The prospect of new rules for future races at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway may resurrect the level of racing for the Brickyard 400, but will they come in time to save the race?

What used to be considered the second-biggest race on the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule now is a minor blip on the sport’s radar. With a generous estimate of 35,000 fans at the track for Sunday’s race, it has fallen below attendance marks for smaller, less-prestigious tracks.

Any other track not named Indianapolis probably would be kicked off the schedule if it couldn’t attract more than 35,000 customers.

Hundreds of those fans left as soon as Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was making his final start at Indy before retiring at the end of the season, was taken out by a crash on the 77th lap.

The loss of Earnhardt’s presence – he’s been voted the most popular driver for 14 consecutive years – and Sunday’s six-hour marathon in blistering heat that ended in controversy certainly won’t help future ticket sales.

"’Absurd’ is maybe not the right word," Brad Keselowski said, "but I don’t know if I would call it ideal either."

NASCAR made a bold gamble in Saturday’s Xfinity Series race by increasing the rear spoiler, and adding a restrictor plate and air ducts to decrease speeds. The result was a 250-mile race that featured 16 lead changes with eight different leaders.

The only driver who didn’t like it was Kyle Busch because he wasn’t able to dominate the junior circuit like he expects.

Cars could race side-by-side and they weren’t able to break away for big leads. For the most part, drivers liked getting away from follow-the-leader racing.

"From an eye test, definitely passed," NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said. "When you look at the metrics, right, it’s the most leaders we’ve had, most lead changes, closest finish.

"I think a great race is the objective. And, you know, I think what fans saw today was that."

Sunday’s race didn’t have the Xfinity rules. The only thing that kept Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch from dominating like they did in the first 110 laps was an accident involving both on the 112th lap that sent them to the garage.

After that, all Kasey Kahne had to do was survive six big wrecks, including two that brought out lengthy red flags for cleanup, get the jump on Keselowski on the restart in the second overtime and get the benefit of NASCAR’s decision to wait a few seconds before waving the yellow flag until Kahne was past the "overtime" line on the backstretch that locks the running order to win for the first time since 2014.

By then, most of the crowd was gone.

Historic speedway

Indianapolis and NASCAR desperately want the Brickyard to be one of the crown jewels in the stock car season. There clearly is a lot of work remaining to make it happen.

The 400-mile race will be moved to September next year to escape some of the heat. It also will be the final race of the regular season that sets the field for the Chase for the Championship.

With the luster faded so badly at Indy, Busch isn’t sure the change in date will help, either.

"I don’t know that it’s necessarily going to be a whole lot different," he said. "Certainly, I think it’s a big race. It’s a prestigious race, so maybe having as the finale of our regular season will give it a little bit more allure to the fans. Maybe late September would be a little bit better and we may see that the race as enjoy the scenery here around that time of year and will come back."

It’s also likely NASCAR will include many of the same rules tested in Saturday’s Xfinity race.

"I still think there’s a lot of work we can do to make a race that has a good balance between high attrition and also having key moments that we all love to see," Keselowski said. "And this race had, you know, some key moments that I think we’ll probably play back for the next five or 10 years. But then it also had a lot of attrition and a lot of moments that did kind of look a little off key.

"You might see a phenomenal race one year and a not so phenomenal race the next. That’s part of it, the unpredictability. I think that’s what we all love about racing. So, you know, we’ll see what we have next year. We come back, I doubt we see this race."

There were only 10 lead changes on Sunday. Oddly enough, Ryan Newman said it will was better than most of the other races at the famed raceway.

"I think what we saw today was some crazy strategy, some crazy restarts," he said. "Not really that bad racing. I’ve seen worse racing here, by far, as far as not being able to pass.

"So, you know, a guy could get up underneath somebody, shake them loose, move them out of the way, whereas in the past you would lose your whole race car. I didn’t think it was ideal, but it was definitely crazy."

Even if there weren’t many people paying attention.