In accordance to Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, Homestead-Miami Speedway will return as the positioning of NASCAR’s championship weekend in 2026. Homestead was the positioning of NASCAR’s finale yearly from 2002 till 2019. In 2020, NASCAR’s championship weekend shifted to the Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., the place it has stayed since.
Homestead held its one NASCAR race weekend within the common season in 2020 and 2021 earlier than being added again into the playoffs in 2022. From 2022 to 2024, Homestead was featured because the second race within the penultimate spherical of the playoffs.
This yr, nevertheless, Homestead’s date reverted to the common season, holding its lone Cup Collection race on March 23. In hindsight, transferring the race from October to March might permit the ability to renovate the venue and make numerous, much-needed adjustments regarding the comparatively sparse and outdated facilities current on the 1.5-mile monitor.
This lack of facilities is believed to be a significant motive why Phoenix, a monitor with a much less intriguing on-track product however significantly better fan and business facilities, was given the championship date in 2020.
In line with Bianchi, Homestead has solely nailed down the championship race for 2026, as NASCAR is anticipated to rotate the venue for its finale over the approaching years. Phoenix Raceway will retain two races on the Cup Collection schedule within the coming years, and is reportedly one of many tracks that can be featured within the rotation of the championship race.
After 5 years — and another on the horizon — of comparatively lackluster championship races at Phoenix, latest barn burners at Homestead — see Tyler Reddick’s last-lap go for the win in October 2023 — have solely bolstered fan help for a return to Homestead for championship weekend.
Phoenix could also be a world-class facility from the angle of fan facilities, however the racing product on monitor has by no means been in a position to match that of Homestead. NASCAR’s Subsequent Gen automotive, which tends to race worse on brief ovals and higher on intermediates resembling Homestead, has solely served as gasoline to the fireplace concerning the argument that Homestead ought to change Phoenix because the finale.
With Homestead now again because the finale, the query is the place NASCAR slots in a second Phoenix date for 2026. Earlier than changing into the finale in 2020, Phoenix held its second race of the yr within the penultimate spherical of the playoffs, serving because the elimination race for the Spherical of 8 from 2014 to 2019.
For years, Homestead’s services fell behind even whereas internet hosting NASCAR’s championship weekend. Now, the ability will hopefully have loads of fashionable facilities to swimsuit the followers on the monitor and can nonetheless be capable of present the good racing that it options, irrespective of the place it falls on the schedule.
