NASCAR: Why track contracts are backfiring

By William Richard | Jun 18, 2018

NEWTON, IA - JUNE 17: Cars race during the NASCAR Xfinity Series Iowa 250 presented by Enogen at Iowa Speedway on June 17, 2018 in Newton, Iowa. (Photo by Matt Sullivan/Getty Images) /

With the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series both racing at Iowa Speedway this past weekend, I’m here to clear the air on why track contracts are backfiring.

With the NASCAR Cup Series taking the week off, the NASCAR Xfinity and Truck Series became the focal point of the NASCAR community. Per usual standards, the non-Cup Series weekend presented questions, comments and concerns, with fans voicing their opinions throughout the weekend.

In case you missed it, both the Xfinity and Truck Series ran at the relatively young Iowa Speedway this weekend, a track that has yet to hold a Cup event. With an action-packed race weekend, including a last-lap dive-bomb by Truck Series competitor Noah Gragson, who finished in second place, race fans pondered a similar question. Why won’t NASCAR give Iowa a Cup Series date?

Now, I’m not here to answer that particular question today, nor do I know the reason. However, in this post, I will discuss one of the road-blocks to such a thing happening: track contracts.

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If you don’t remember, NASCAR announced multi-year contracts with racing facilities in 2015. These contracts were to be five years in length, with the goal of providing consistency to tracks and fans. To make it simple, NASCAR guaranteed tracks an event through the year 2020. Here is a link to an article from the Charlotte Observer to jog your memory.

These so-called contracts were drawn up with good intentions, but they have since backfired, as fans have begged NASCAR for variety on the premier schedules. So what’s the conundrum?

NASCAR is locked in to the same tracks and facilities until at least 2020 with a fanbase that sees a land of possibilities for the future. Take Iowa Speedway, a track that has hosted non-Cup Series NASCAR events since 2009. The 0.875-mile oval remains on fans’ dream lists of tracks to add to the Cup Series schedule, but with tracks having contracts through 2020, fans will have to continue to wait.

This highlights the issue with said contracts. NASCAR has put itself in a chokehold for the next two and a half years. The “consistency” idea has accomplished one thing: consistent complaining from fans, and rightfully so.

Just think about this. Even if NASCAR wanted to add new tracks like Iowa Speedway, Road America or Circuit Gilles Villeneuve to the Cup Series schedule, they could not due to paperwork.

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Overall, this change regarding track contracts is one of the many changes NASCAR has made over the last decade, and it can be added to the list of failed experiments. At the end of the day, tracks may be enjoying the consistency of scheduling, but fans are stuck in a lose-lose situation. Simply put, fans want “new”, and NASCAR is forcing them to deal with “old”.