Global stars add spotlight to world-class field at Indy

SPEEDWAY, Ind. -- NASCAR Cup Series regulars and their international guests in the field this weekend are bracing for each other. It's still a relative novelty, but road-course weekends that have attracted standouts from far-flung places and other racing series across the globe are becoming a more regular occurrence. There's still something special, though, about the world-class feel of the build-up to Sunday's Verizon 200 at the Brickyard (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, IMS Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course. Drivers from seven countries with championship pedigrees from Formula 1, IMSA, Australian V8 Supercars and the World Endurance Championship (WEC) will be on the Brickyard grid, blending in with the range of talent from NASCAR's top level. "More eyeballs on Indianapolis this weekend," said Cup Series points leader Martin Truex Jr., "so it's good for all of us." RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Indy Chicago Street Race winner Shane van Gisbergen will be making a return trip to the stock-car scene one month after his stunning victorious debut. Garage 56 teammates Jenson Button and Mike Rockenfeller will be back on the Cup Series grid, and Brodie Kostecki and Kamui Kobayashi are set to make their series debut. The Cup Series drivers who have convened at Indy this weekend as part of their season-long campaign have largely welcomed the additional competition and the extra attention from other parts of the world. But they're also wary of their talent level, so the odds of SVG or another of his international peers contending shouldn't come as a surprise. The new faces in the field should also keep the stock-car regulars on their toes. "That's the big thing. I'm gonna be asking probably, 'Who's in that thing?' I'm gonna forget," said Ryan Blaney, driver of Team Penske's No. 12 Ford. "But no, I think it's great. I think it's fantastic that Shane's back, Brodie's racing, Kamui's racing. I mean, that's fantastic. I've been watching Kamui in F1 for a while, so that's super cool, and Jenson's back. So yeah, I don't know if it necessarily feels bigger from my side. It's cool to have a lot of different drivers from all different backgrounds and countries and stuff like that. That's really, really cool for the sport. It brings a lot more, kind of different nations watching us, I think because maybe that's your guy from where you're from." Pole qualifying produced a mixed bag for the foreign dignitaries, with only van Gisbergen making the final round and clinching the eighth starting spot for his No. 91 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet. Kostecki, a fellow Supercars competitor Down Under, qualified 11th but damaged his No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevy through Turns 11 and 12 during the session. Kobayashi (28th), Button (31st) and Rockenfeller (37th) will start further back. While Cup Series regulars held their own in Saturday's time trials, they still said to expect a challenge come Sunday. Van Gisbergen's Chicago showing on a street layout that was new for everyone was remarkable, but the modest familiarity that NASCAR's usual crowd has on Indy's 2.439-mile road-race circuit may improve their footing. "Just other drivers from other disciplines, jumping into these cars, and doing what they do is impressive, for sure," said Tyler Reddick, who starts second Sunday in defense of last year's Indy road course win. "What Shane did at Chicago certainly caught some by surprise, with his background, with the Australian V8 Supercars, and the street courses he's run in his career, it was cool to see him come in there and show us how much learning we have to do when it comes to street-course racing. But when we go to Indy, it's a track that we've raced at, and this will be our third time, so we have some experience for sure." MORE: Sunday's starting lineup | What to Watch: Indy That suggestion that the Cup Series field had catching-up to do after Chicago was a sentiment shared by former champ Kyle Larson post-race. "I felt like we were pretty comfortable with Chicago, but obviously not to his level, so I still think he's going to be super good here," Larson said before qualifying sixth for Sunday's race, a row up from SVG. "I would not be surprised if he's even faster than all of us by more than it was in Chicago, just because it's gonna be way easier for him to get around here than it probably was in Chicago, too. So yeah, he's an extremely talented race car driver, so I'm glad that he's able to come back because I think at the time, Chicago was the only one (he had) scheduled. Cool that they were able to get him back here in the field that's got a lot of ringers in it this week. So that's exciting, and I think all of us drivers enjoy racing with them, and I think the fans should enjoy having them as a part of the field as well." Part of their welcome will involve the close-quarters racing inherent to stock-car competition but also the full-contact effect of restarts -- especially those that fall during the later laps. That's what the international group is bracing for. "Yeah, I was actually very scared after I found out I was doing this race," Kostecki said. "I went back through the last two years and went to study pretty quickly how the race sort of played out and what it was like into Turn 1." New restart-zone procedures -- implemented at the suggestion of the drivers -- should help to mitigate some of the first-turn stacking that has thrown previous runnings of the event into disarray. But the nature of putting full-bodied cars through their paces on the tight course still has the newcomers' defenses up. "When I spoke to Jenson about NASCAR, he said these guys are fighting all of the way, and you have to be ready," said Kobayashi. "... Still, I’m looking forward to this weekend, especially my first race in NASCAR. I’ve been definitely looking forward to it. I will do my best. It’s hard to say what that will be, but I think it will definitely be a challenging next two days."