2025 schedule news/rumors

Huh. I don't care how long it takes to get out if the racing's really good. But I was a regular attendee at Rockingham; getting out of there was an education in patience.

Dunno when the last time you went down #1 was but they’ve made it a 4 lane now


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COTA is about to overtake Loudon as my least favorite track as far as the racing goes.
I don’t think it was bad, but the general reception doesn’t seem to be great. If they decide to go back next year - since the contract just ended - I wonder if it would behoove them to run the ‘National’ layout that V8 Supercars ran about a decade ago. More laps, more traffic.
 
I don’t think it was bad, but the general reception doesn’t seem to be great. If they decide to go back next year - since the contract just ended - I wonder if it would behoove them to run the ‘National’ layout that V8 Supercars ran about a decade ago. More laps, more traffic.
I was looking at the track map, I honestly think it be better.
 
Everyone trippin' over COTA forgetting that this car is a ****box on road courses and flat tracks. Watkins Glen and Martinsville, frequently in the top-5 among most race fans' favorite tracks, have been boring as hell with this car.

And honestly, track limits need to be enforced more than they currently are.

One of the things that's missing is the art of someone setting up a pass perfectly and executing it. Now, you spend two laps setting someone up and it doesn't matter because they can just gun it off the corner. Skill does not matter on road courses anywhere near as much as it did even 5-10 years ago. Any one of 20-25 drivers can win these road courses now and it's not because they've all become road racing aces either.

Then there's how the horsepower has been nerfed to the point that they should race the Chevy Cruze, Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla. This horsepower reduction is worse at these types of tracks because, again, it reduces how much skill goes into it.

I'd say these road races are like watching iRacing or other videogames (sorry, simulators🙄), but they actually enforce track limits on iRacing!!!
 
All that said, I'd be fine with Road America replacing COTA myself, but I'd hate to see NASCAR leave Austin. Austin is a blazing hot entertainment market that doesn't have much in the way of pro sports going on.
 
All that said, I'd be fine with Road America replacing COTA myself, but I'd hate to see NASCAR leave Austin. Austin is a blazing hot entertainment market that doesn't have much in the way of pro sports going on.
Your statement is exactly what I think is wrong with nascar these days. They chase a market instead of a good race.
 
Road America wasn’t a good race with NextGen either. 🤷🏻‍♂️

The only reason I want Road America back personally is the market. That place packed out.
I was never a fan of RA for cup cars. COTA was fine as it was a blast watching Bell & Byron perform flawlessly lap after lap. I think most fans and all casuals don’t like that kind of race but I’m just speculating
 
I was never a fan of RA for cup cars. COTA was fine as it was a blast watching Bell & Byron perform flawlessly lap after lap. I think most fans and all casuals don’t like that kind of race but I’m just speculating

Fans are used to overtime "chaos" finishes on road courses. Plus, NASCAR doesn't throw a full course caution everytime someone spins anymore.

Like I said in the Rate the Race thread, I gave it extra points because NASCAR allowed the race to play out.

These cars need to be harder to drive on these road courses. That requires a combination of increasing horsepower and not allowing drivers to abuse track limits the way they do.

COTA is fine. The car is not.

I also think one reason fans are not high on road courses anymore is Chase Elliott hasn't won on one in a couple years.
 
Except RA packed the place on it's own without chasing a market

NASCAR has to get younger fans engaged somehow. Losing Road America for it sucks, but the Chicago race provided engagement. And the television ratings were gigantic.

The only reason anyone talks about Road America is because of the fans it attracted. You say it's not market chasing, I say it is. Going to a race solely because it brought 120,000 fans is no different than going to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum because it could attract more fans than Fontana.

And again, just so it's clear, I want Road America back on the schedule. In fact, I want five or six road courses (and Charlotte should not be one) and two street courses. NASCAR needs to fix the car, not the tracks.
 
NASCAR has to get younger fans engaged somehow. Losing Road America for it sucks, but the Chicago race provided engagement. And the television ratings were gigantic.

The only reason anyone talks about Road America is because of the fans it attracted. You say it's not market chasing, I say it is. Going to a race solely because it brought 120,000 fans is no different than going to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum because it could attract more fans than Fontana.

And again, just so it's clear, I want Road America back on the schedule. In fact, I want five or six road courses (and Charlotte should not be one) and two street courses. NASCAR needs to fix the car, not the tracks.
I don't think that's exactly comparing apples to apples. A lot of tickets purchased for the Chicago race were people wanting to go to a concert that happened to be during a race. I remember the stories of people that purchased tickets for the sole purpose of seeing the concerts were very upset.

BTW I have no love for road racing. I currently live maybe 45 min from RA and have no desire to attend a cup race there.
 
Except RA packed the place on it's own without chasing a market

I’m not doubting it’s popularity but I just wasn’t a big fan of the cup cars on that circuit. I completely appreciate how others may have really liked it though.
 
I’m not doubting it’s popularity but I just wasn’t a big fan of the cup cars on that circuit. I completely appreciate how others may have really liked it though.
Its like Phoenix it's not the best racing but it sells out. Why leave?

My problem is why push markets where you have to use gimmicks to get people to show up? And even at that attendance isn't great
 
Its like Phoenix it's not the best racing but it sells out. Why leave?

My problem is why push markets where you have to use gimmicks to get people to show up? And even at that attendance isn't great

Phoenix also only has 42,000 seats. They should move the finale away from Phoenix for many reasons. Homestead, at 48,000 seats, is selling out each year.

Granted, it's possible that the only reason Phoenix sells out in the fall is because it's the championship and NASCAR sees status quo as necessary for business.
 
Phoenix also only has 42,000 seats. They should move the finale away from Phoenix for many reasons. Homestead, at 48,000 seats, is selling out each year.

Granted, it's possible that the only reason Phoenix sells out in the fall is because it's the championship and NASCAR sees status quo as necessary for business.
I'm not a fan of the racing there either but they did sell out in spring too....
 
I don’t think it was bad, but the general reception doesn’t seem to be great. If they decide to go back next year - since the contract just ended - I wonder if it would behoove them to run the ‘National’ layout that V8 Supercars ran about a decade ago. More laps, more traffic.
I agree. There's a reason NASCAR doesn't run the full course at Watkins Glen.
 
Road America also got repaved after the 2022 season and would probably be quite a bit worse for racing right now.
 
Bianchi seems to believe the most likely scenario is a Richmond date falling off the calendar for Mexico. Which, I didn’t listen to last week’s Teardown, but would apparently be Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (F1 Mexican GP/former Busch Series venue). And I’m not a big fan of that track post-renovation/reconfiguration.
 
Bianchi seems to believe the most likely scenario is a Richmond date falling off the calendar for Mexico. Which, I didn’t listen to last week’s Teardown, but would apparently be Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (F1 Mexican GP/former Busch Series venue). And I’m not a big fan of that track post-renovation/reconfiguration.

Every time I see the word Hermanos it always reminds me of Los Pollos Hermanos & Gus Fring from Breaking Bad. Sorry about the spam!
 
NASCAR needs to stop running races on Easter. The Bristol dirt races were not well attended and now Richmond's attendance was bad, but there was rain.
 
NASCAR needs to stop running races on Easter. The Bristol dirt races were not well attended and now Richmond's attendance was bad, but there was rain.
The date has nothing to do with the quality of racing at Richmond. BTW they didn't know if they were going to get the race in because of rainstorms for people attending. Very weak deathbed post. I give it a 3 out of 10 lol.
 
NASCAR needs to stop running races on Easter. The Bristol dirt races were not well attended and now Richmond's attendance was bad, but there was rain.
Doesn't really matter how many are at the race as long as the TV ratings are good.

Rumor is the Easter Special is done.



Racing on Easter Sunday is a bad idea for a southern sport. Easter is more important than Christmas in the Bible Belt.
 

Pretty good collection of information here.

Tell that to the track operators. Richmond is likely losing a race next year for good reason.

Long overdue, IMO. If the Chicago Street Race doesn't return in 2025, I'd like to see Richmond take over with a night race on July 4th weekend.
 
Tell that to the track operators. Richmond is likely losing a race next year for good reason.
Running a race on Easter Sunday isn't going to put many fans in the stands regardless of which track it's at.

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Running a race on Easter Sunday isn't going to put many fans in the stands regardless of which track it's at.

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I remember years ago the old Busch series would race on Easter Sunday I think at Hickory as a stand alone race. At least it gave us something to watch when it was on TV. I wouldn't mind seeing something like this again.
 
Running a race on Easter Sunday isn't going to put many fans in the stands regardless of which track it's at.

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Over 3.3 million fans watched a not that popular race track on Easter though. I don't think Easter race dates are going anywhere. Night time optics helped for me anyway.
 
I dont understand the pearl clutching of Easter Sunday. ESPN had 2 NBA games on, multiple MLS games were on. EPL games were on in the morning. PGA Tour had a tournament. I think it's great NASCAR raced on Easter Sunday, and I thought it was even better it was on Sunday Night, big time sports have their events on holiday's. Why should NASCAR be an exception? You're going to give up having potentially 3 million plus fans having eyeballs on your product because of a holiday that lets be honest is most likely over by Brunch time, imo thats asinine. Run the race Easter Night and lets go. I hope Richmond survives it but whatever as long as NASCAR is on Easter Night, something fun to watch.
 
Going to ball game is not as taxing as going to a race. A fan can show up at a game less than an hour before start time. That cannot be done at a NASCAR race. That's the problem with the attendance. TV ratings will not suffer since people can stay at home without interrupting their Easter day with family or friends.
 
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