NASCAR: Another schedule change on the way?
By Randy Smith
NASCAR has recently shown a clear desire to add new tracks, and another one or more may be looming for the 2022 Cup Series season.
Several new tracks were added to the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, including road courses such as Circuit of the Americas, Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course.
Bristol Motor Speedway hosted a dirt race, the first Cup Series dirt race since 1970, and Nashville Superspeedway returned to the sport for its inaugural Cup Series race.
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Additionally, Atlanta Motor Speedway is now set for a repave. So in the inaugural season of the Next Gen car next year, plenty of tracks that have been modified or only recently added to the schedule will truly put drivers to the test.
However, it may not stop there, as at least one more new track could be a destination for the Cup Series in 2022.
According to a report by Sport Business Journal’s Adam Stern, NASCAR is considering adding World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway to the 2022 Cup Series schedule, and a short track at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum is an idea which the sport has “continued to explore”.
.@NASCAR has held discussions with @WWTRaceway-Gateway in recent months about potentially awarding the track a '22 Cup Series race, per sources, though the current status of the talks is unclear.
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) August 21, 2021
➖ The @LAColiseum short track idea is another one NASCAR has continued to explore. pic.twitter.com/HWxk4ZB9kR
The Cup Series running at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway wouldn’t be a new idea, as the Truck Series has run there for several years.
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However, a short track inside a football stadium would be. That idea was done in reverse when Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the “Battle of Bristol” in 2016, a college football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and the Virginia Tech Hokies.
It seems that NASCAR is looking to provide more short track racing next year, and with Auto Club Speedway already set to be remodeled into a short track for the 2023 season, it seems that they are focusing on the Los Angeles market in particular.
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With a total of seven road course races on this year’s Cup Series schedule, NASCAR could elect to replace some road course races with more short track races while keeping a balance of different racing surfaces, track lengths and configurations.