NASCAR Looks To Rotate Its Championship Weekend
Denny Hamlin, driver of the #11 FedEx Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Ford EcoBoost 400 at Homestead Miami Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
By Dennis Krause
Taking a page from the National Football League’s Super Bowl, NASCAR is looking to rotate the venue of its championship deciding race weekend.
In making the announcement that Homestead-Miami Speedway would host the NASCAR Championship Weekend in 2026, Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer indicated the move would also kick off a rotation of locations.
“This has been a long time coming that we are proud to announce that the 2026 Championship is going to go to Homestead-Miami Speedway. It’s been since 2019 that we’ve had the championship there.
“We’ve moved it over to Phoenix for the past several years, which has been great on so many levels for us, and we’re excited to be able to say that that is going to continue to stay in a prominent position in the playoffs in the Round of 8, but also a huge opportunity for us to move the championship to Homestead-Miami Speedway and also kick off a rotation as well.”
Photo courtesy of NASCAR
According to Kennedy, fan input was a major consideration in making the change, but not the only one.
“It’s a handful of considerations that we take a look at, especially as we think about moving a championship. I would say, first and foremost, it’s fan feedback, and fans ranked Homestead-Miami Speedway as number one on the list of where they’d like to see a championship in the future.
“So we listen to our fans. All of our partners who are broadcast partners, our teams, our drivers have input to where they’d like to see the championship in the future, a lot of industry stakeholders we’ll collaborate with.
“I would say, on top of that, as you think about a championship race, ideally a warm weather kind of climate location. You can’t race everywhere in the world, especially in early November, so there’s a handful of venues and properties that we tend to gravitate towards.
“Thirdly, we want to make sure it’s marketed and promoted the right way.
“Fourthly, Phoenix is a great example of this. You saw the kind of $100 million project we put into the reimagine of Phoenix Raceway. Homestead isn’t a Phoenix Raceway, and it probably won’t be to that level when we come for the championship next year, but we are going to be putting some capital in that facility to make sure it is a championship caliber property when we show up to it next year.
“Then overall, racing product. I think this is another part of the discussion that we’ve had. We’ve been at Phoenix for a number of years. We’ve made some changes in the playoffs. We haven’t made wholesale changes, but a few kind of minor changes to the playoffs to keep that level of unpredictability and parity through it.
“Things like moving Talladega, as an example, to the Round of 8 this year was kind of a story line and is going to challenge the teams and drivers in a new and unexpected way.
“We have a lot of confidence, when we go to Homestead-Miami Speedway, it’s going to deliver from a racing product perspective. It’s also going to create a good amount of unpredictability for many of our fans that come to that race or tune in on TV just going to a different championship venue and having it on the line. We’re excited to see all that.
“A lot of collaboration internally, a lot of collaboration with all of our partners. We’ve been sitting on this one for a while. I’m glad we’re able to finally press the button on it and send it out to the rest of the world.”
Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota, leads the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway on November 10, 2024 in Avondale, Arizona. (Photo by Meg Oliphant/Getty Images)
Phoenix will continue to be part of the rotation, according to Kennedy, because of the way it has gone all out for NASCAR’s Championship Weekend.
“It’s a beautiful track, it’s a beautiful facility, and it’s a great market that really embraces us. I think we do a good job of doing a number of activations in events in and around the market in the Phoenix area. It is a championship caliber market. It’s a championship caliber city. And we’ll be bringing the championship back to Phoenix sometime in the future.
“Miami and Homestead is the same way,” Kennedy noted. “We want to find ways to partner up with the city, to partner up with the county, and not just have this be two or three days at the racetrack, but really turn this into more of a longer weekend long event where we have a number of activations in and around the city and really paint the town, so to speak, to make sure that anyone that is in Miami that weekend knows that NASCAR is in town with their championship.”
For the time being, superspeedways and road courses will not figure into the championship weekend rotation, according to Kennedy.
“That was another variable that we discussed is what’s on the table and what’s off the table for a championship location.
“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. 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.”
One track that seems to meet the criteria laid out by Kennedy, is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a track already on the playoff schedule. While not endorsing the idea, Kennedy didn’t dismiss it, either.
“I think anything is on the table at this point, to be honest, whether it’s a NASCAR property or elsewhere. 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.”
Dennis Krause has spent decades covering all forms of motorsports, including over 40 Indianapolis 500s, with stints at WIBA Radio, PIT PASS - Radio’s Premier Motorsports Magazine and Motorsports Minute. Follow him on X @DennisKrause500 or motorsportsminute.bluesky.social or motorsportsminute on Threads or MotorsportsMinute+ on Facebook.