Superspeedways Will Not Be in NASCAR Championship Venue Rotation
On Tuesday, NASCAR announced the return of Homestead-Miami Speedway as the NASCAR National Series championship weekend venue for the 2026 season, in what will be part of a new yearly rotating championship venue model.
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While NASCAR didn't divulge the full list of venues that would be part of the rotation, in a Zoom teleconference, Ben Kennedy, the Executive Vice President and Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer for NASCAR pulled back to curtain on venues that shouldn't be expected to be part of the rotation at least in the near future.
Kennedy explained that NASCAR is seeking facilities that produce traditional NASCAR racing, which means Superspeedways like Daytona International Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway will not be in the consideration at this time.
"Never say never, but I think we’ve unanimously agreed that it needs to look and feel like what we would expect traditional NASCAR racing to look and feel like," Kennedy explained. "Short tracks, intermediate tracks, mile tracks are all on the board. Superspeedways, I think we all feel like right now we wouldn’t consider that as a championship venue, not that Daytona isn’t a championship caliber venue."
There are simply too many intangibles at superspeedway races, such as 'The Big One', for the sanctioning body to feel comfortable at this time with having a race at Daytona or Talladega decide the championship.
"There are a lot of story lines that come out of those events, and we want to make sure that, when we go to Homestead, Miami, or Phoenix or wherever it might be in the future, that there is a lot of strategy and that a lot of our championship drivers are also contending for the victory at the end of that race.""
In addition to Superspeedways not fitting the bill for what NASCAR is currently looking for in championship venues, Kennedy says road courses are also off the table when it comes to tracks the sanctioning body is currently looking at to fill its need for championship venues in the near future.
"We talked about that. We’ve talked about road courses as well. Again, never say never, but road courses are probably lower on the list as we think about championship venues," Kennedy said. "So we’re really going to hone in on short tracks, and I would say mile-and-a-halfs for now."
As far as which tracks NASCAR is targeting to add into the championship venue rotation, Kennedy says the sanctioning body will look at more than just NASCAR-owned properties.
"I think anything is on the table at this point, to be honest, whether it’s NASCAR property or elsewhere," Kennedy explained. "The great part about it is we have a good relationship with Speedway Motorsports, and they have many prominent events in the playoffs, cutoff races at the Charlotte oval and Bristol, and a handful of others."
It'll be interesting to see which tracks are ultimately adopted into the rotating championship venue schedule in the coming seasons.
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Toby Christie is the Editor-in-Chief of Racing America. He has 15 years of experience as a motorsports journalist and has been with Racing America since 2023.