INDIANAPOLIS — The second half of the Brickyard 400 wasn’t racing. It was crashing with style. Sunday’s six hours of madness at Indianapolis Motor Speedway transformed into a demolition derby of the highest order on one of NASCAR’s grandest stages.

And guess what? A majority of NASCAR fans seemed to love it.

Longtime NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck polled his 165,000 followers on Twitter with the simple query: “Was Indianapolis a good race?” A few hours in, two thirds of the responders have said, “yes.”

More great Brickyard coverage:

• Doyel: They came for Dale Earnhardt Jr., not the Brickyard 400
• Person arrested in Brickyard 400 golf cart crash
• Danica Patrick goes on expletive-filled rant during Brickyard 400
• Insider: Few show up to witness wild Brickyard finish
• Boring? Well maybe for a bit, then all hell broke loose

That shouldn’t come as a surprise. NASCAR’s fan base has long held a reputation of a crowd that lusts after disaster. But is that OK? Is that really what the Brickyard 400 should be?

Sunday was unquestionably entertaining — an absolute spectacle that will be remembered for years to come. So in that way, the event was a hit. After years of single-file, monotonous racing in front of ever-shrinking crowds, the Brickyard 400 was rarely, if ever, water-cooler fodder the following day. Sunday’s race did not have that problem. 

But was it a good, quality race? I don’t think so.  

When IndyCar endured its own wreckfest this season at Texas Motor Speedway, many of its participants were ashamed of the style of racing that unfolded. It was mayhem — not racing. Chaos like that cannot be tolerated, IndyCar drivers said. The common refrain among many of them was: Something has to change before we come back next year.

But that’s not what you’re hearing out of NASCAR or its drivers following Sunday’s absurdity.

“I wouldn’t call it an absurdity. I just think it was a crazy race,” second-place finisher Brad Keselowski said. “There was some crazy strategy.”

NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell called the race “craziness” but did not seem displeased by it. You need only watch its wreck-filled commercials to understand NASCAR’s point of view.

The problem is, it’s not quality racing, at least not to me. While it might be fun, Sunday wasn’t about speed or strategy. It wasn’t about talented drivers duking it out on the race track. It was about survival. Credit Kasey Kahne for picking up a win Sunday, but his victory was just as much about being fortunate enough to avoid getting swept up in any of the 11 crashes than it was a testament to his skill as a driver.

And Kahne wouldn’t have sniffed victory lane if Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr., drivers of the two fastest cars by far on Sunday, didn’t take one another out in a mid-race crash. That’s the other problem. The first 100 laps were a snoozefest. Busch and Truex ran away from the field and if it hadn’t been for that crash, it would have stayed that way.

So the first half of the race was boring but was in a sense saved by the second half demolition derby. Is that OK? Is that what Indianapolis wants from its annual NASCAR race?

I’d rather watch a race like the one delivered by the Xfinity Series on Saturday. Yes, some of the drivers were displeased with the slower pace, but at least the race provided intrigue for fuel and tire strategy. And sure, the restrictor plates and other measures taken by NASCAR to increase competition punish faster cars, but at least it was a competitive race. That’s what I’d rather watch.

Maybe that’s what NASCAR will deliver next go-round with Brickyard 400. Or maybe not. Maybe it liked the excitement it saw Sunday night. But I hope not. I hope next year, NASCAR’s Monster Energy Cup Series cars return to Indy with a package similar to what we saw in the Xfinity Series race, and we get to watch clean, competitive racing.

Follow IndyStar reporter Jim Ayello on Twitter and Instragram: @jimayello.