NASCAR viewer’s guide: Indianapolis Motor Speedway

This NASCAR weekend will be one of the most unusual of the season.

Joining the NASCAR Cup and Xfinity Series at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be the IndyCar Series, which will race in a 12:30 p.m. event Saturday.

The Xfinity Series race is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, while Cup drivers will run at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. All races will be on the IMS road course.

NBC will televise the Cup, Xfinity and IndyCar races.

Additionally, the Camping World Truck Series is scheduled to race at Indianapolis Raceway Park near IMS at 9 p.m. Friday. The race will be the first of seven in the Truck playoffs.

Chase Elliott will be looking for his fifth win of the Cup season after scoring the win Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

The NASCAR Cup Series raced 27 times on the storied Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval before moving to the track’s road course last year.

The Cup Series debuted at Indy in a rush of positive publicity in 1994 as stock cars raced on the bricks in a history-making move for both NASCAR and IMS. Some of the shine dimmed over the years, however, as the rectangular track proved a difficult surface for stock cars, and NASCAR moved the event to the road course last year. Some fans and drivers prefer the oval course, and improved competition at intermediate tracks this year has led to discussion about the possibility of returning the Cup race to the oval..

Last year’s race turned into a strange one. It was scheduled for 82 laps but was extended to 95 by a pair of overtime runs. Eleven cars plowed through and damaged curbing in Turn 6 on lap 78.

Chase Briscoe was running second on the second-overtime restart but cut through Turn 2 for a penalty. He said he wasn’t aware of the penalty when he knocked Denny Hamlin out of the lead in