As the 23rd running of the Brickyard 400, contested over 170 laps—extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) speedway, it was the 20th race of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

It is located on the corner of 16th Street and Georgetown Road, approximately six miles (10 km) west of Downtown Indianapolis.

The preliminary entry list for the race included 41 cars and was released on July 15, 2016 at 10:12 a.m. Eastern time.

88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but concussion symptoms forced him to sit out and be replaced by Jeff Gordon.

[15] After qualifying third, Tony Stewart said he wished he "could do a lap ... one more time and not clip the apron in (Turn) 4; I think we could have been on the pole.

"[16] Making his first start since Homestead in November, Jeff Gordon – who qualified 21st subbing for Dale Earnhardt Jr. – said he was "much calmer than I was [Friday].

"[17] Under clear blue Indiana skies, Kyle Busch led the field to the green flag at 3:22 p.m. During the first lap, Tony Stewart used all of the real estate on the backstretch and made a power move under Denny Hamlin to take second.

The first caution of the race flew on the fourth lap for Matt DiBenedetto blowing an engine on the frontstretch.

The second caution of the race flew on lap 52 after Greg Biffle suffered a right-front tire blowout and slammed the wall in turn 1.

Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson were tagged for speeding on pit road and were forced to serve a pass through penalty.

The third caution of the race came out on lap 120 for David Ragan blowing a left-front tire and slamming the wall head-on in turn 2.

Tony Stewart and Jamie McMurray were tagged for speeding on pit road and restarted the race from the tail end of the field.

The fourth caution of the race flew with 30 laps to go for Regan Smith coming to a halt on the backstretch.

[19] It started when Edwards got loose and slammed into the wall, collecting drivers like Ryan Newman and Keselowski.

The seventh caution of the race flew half a lap later for a two-car wreck on the backstretch involving Trevor Bayne and Clint Bowyer.

But I always felt like I could hit my marks and set sail each time.”[23] NBC Sports covered the race on the television side.

Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.