2011 Brickyard 400: Complete Dates, TV Schedule and Information

NASCAR's 2011 Brickyard 400 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is Sunday, July 31st, at 3 p.m. (EST) on ESPN.

The Brickyard 400 is far, far from the oldest race on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, but that hasn't stopped it from being one of the most prestigious. Since the inaugural Brickyard in 1994, this race has been one of the most coveted prizes on the Cup series for drivers—and one of the favorite stops of fans.

The NASCAR stock cars were the first non-opened wheeled vehicles allowed to tear into the famous speedway. As the name suggests, the race is 400 miles, which takes 160 laps on the two-and-a-half-mile oval.

The shape of the track is completely unique on the Sprint Cup series, as the track is really more of a rectangle than an oval.

Tony Stewart chimes in on the view many drivers share about the Brickyard 400 on indianapolismotorspeedway.com. Stewart:

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“Every time I come here, I want to win. It’s not about counting the numbers. Every year, you want to win. That’s what the goal is, and that’s what you shoot for.

The first one was just like taking the weight of the world off your shoulders. When you grow up 45 miles from here … for a period of my life when I was driving a wrecker for a living, I was driving down 16th Street and Georgetown Road, thinking, ‘Man, what would it be like to be 150 yards inside that fence, running 200 miles an hour?’ I got to do that. Then I got to come here in a stock car, then win it for the first time."

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Drivers will hit the famous track to practice on Friday, July 29th. They qualify on Saturday, July 30th, setting the field and starting order for the July 31st event.

Jamie McMurray is the defending Brickyard 400 champion. McMurray edged out Kevin Harvick and Greg Biffle in a caution-filled and competitive race. There were seven cautions and 14 lead changes in 2010. The race saw 10 different drivers take the lead.

This year's edition should be just as competitive. And with the Sprint Cup schedule narrowing down to the Chase for the Cup, prime points sit on the track for drivers.