, a great watch that always delivers, but there is 1 million dollars on the line. Sadly,  not for me but for Ryan Blaney and Todd Gilliland. As they compete to be the winner of the In Season Challenge. Blaney and Team Penske are taking this very seriously, based on these tweets. 

Don’t worry, Todd and Front Row Motorsports tried to clap back. 

Give me Blaney to win the In Season Challenge. 

On to what everyone wants to hear about, my Pick6 lineup. Sadly I did lose last week but we don’t look at the past. 

 — Carson Hocevar: finishing position better than 10.5. Carson won the pole yesterday and will be starting P1. He has two starts here at the Brickyard with one top 10 finish. Carson said yesterday in an interview that he’s not sure if the lead position has ever been passed at this race, I don’t know if that’s true or not. Even if he gets passed I don’t see him dropping out of the top 10 today.

— Denny Hamlin: laps led more than 18.5. Denny has 17 starts at the Brickyard 400 more than any other driver in the race today. He has never won. He has had four top 5’s and eight top 10 finishes. This is a “crown jewel” race that Denny hasn’t won, and I think that alone will push him to do everything he can to kiss the bricks today. He showed in qualifying yesterday that he has a fast car and definitely can win even though he’s starting P5. I’m personally too nervous to take his finishing position so this was the next best thing.

— Brad Keselowski: finishing position better than 15.5. Brad won this race in 2018, he has 13 starts, with four top 5’s and 7 top 10 finishes. That alone tells me that Brad knows this track and he knows how to get above a 15.5 finishing position. Brad is staring P16, which tells me as a novice NASCAR fan that he absolutely should finish better than his starting position with his knowledge of the track. He did finish 7th last week at North Wilksboro so I can see him keeping that speed today.

— Joey Logano: finishing position better than 11.5. *round of applause* to me for shitting on Joey last week just for him to throw it in by face by winning. In post race interviews and on the Door Bumper Clear podcast Joey did say that short tracks are the secret sauce for his teams success. He also said that he thinks he can absolutely keep this momentum going into today. Joey has started 14 races at the Brickyard, with zero wins, four top 5’s, and eight top 10 finishes. He is starting P19 but I think with his knowledge of this track he’s going to easily get above that 11.5 finishing position. (If not he’s back to being known as Slowgano.)

— Ty Gibbs: finishing position better than 6.5. I’ve seen a lot of online say that they think today is the day Ty ends up in victory lane, and honestly I think they’re right. Ty has been running extremely well, and I think he can absolutely do it today. He has finished better than the 6.5 line in three of the last five races. Although he has started 2 races here and has never finished in the top 10, something in the air is telling me that doesn’t matter for him today.

— Chase Briscoe: finishing position better than 9.5. The home town kid (kind of because he grew up 90 minutes from the track). Briscoe is in the same boat as Ty Gibbs having 2 starts at the brickyard with no top 10 finishes. He has had three of the last five races finish above this 9.5 line. With his consistency, back home, and starting P11 this feels like a no brainer pick.

I wish I could take credit as being the first one to think of being “bricked up” for the Brickyard. Last years winner, Bubba Wallace dropped it first this weekend.

The video was kinda cool to watch. 

Let’s have a day.