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05/06 13:05 CDT NASCAR championship weekend goes to Homestead in 2026, starting
a rotating formula
NASCAR championship weekend goes to Homestead in 2026, starting a rotating
formula
By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Sports Writer
MIAMI (AP) --- NASCAR asked its fans where they would prefer seeing
championship weekend held, and the majority of those who responded picked
Homestead-Miami Speedway.
And NASCAR listened.
The 2026 NASCAR season will end in South Florida, with stock car racing's
championship weekend returning to Homestead-Miami next year. It'll be the first
time since 2019 that the title-winners will be crowned there and will start a
rotation where NASCAR will move its final weekend around various tracks.
How that'll work in 2027 and beyond remains unclear. But in 2026, Homestead is
the spot.
"I like that we move it around," said reigning NASCAR champion Joey Logano, who
won the crown last fall at Phoenix --- this year's title-deciding spot as well
--- and the first of his three titles at Homestead-Miami in 2018. "That was one
of the things that I always thought would be a great idea if we were able to
pull it off, right? The Super Bowl doesn't stay in the same place every year.
Why should our Super Bowl, our championship race, stay in same place every
year?"
NASCAR made the announcement Tuesday, and it was not exactly a stunner. ("I'm
sure everyone was surprised to see this coming," Logano said, smiling.) Its
three series --- the truck series, the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series ---
will see their seasons come to a close at Homestead from Nov. 6-8, 2026.
It isn't a permanent return, though: NASCAR said that championship weekends are
going to be on a rotation "to ensure that the season's exciting conclusion is
shared amongst NASCAR's marquee venues and key markets." Phoenix will be part
of that rotation, somehow, but NASCAR isn't ready to say which other tracks may
be involved and when all that will be announced.
"We have a lot of confidence, when we go to Homestead-Miami Speedway, it's
going to deliver from a racing product perspective," NASCAR executive vice
president Ben Kennedy said. "It's also going to create a good amount of
unpredictability for many of our fans that come to that race or tune in on TV
just going to a different championship venue and having it on the line. We're
excited to see all that."
Part of NASCAR's commitment to Homestead-Miami, Kennedy said, includes a
capital investment to "make sure it is a championship-caliber facility when we
show up next year."
NASCAR routinely makes tweaks to schedules and now will tinker again with where
seasons end, but one non-negotiable appears to be the start of the season:
Daytona will remain the first points race for the foreseeable future, Kennedy
said.
"We ran a survey a couple years ago, and it was over 95% of our fan base wants
to see their first points race be the Daytona 500," Kennedy said. "That was a
statistic that was strong enough for us to say we're not even going to explore
that for now."
Homestead-Miami was the championship weekend site from 2002 through 2019. There
are three active drivers who were crowned NASCAR champions at Homestead ---
Kyle Busch in 2015 and 2019, Brad Keselowski in 2012 and Logano in 2018. Logano
has also won the title at Phoenix in two of the last three seasons, including
last year.
And all seven of Jimmie Johnson's NASCAR titles came at Homestead, which has
renamed a tunnel in his honor to commemorate those championships.
"If you're asking drivers, it's about the track, right? The environment
obviously is really cool. It's different being in Miami. That's a neat thing,"
Logano said. "But the drivers, what we care about is the racing, right? Can we
move around the racetrack, can we do different things, are the tires falling
off, is that fun. To us, yeah, that's fun."
NASCAR decided after the 2001 season to move its truck and Cup series races to
one track, in order to create a season-ending championship celebration.
Homestead-Miami was the original site after that decision, and then things
moved to Phoenix starting in 2020.
Kennedy said racing in early November isn't exactly possible at all of the
tracks on the NASCAR schedule, meaning that the series would prefer a
warm-weather climate for its finish --- something that Phoenix and
Homestead-Miami provide. And Homestead-Miami's history isn't lost on NASCAR,
either.
"Homestead has put on some of the most phenomenal finishes, especially when we
had the championship there," Kennedy said. "But even since then, and we've
crowned so many legends and Hall of Famers over the past 15 years when we did
have the championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway. So, competition is a part of
it, variability, and I think diversity in where you're crowning the champion
was another consideration."
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
