Lucas Oil Raceway in Indiana is about to undergo a major renovation.

The multimillion-dollar process could be the first step towards securing a NASCAR return to the 0.686-mile oval that sits adjacent to the quarter-mile drag strip that is currently home to the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ most prestigious event -- the U.S. Nationals.

The project is set to unfold in three stages -- one for the drag strip, another for the oval and one final phase to revive the 15-turn, 2.5-mile road course that hasn’t been used in over a decade.

"For us, it’s a matter of it’s a (nearly) 60-year-old property, and what’s the future of it?" track general manager Kasey Coler told the Indianapolis Star. "How do we expand the offerings? How do we not just be a Friday, Saturday, Sunday type of facility? We have this land, we have these facilities. It’s an aging facility, so it needs a lot of TLC."

The oval currently hosts the ARCA Racing Series, USAC Silver Crown, the Road to Indy and the 51 Super Select -- an all-star event for Super Late Models. It once hosted the NASCAR Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series but those races were pulled in 2011 to strengthen the Brickyard 400 weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

But in recent years, there has been a big push from NASCAR fans to return to short tracks. Just this week, Autoweek revealed that Speedway Motorsports Inc. CEO Marcus Smith has made two trips to Nashville with the hopes to bringing NASCAR back to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville.

Memphis International Raceway has also made a push to return to the national touring schedule.

Improvements to both facilities would logically take about three years to complete, just in time for NASCAR’s five-year sanctioning agreement for the Monster Energy Cup Series and Xfinity Series to expire.

Lucas Oil Raceway hopes to be a part of the conversation for 2021 and beyond.

"I think it’s no secret that we’d like to see other forms of stock car racing, be it different forms of NASCAR racing that come back out here," Coler said. "That’s long term what we’d like to see."

Coler told the Star that his goal is for the track formerly called Indianapolis Raceway Park to eventually host up to 30 combined NASCAR, USAC, MRTI and Super Late Model events a year. For that to happen, he has planned to upgrade the racing surface, fencing, lights and seating.

The track already has a SAFER barrier.

The exact costs of the renovations has not been disclosed but it is in the eight-figure range. To help with the costs, NHRA, through the town of Brownsburg applied for and was provided a $1 million state grant. It came from the Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s motorsports improvement fund.

There is no official end date for the project.

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