NASCAR Looking Into The Future: New York? Mexico? Overseas?

As NASCAR kicks off its 75th season and is leading into its biggest race of the year, the Daytona 500, the sport continues to look ahead beyond 2023 with more changes, especially to its schedule.

In 2021, we saw the addition of tracks like Nashville (Nashville Superspeedway) and Austin, Texas (Circuit of the Americas). In 2022, NASCAR added the St. Louis market with World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway as well as moving the Clash race to the Los Angeles Coliseum. Now in 2023, NASCAR returns to Chicago with its first every street-circuit race as well as a return to its roots for the All-Star Race that will be held at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Now as of recent news, according to the Sports Business Journal, NASCAR executives have been in talks about hosting a race in the New York City area. This for me takes me back to the old EA Sports NASCAR games that always featured an NYC Street Circuit as one of the fantasy tracks. COO of NASCAR Steve O’Donnell told the Sports Business Journal that NASCAR has visited many sites and has talked to multiple groups within New York City. Potential sites were not mentioned, but the speculation could be a potential street circuit, or if NASCAR wanted to try more stadium circuits, they could attempt to race at Metlife Stadium across the river in New Jersey.

Other places mentioned were Denver, Seattle, Canada, Mexico, and possibly even overseas. Especially with Canada and Mexico, it was reported that there has been a strong interest to bring the NASCAR Cup Series to one of the two North American countries. NASCAR last raced in Canada in 2019 with the Truck Series racing at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and before that the Xfinity Series racing in Montreal. NASCAR hasn’t run in Mexico since the Xfinity Series ran at Mexico City from 2005 to 2008. It has been suggested that NASCAR could run an international race as early as 2024. It would be great for the sport to push out internationally with a race in Canada or Mexico, or even they could go beyond that. Maybe at some point, they try a race in Europe or Asia. Regardless, this is the best way to help further grow an international audience by placing a race in a country like Mexico, Canada, or somewhere else.

While there has been a lot of interest in some of these markets, NASCAR is also trying to sort out its future in Southern California. While NASCAR found success and is working on pushing for bringing in a new fanbase with the Busch Light Clash at the LA Coliseum, there are a lot of question marks regarding Auto Club Speedway. After the checkered flag falls at Auto Club at the end of this month, the track will be torn down and turned into a short track, and will not be able to host a race in 2024. That has caused NASCAR to look into a temporary replacement until the new short track will be ready, which may not be until 2025 or even 2026. NASCAR has discussed the idea of turning the Clash into a points race or having the LA Coliseum host a points race, while fans have given out ideas online suggesting racing at nearby tracks like Irwindale and Kern County. The only issue with those two tracks is getting them ready to be capable of hosting a NASCAR Cup Series race. Irwindale is very close to downtown LA but it only holds a capacity of 6,500 and not to mention the future of the track has been a concern in recent years. Kern County also holds between 5,000 and 10,000. It is unsure what the answer will be and there are still many question marks regarding the temporary solution until the new Auto Club Short Track is ready. Do they do a points race at the Coliseum? Do they try Irwindale or Kern County? Or would they go elsewhere? Do they give Chicagoland or Kentucky another chance? Only time will tell what NASCAR will decide to do. No matter what, NASCAR will work around it and have the Southern California market locked up for many years to come. Not to mention when Auto Club becomes a short track, I could see the track either getting two dates or even hosting the Championship weekend. Imagine having a championship weekend at a short track near Los Angeles, along with the “glitz and glam” that comes with it. Again, time will tell. Auto Club did not host a race in 2021 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and was replaced with the Daytona Road Course.

The 75th season will certainly be one to remember and the future of NASCAR looks brighter than ever before. There are several reasons to be excited about NASCAR. A new generation car with the NextGen car, a new generation of stars, new markets and venues, and much more. What we’re seeing now is only the beginning of what’s to come for the sport.