Road America president on possible return of NASCAR to Wisconsin track
Mike Kertscher was asked if there’s anything new on the possibility NASCAR would come back to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Here’s what he said.
- Wisconsin is without a NASCAR national series race for the first time since 1992, raising questions about the future of NASCAR in the state.
- NASCAR’s focus on new markets, including temporary circuits like the Chicago street course, contributes to Wisconsin’s absence from the schedule for now.
Before the calendar flipped, we looked ahead to five questions to be answered – or at least addressed – during the 2025 Wisconsin racing season.
The most difficult of them involves an infinite timeline “ever” so an answer could come as soon as this summer or next year or after decades down the line.
Wisconsin is without a NASCAR national race for the first time since 1992. Is that for good?
There is stop-and-start precedent. Twenty-eight years passed between the first visit by NASCAR to Wisconsin (Road America in 1956) and the second (Milwaukee Mile, or State Fair Park Speedway as it was then known, in 1984). Then the second gap was seven years between Mile events in 1985 and ’92.
Other questions involved the IndyCar at the Milwaukee Mile, an unofficial Wisconsin sprint week, the ASA STARS concept and the short-track juggernaut that is Ty Majeski. But here’s the question of the moment:
Will Wisconsin fans ever get NASCAR back?
Having the Craftsman Truck Series at the Mile in 2024 was a tiny Band-Aid when NASCAR dropped its Xfinity Series date at Road America. It also provided hope that Xfinity could race at the Mile again someday or maybe – gasp! – even the Cup Series.
Instead, in terms of the three national touring series, Wisconsin is NASCAR-less for the first time since 1992.
On the surface this would seem inexplicable given a rabid fan base and the state’s deep connection, but there’s always an explanation and it always involves money.
Pulling off a downtown Chicago street course event in 2023 – the alternative to Road America after two Cup dates there – proved NASCAR can race on a temporary circuit. That opened up new markets in and outside the United States for a sanctioning body that thinks on a grandiose scale more than ever before. It also made a heck of a backdrop for TV, which always helps when negotiating a billion-dollar-a-year rights deal.
And you know what? Road America is still there.
An hour’s drive north of Milwaukee, between Plymouth and Elkhart Lake, the track is doing just fine. IndyCar and IMSA draw big crowds and keep fans happy. Club events and track days provide steady income. Management burned no bridges with NASCAR.
Trends shift. Rockingham could fail. Mexico has fallen off the schedule before. Chicago will run its course.
If the date and the deal make sense, there’s nothing really standing in the way of NASCAR coming back someday to a state where it belongs.
Read the full article here
