NASCAR to start rotating championship weekend in '26
NASCAR will switch gears and begin rotating the site of its championship weekend starting in 2026.
Only two tracks in the past 23 years have hosted the season-ending tripleheader of title races: Homestead-Miami (2002-19) and Phoenix Raceway (2020-current).
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As with the Super Bowl or Final Four, bringing the finales of the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series to different locations will boost exposure in more markets.
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Unlike those events, played on uniform fields and courts, NASCAR's rotation model potentially could transform the competition due to the varying lengths, surfaces and conditions of the circuit's tracks.
"Having the playoffs be more unpredictable every year, the championship venue to be at a different location, I think gives you the ability to see different teams and drivers kind of rise to the occasion to be able to be crowned a champion," said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer.
Kennedy said 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami will host in November 2026, and that 1-mile Phoenix will also remain in the rotation, but other tracks will be announced later based on several factors.
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"I would say it's four or five things," Kennedy said. "It's marketing and promotion, for sure, and it's location. We want to be in a warm-weather market. Ideally, being in November, that first week of November, it kind of limits you to the amount of races that you can run. ... I would say the quality of the facility. In Phoenix, we put over $100 million into the redevelopment of that track, and it was a big catalyst for bringing this championship to the West Coast. We're going to be putting a good amount of capital into Homestead as well ahead of the race.
"The racing product, I think, is another big part of this. And then overall, it's just the entire industry's feedback on this. So we collaborate with our broadcast partners, our teams. We hear from our drivers what they think, a lot of our corporate partners, and then ultimately the fans, and the fans have a large voice in this, and we get their perspective on it every single year."
Homestead-Miami track president Guillermo Santa Cruz called it an honor to be the first locale in the new rotation.
"There's nothing like having that ability to be the first one up and to have that blank sheet of paper in front of you and say, 'OK, what are we going to do?' Then you start," he said. "As a creative person, I love that. I love that ability to do that. That's my favorite thing in the world."
NASCAR's championship weekend this year will be in Phoenix from Oct. 31-Nov. 2.
--Field Level Media
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