We all know that the Brickyard 400 will never again be what it was in the early years, and a lot of that has nothing to do with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NASCAR's arrow has been pointing down for a while, and Indy hasn't been immune to the attendance/ratings issues that have plagued stops all over the tedious, February-to-November Cup schedule.
IMS President Doug Boles has been proactive in trying to stabilize the Brickyard 400, and the changes made for 2018 have been the most drastic yet:
Personally, I think the date change is a good thing. While it's not ideal to go up against the NFL, especially a Colts' home game, the late July heat often scared fans away. It's not a good race, and not even small changes (like last year's Xfinity package, if they ever decided to actually use it in the Cup cars) can fix that completely, so IMS will have to rely on other events - concerts, the dirt race, etc. - to ramp up excitement.
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