By Jeffrey Hrunka - Motorsports Today Contributor
The iteration of NASCAR’s NextGen car has allowed the sport to have one of the most diverse schedules in auto racing. This is most apparent with NASCAR’s street race in Chicago. While rain plagued the race throughout its first two runnings, it brought fans to the sport who would not have seen it otherwise.
NASCAR needs to take advantage of its growing popularity and consider other places to host a street course race. Here are their best four options.
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is the most race-ready venue to host a street course for the NASCAR Cup Series. The market has already hosted numerous motorsports series ranging from Indycar to Stadium SUPER Trucks. It’s time for them to add NASCAR to the list.
NASCAR has been short a venue on the West Coast since renovations began on the Auto Club Speedway in 2022. During this time, they added “The Clash at the Colosseum,” an exhibition race inside the L.A. Memorial Colosseum. It has kicked off every NASCAR season since 2022. While this does satisfy the need for a race in southern California, it does not provide the atmosphere or stakes of a points race.
Long Beach has that atmosphere. Located half an hour south of Los Angeles, it is a city immersed in sports. It has a proven racing culture, as evidenced by the one-race weekend hosted by Indycar and IMSA. These factors make the city NASCAR’s best option for another street course venue.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
The future of the Chicago Street Course is still in the air. With the event in question after 2025, there is a street course venue north of the border that can take its place. The Grand Prix of Toronto at Exhibition Place not only crosses the box of an international venue for NASCAR, but it is also a circuit that has had experience with stock car racing before.
The NASCAR Canada Series has raced on the streets of Toronto since 2010, including a four-year hiatus from 2012-15. While the Cup Series has experience racing in Toronto, it has yet to be there in the modern era.
Dozens of Canadians flock across the border to watch their favorite drivers in action. Due to the number of fans, many tracks near the Canadian border play the national anthem of Canada during pre-race ceremonies. NASCAR needs to be involved in a market that has been yearning for a race for years.
Toronto is one of the largest cities in the world. If you combine this with NASCAR’s urge for an international venue, you could not write a better script.
New Orleans, Louisiana
Throughout NASCAR's history, the only race to take place in the state of Louisana was at the Louisana State Fairgrounds in Shreveport in 1953. It has been over 70 years since the sport gave the state a NASCAR-sanctioned race.
The state's lack of racing faculties has prevented any form of motorsport from returning. The most recent attempt to bring racing back to Louisana was the NTT Indycar Series's Indy Grand Prix of Louisiana at the NOLA Motorsports Park in 2015. The race attracted poor attendance, was swamped with poor weather, and lost thousands of dollars to putting it together. It was taken off the schedule after one race of its three-year contract.
Conducting a race on the streets of New Orleans is the best way to attract new fans from the area to the sport. One venue that can host this event is the streets around the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It played host to the “Grand Prix du Mardi Gras” with the IMSA GT Championship from 1991-92 and in 1995. Using a similar circuit layout combined with updated amenities, NASCAR can put racing back on the map in Louisiana.
Denver, Colorado
Denver is one of the most populated cities in the U.S. It is immersed in motorsports history yet hundreds of miles away from the nearest NASCAR venue. A street race can provide racing to a culture that has been without it for over a decade.
Pikes Peak International Raceway hosted the last NASCAR-sanctioned race in Colorado (among NASCAR's top three divisions) in 2005. While NASCAR could return to Pikes Peak International Raceway, the track's out-of-date facilities and lack of racing events are major drawbacks.
The Centennial State’s best option to host a NASCAR race would be on the streets of Denver. For many areas without a premier racing faculty, a street race is the best way to attract a racing series. It would fill a much-needed hole on NASCAR’s schedule, as the series has a limited number of races on the west side of the country. The only issue with having a street race in Denver is where to put it, as no major racing series has attempted this feat before. It’s time for NASCAR to make the first move.
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