NASCAR rules out superspeedways and road courses for season finale

In a teleconference on Tuesday, NASCAR offered insight into what is in play and what is out of the question as part of their rotating season finale. The track has to check a few boxes which include a strong on-track product, a good climate for early November, and of course, being located in an attractive market. But another aspect of that is finding a venue that best reflects the overall schedule and avoiding ‘wildcard’ tracks.

The sanctioning body announced a return to Homestead-Miami Speedway for 2026 earlier in the day, ending Phoenix’s six-year run as the title-decider for all three national divisions. It will mark the beginning of a rotating finale with various tracks serving as the host location from year-to-year.

Homestead hosted the finale from 2002 through 2019 before the shift to Phoenix happened — the longest consecutive run of any track. In the teleconference, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, Ben Kennedy revealed that rotating finale will focus mainly on intermediate tracks and even short tracks. 

No superspeedways and road courses

Kennedy ruled out the idea of utilizing a superspeedway or road course for the championship race in the immediate future, but he didn’t completely shut the door.

“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,” explained Kennedy when asked about possibly taking the finale to Daytona. “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 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.

“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. So we’re really going to hone in on short tracks and I would say mile-and-a-halfs for now.”

NASCAR wouldn’t go as far as to say that any track is fully excluded, but they did admit that tracks such as Michigan and New Hampshire likely aren’t ideal due to the time of year and their geographical location.

“I don’t think anything is a nonstarter per se at this point,” said Kennedy. “We do want to make sure we’re trying to avoid severe wet weather disruptions on the event weekend. If it is as far north as a New Hampshire or a Michigan, as an example, we’re going to look at over 30 years of past weather history on that date and that weekend to make sure that we’re limiting our risks because a lot of fans will come and camp out for that entire weekend, a lot of fans that will drive to see the race, and then many fans that will tune in on TV as well.

“If we have snow on the ground or it’s below freezing temperature, fans don’t want to come out for a weekend to a championship venue, and it’s a bit of an issue. We’re going to be thoughtful about that. I don’t think it rules out any venues or tracks per se, but it is part of our consideration set.”

Snow falling on Martinsville Speedway

Photo by: NASCAR Media

Tracks NASCAR doesn’t own may be in the running

Kennedy also noted that tracks outside of the scope of ISC (NASCAR ownership) may be considered as well, such as Speedway Motorsports’ Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

“I think anything is on the table at this point, to be honest, whether it’s NASCAR property or elsewhere,” said Kennedy. “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.

“Nothing to report today on exactly where we would be considering or where those properties might be, but I think all cards are on the table at this point.”

Ryan Blaney, Team Penske Ford

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

NASCAR also intends to be quicker with its schedule reveal moving forward. Last year, it wasn’t until the end of August when the 2025 schedule was confirmed.

“We would prefer to — I would say two parts to this,” began Kennedy. “We’d prefer to announce it sooner and then also have it be annual and as a separate kind of standalone announcement as well.

“Our goal is to move up the announcement of the 2026 schedule for this year. I think our goal is also to move up the announcement of where the championship location is going to be for 2027 and have its own moment in the spotlight and in the sun as Homestead-Miami does today.

“I think that gives us the ability — there’s a lot of content, a lot of story lines that are coming out today about the championship race moving down to Homestead-Miami Speedway. There are going to be a lot of other moments that we’re going to have from now until November of ’26 of the logo unveil, the entertainment, everything else that’s going to happen and transpire around that weekend, and really reimagining what the Championship Event looks like at Homestead-Miami Speedway.”

To summarize, he added: “I want to move up the announcement of the championship location, still have it as a standalone announcement, and then I think also, to answer your question, is have this be annually instead of announcing two or three or four at once.”