Should NASCAR add a street course race?

With major changes set to take place before the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule is released, should the series add a street course race?

To the average non-fan, “left turns” are what NASCAR is known for. Indeed, there are far more ovals on the schedule than anything else. The Cup Series has visited 21 oval tracks for 33 races in the last few seasons, and it is scheduled to do so again in 2020. Three road courses are on the schedule once like they have been in recent years as well.

NASCAR’s ovals, despite the misguided idea that they’re all just circles that feature four hours of boring left turns on Sunday afternoons, are diverse. They range from 0.526 miles to 2.66 miles in length, they range from flat to high-banked, and the speeds range from under 100 miles per hour to nearly 200.

They include short tracks, intermediate tracks and superspeedways, all of varying lengths, banking and speeds. No two tracks are exactly alike.

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Nevertheless, it is true that NASCAR is a left-turn-dominated sport, and three road course races, even though the one at the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval was a recent addition to the calendar, don’t exactly tip that scale and draw any IndyCar or Formula 1 comparisons.

One thing that NASCAR is still missing, however, is a street course race.

If NASCAR has any desire to add a street race at any point in the future, the 2021 season would be the time to do it.

Major schedule changes are already projected to take before the 2021 schedule is revealed as a result of the fact that track contracts are up after the 2020 season. Just look at how much different the 2020 schedule is from the 2019 schedule even with the same races at the same venues. NASCAR is already doing what they can do to experiment.

A street course race would be a great experiment, and it is one that is already being discussed. NASCAR really doesn’t have anything to lose at this point.

These schedule changes are slated to take place one way or the other, and some tracks will lose dates while others will gain them. Why beat around the bush and not take advantage of the fact that 2021 is going to be an experimental year?

There are several tracks with two dates on the schedule (even some with one) that have demonstrated, either by crowd size, on-track product or both, that they don’t deserve to keep their race dates, or if they do, they only deserve to keep one. Beyond any shadow of a doubt, there will be slots to fill, slots with which to try new things.

Notably, none of these tracks are the road courses. A case could be made against street course races in that street circuits aren’t generally designed for 3,200-pound stock cars. But again, you don’t tend to think of NASCAR as a road course series, either. Yet no one is screaming for “no more road courses”.

Yes, it may look weird watching stock cars run around city streets for three hours. It would be challenging to pass. The speeds would probably be the lowest of the year and it would look nothing like an IndyCar race or a Formula 1 race.

But are these factors really worth avoiding when the “safe” alternative is another dry race at a track where the new rules package makes the end result a foregone conclusion before stage two ends?

After all, a street course race could and likely would also result in everything fans want from exciting racing to bumping and banging and tempers flaring, just like the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval, the closest thing NASCAR has to a street course right now, has provided in its first two seasons, and NASCAR needs to put fans in the stands.

Again, with the 2021 season poised to feature several changes anyway, why not try it now?

If it fails, you move on. If not, you have found another diamond in the rough and utilized it to further diversify the schedule and grow the sport that has been on a decline in recent years.

Would you like to see a street course race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule in the 2021 season?