When Homestead-Miami Speedway plays host to the 2026 NASCAR Championship Weekend, it‘ll have been more than 19 months since the Cup Series last raced on the 1.5-mile oval.
Because of that long layoff, it‘s virtually assured there will be cars on track at Homestead well ahead of next year‘s season finale.
During the latest episode of the “Hauler Talk” podcast, managing director of racing communications Mike Forde said NASCAR and Goodyear officials already have discussed the likelihood of a tire test before the return of the championship race to the South Florida track for the first time since 2019.
Phoenix Raceway has been the championship site since 2020 and has two annual races, giving teams an in-season race preview of the title finale. But Homestead-Miami Speedway has one annual race, so the March 23 race earlier this season could have marked the last opportunity for teams to gather real-world data at the track until returning next November.
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“As far as an organizational test where you have the entire Cup garage come, I‘d be a little surprised if we did that,” Forde said. “Those organizational tests are so rare these days. But it is a very long layoff. You can almost guarantee an extended practice of at least 50 minutes Friday and maybe going super old school with 50 minutes Saturday morning into qualifying.”
Forde and co-host Amanda Ellis also revealed during the podcast that NASCAR will meet with Cup drivers Saturday at Kansas Speedway to discuss a variety of current issues while soliciting feedback. Among the items on the agenda: the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City next month; superspeedway rules package tweaks to rein in liftoff speeds; and future horsepower levels.
Other topics covered during the 13th episode of “Hauler Talk,” which explores competition issues in NASCAR:
- How NASCAR is using new technology to review restarts (such as the late restart at Texas Motor Speedway in which Michael McDowell took the lead from Kyle Larson)
- Clarifying why Chris Buescher was denied the free pass on a yellow flag at Texas
- What the future holds for Texas Motor Speedway‘s bumps and how NASCAR views the track‘s surface after a treacherous race
MORE: Kansas weekend schedule | Cup Series standings
Forde and Ellis are also joined by NASCAR senior vice president of content John Dahl for a discussion of NASCAR: Full Speed. The second season of the docuseries was released Wednesday on Netflix.
Click on the embed above to listen or search for “Hauler Talk” wherever you download podcasts to hear it on your phone, tablet or mobile device.
Nate Ryan has written about NASCAR since 1996 while working at the San Bernardino Sun, Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA TODAY and for the past 10 years at NBC Sports Digital. He is a contributor to the new “Hauler Talk” show on the NASCAR Podcast Network. He also has covered various other motorsports, including the IndyCar and IMSA series.
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