INDIANAPOLIS — Nick Tandy crossed the finish line 17.421-seconds ahead of teammate Felipe Nasr in Sunday’s TireRack.com Battle on the Bricks. It was the first IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race on these hallowed grounds in nine years. While the margins of victory were mostly runaways, it wasn’t like you weren’t on the edge of your seat for the duration of the 2hr, 40m race on a Fall like Central Indiana day in mid-September.

With all five classes competing on the same piece of real estate for nearly three hours, there was really no separation throughout the field. 48 cars on 2.439-miles of race track was sure to create chaos and a rush hour traffic jam like conditions on 465 on a weekday here in the Circle City.

We knew traffic was going to play a role into things on Sunday, but while it didn’t necessarily determine the outcome, it did spice a lot of things up.

For someone like myself who covers IMSA racing occasionally, but most the time in the background while working on NTT INDYCAR SERIES stories during the shared weekend’s in Long Beach or Detroit, this was different. IMSA had the spotlight all to themselves.

NASCAR raced last night. Formula One was done this morning. INDYCAR is done for the season. IMSA had the stage and did so on the mecca of all motorsports tracks – Indianapolis.

They delivered.

From allowing all fans in attendance pre race grid access, to the openness and warm wishes from the paddock personnel, IMSA did things right during the course of the jam packed three-day race weekend.

The storylines were tremendous. Penske swept the Indy 500 and IMSA action. Third place prototype starter Meyer Shank Racing was racing for their future. They were collected in an opening lap crash with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Cadillac driven by former INDYCAR star Sebastien Bourdais. Both played comeback as they’d continue on after the opening lap incident to battle back to the front.

They passed a ton of GT cars in the process.

Then you had points leaders from WTR Andretti coming from outside the top five to finishing fifth in the end. They passed the MSR Acura to do so.

You had Gar Robinson in LMP3 trying to remain undefeated in points paying races. They were 4-for-4. The only race they didn’t win in 2023 was the non points paying Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. The car that won that January weekend? Won on Sunday.

Madison Snow and Bryan Sellers were trying to clinch the championship in GTD. They started on pole and finished third.

In GTD Pro, Daniel Juncadella and Jules Gounon coming from second to win their third race of the season. The No. 79 WeatherTech Racing Mercedes AMG GT3 EVO came to Indy on the heels of three straight fifth place finishes but 34 laps en route to the victory.

Ross Gunn and Alex Riberas finished second in the No. 23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for their third top two result int he last three races. They didn’t lead a single lap all race but were there in the end, 4.394-seconds back.

Ben Barnicoat brought the No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Lexus RC F GT3 home in third as he and Jack Hawksworth still hold the points lead with one race remaining. They were over 17 seconds arrears in the end.

Pole sitters Klaus Bachler and Patrick Pilet were 37 seconds back in fourth while Jordan Taylor and Antonio Garcia were 43.5 seconds back in fifth out of five cars in the class.

It was an exhilarating event that made me see that racing a sports car is an art form like racing on dirt is. The quickest prototype cars have the maneuver slower traffic all race. Some cars are as much as 10 seconds slower. You have to time catching those cars and time your moves. Some times you’d be 3 and even 4 wide in doing so.

For those other cars, you have to learn how to be passed. It’s not natural for a race car driver to do that. They want to go fast. They’re not wanting to give an inch. But when driving those cars in those classes, you have to let the faster classes go and do so without impending their races and for yourself, not losing time to other competitors in your class.

Which combine all of that over the course of nearly 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon in Central Indiana, I’d say delivered.