Kroger Super Weekend at the Brickyard was a series of auto races held at the

Indianapolis Motor Speedway The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a motor racing circuit located in Speedway, Indiana, United States, an enclave suburb of Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the home of the Indianapolis 500 and the Brickyard 400, and and formerly the home of the U ...

in late July, surrounding the annual Brickyard 400. The weekend of events included the following races: *

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

Xfinity Series —

Pennzoil 250 The Pennzoil 250 is a NASCAR Xfinity Series auto race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 2012. It takes place the Saturday of Super Weekend at the Brickyard, Kroger Super Weekend. This race replaced the Kroger 200 (Nationwide), Kroge ...

Cup Series — Brickyard 400 The naming rights are owned by grocery chain

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

History

Brickyard 400

The NASCAR Winston Cup Series debuted at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. At the time, no official support races were part of the schedule. The Busch Series, however, did hold the Kroger 200 at Indianapolis Raceway Park in nearby Clermont, Indiana the same weekend. From 1995–2011, the Truck Series also held a race at IRP.

"Super Weekend"

On September 3, 2009, Grand-Am tested on the combined road course at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as a potential future venue. A total of nine cars, representing both the Daytona Prototype and GT classes, participated. Laps were run in a clockwise direction (like Formula 1 at this track, and unlike MotoGP). For most of the test, the southwest turn of the oval was used (as it had been with Formula 1). A brief period in the middle of the day (approximately 20 minutes) was spent turning laps that included the southwest MotoGP road course section. On July 6, 2011, at a press conference held at the start-finish line, officials with the speedway,

, and the

Grand American Road Racing Association Grand-Am Road Racing or Grand-Am was an auto racing sanctioning body that was established in 1999 to organize road racing competitions in North America. Its primary focus was the Rolex Sports Car Series, an Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance ...

announced the new Super Weekend at the Brickyard taking place July 26–29, 2012. The NASCAR Nationwide Series moved from Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis to the Brickyard to run a Saturday race while both the

Rolex Sports Car Series The Rolex Sports Car Series was the premier series run by the Grand American Road Racing Association. It was a North American-based sports car series founded in 2000 under the name Grand American Road Racing Championship to replace the failed ...

and the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge would now run races on Friday. Further, the Rolex race is the conclusion of the new North American Endurance Challenge, a triple crown event along with the

24 Hours of Daytona The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car racing, sports car Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Flo ...

and the 6 Hours of Watkins Glen. The 2012 race weekend was the first time in speedway history that races took place on the 2.5-mile oval and 2.534-mile Grand Prix road course during the same weekend. The move has been done to counter declining attendance during the Brickyard 400. Some Cup series regulars took part in the Rolex Sports Car Series races. The

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck-based stock cars. The series i ...

race at Lucas Oil Raceway was also discontinued. The move of the Nationwide Series race from Lucas Oil Raceway to the Brickyard came with much criticism. Lucas Oil Raceway sold out every race in the 28 years it held a Busch Series/Nationwide Series race while offering exciting short track racing on the track, while many fans consider racing at the Brickyard "boring." The sports car endurance race was put on hiatus after 2014. Track and series officials noted very low attendance for the Friday afternoon event, and considered moving the sports cars to their own stand-alone event. As of 2017, the sports cars have not returned. As a result, use of the "Super Weekend" moniker has since diminished.

References

External links

Indianapolis Motor Speedway
nbsp;– Official website {{Indy 500 Motorsport in Indianapolis