With the announcement that NASCAR will start rotating its championship weekend starting next season, beginning with a return to Homestead-Miami Speedway, it’s not exactly complicated which tracks are in the running the host it.
Homestead
Phoenix
Las Vegas
Texas
Charlotte
Nashville
Maybe Kansas?
If ovals from a mile to a mile-and-a-half are the standard, Kyle Busch kind of summed it all up.
“Obviously, it’s limited by weather, right,” Busch said. “That’s the sort of key component so I’m pretty sure all of them have been mentioned.”
Christopher Bell echoed that sentiment too.
“You definitely need a couple and we’re obviously limited by weather here in the United States so Vegas is one that definitely comes to mind and is deserving of it,” Bell said. “It makes sense. I think, there’s a couple of tracks — Vegas, Homestead and Phoenix, and that makes sense to rotate.
“Charlotte would be a great venue. I think you would be rolling the dice there with weather but maybe a day race there would be acceptable. I think it’s awesome though, and it should have happened years ago, but I’m pleased we’re finally starting to rotate it.”
Read more: NASCAR kicks off championship rotation with Homesetad
Charlotte, like Kansas, would probably require daytime starts when NASCAR likes to end their season in prime time on network television.
“Those tracks are doable but you don’t want to end in prime time, so it has to start at noon, and we don’t do that,” Busch said.
There’s also another option on that front:
“It’s just we need to start backing our season up, ending it a little sooner so that we’re not at New Hampshire, remember that year, in November and I don’t want that,” Busch said.
Like Bell, Chase Elliott agreed that the rotation was much needed.
“I think it’s great and when it moved from Homestead, I honestly thought that was the plan in general,” Elliott said. “I don’t know how long it’s been in Phoenix now, a long time, but I am glad to see it move around. I think it’s important to have that shift and not just be at one track.
“And even if it were every year, that’s fine, I would be for that. I’m excited for the change.”
That’s coming from a driver that won his championship in 2020 at Phoenix too.
Of course, Kyle Larson endorsed the return to Homestead but he’s also team ‘rotate it’ like pretty much everyone in the industry.
“Yeah, I think ultimately I’m just happy to hear that it is going to rotate, I guess,” Larson said. “Did they announce what tracks it’s rotating through?”
Negative.
“But yeah, I don’t know,” he continued. “Everybody’s good everywhere, so it doesn’t matter a whole lot. But yeah, my past history would say that I would be a lot better at Homestead than Phoenix, so I like that.
“But still, you have to get there, and that’s really challenging to do in our format. We’ll see. And there’s other guys that are just as good or better than me at Homestead. I feel like (Ryan) Blaney’s quietly extremely good, as he is at Phoenix. At Homestead and Vegas, if he could ever get through practice, he’d probably be dominant there, too.
“It’s cool that they’re rotating it.”
Weather aside, Charlotte got a lot of votes on Saturday, including 704 native William Byron.
“As weird as it sounds, Charlotte would be one of the better ones for a championship race,” Byron said. “Charlotte oval has gotten really tough, really competitive. Homestead is obviously great. Vegas is great. Phoenix is okay. You have three or four there that is decent, climate wise. There’s probably a couple of more you can include. Here (Kansas) but the weather is probably a factor.”
Also, a shared endorsement, is that everyone was relieved to hear Ben Kennedy from NASCAR say earlier this week that superspeedways were not part of the rotation.
Just too many variables.
“I like how Ben shot down the Daytona finale idea. I think that was very smart of Ben.”
Elliott agreed:
“The speedways would be off the table,” Elliott said. “Atlanta would be off the table now. At the end of the day, they have an open box on what they want to do and we have enough of a sample size now that we should be able to make a very educated decision on what makes the most sense from an entertainment perspective and also the most rewarding that crowns the right champion.”
