4 drivers who could win at the Indianapolis Oval for the first time feat. Chase Elliott

The Brickyard 400 will mark its return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Cup Series leader Chase Elliott is among the favorites to seal a win on the 2.5-mile asphalt. The crown jewel race was shifted to the infield road course for three years and hence, the NextGen cars will register their first run on the IMS Oval this year.

Chase Elliott's team, Hendrick Motorsports, has vice chairman Jeff Gordon, the winningest driver at Indianapolis with five victories to his name.. Front Row Motorsports driver Michael McDowell is the defending winner of the Brickyard 400, and Kevin Harvick is the last racer to have dominated the IMS Oval before it got switched to the road course.

With that, let's examine four drivers who could potentially take their high-octane ride to the victory lane for the first time in their career amid the Brickyard 400's return to the Oval.

#1. Denny Hamlin

Denny Hamlin (Image: Getty)

Since his rookie season in the Cup Series in 2006, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver has amassed 54 race wins but is still shy of a championship. Denny Hamlin had battled on the 2.5-mile oval fifteen times before the road course took over in 2021. He posted five top-5s, and three top-10s, and became the polesitter in 2012 but couldn't convert the same into a race win.

Placed fourth in the Cup Series standings, Hamlin has collected three wins this season and has locked his seat into the playoffs. With over a decade's worth of experience at the IMS and his current dominant runs across the calendar, the #11 Toyota Camry is at high odds of doing the victory burnouts.

#2. Chase Elliott

Chase Elliott (Image: Imagn)

Chase Elliott has resurrected his prime form, placing his #9 Chevrolet at the top of the Cup Series leaderboard, with a solitary win, seven top-5s, and ten top-10s. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has made six starts at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Oval and his best was the ninth-place finish in 2019. The last visit of the Brickyard 400 at the Oval in 2020 witnessed Chase Elliott finish 11th.

After a poor start this season, Chase Elliott made a comeback from the bottom of the charts to dwell among the top 5s in the rankings and then rose to become the Cup Series leader. Thus, his recent outperforming displays portray the HMS driver could etch his first IMS win at the crown jewel race.

#3. Ryan Blaney

Ryan Blaney (Image: Imagn)

The 2023 defending Cup Series champion is running his seventh season and has collected 12 wins. After missing wins by a small margin at the Atlanta Motor Speedway (P2) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (P3), Ryan Blaney's #12 Ford Mustang dropped severely in performance and the Team Penske driver struggled to run among the top-10s let alone emerge victorious. However, that ended at the Iowa Speedway when Blaney secured his 11th Cup Series win and four races later, raked in another trophy at the Pocono Raceway.

But he's yet to showcase his supremacy on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as his best finish at the venue is seventh which came in 2019. Nonetheless, with his team's significant improvement in the past couple of months and Ford catching up with Chevys and Toyotas, Blaney has a shot at coming home with his maiden IMS win.

#4. Martin Truex Jr.

Martin Truex Jr. (Image: Getty)

The JGR driver is in his final Cup Series season and boasts 34 wins, with his last triumphant run at the 2023 Dover Motor Speedway race, where he snapped his 54-race winless streak. Of Martin Truex Jr.'s 16 races on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, four ended with a DNF. While the #19 Toyota driver has aced two crown jewel races- the Coca-Cola 600 and the Southern 500- he is yet to collect the Brickyard 400 and the Daytona 500 win.

Even though Truex Jr. hasn't clinched a victory this year, he has four top-5s, with a second-place finish at Bristol Motor Speedway and third at Dover. Moreover, being his Cup Series career's final crown jewel race, the JGR driver would be eyeing to dethrone his rivals from going to the victory lane.