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What’s up, Daily Downforce fans? When the schedule was announced last week, we got the exciting news of several new tracks joining the NASCAR schedule for 2025, from Cup down to the Trucks. Of course, we already knew about Bowman Gray Stadium returning for the Clash. And that return was fresh off the heels of North Wilkesboro’s triumphant return with the All-Star Race. Now, NASCAR’s heading back to the Rock as well with the Xfinity and the Craftsman Truck Series. Not to mention, there are new races in Mexico City for Cup and Xfinity, as well as the NASCAR debut at Limerock for the NASCAR Truck Series.
With NASCAR’s return to all of these nostalgic and classic venues, we here at the Daily Downforce wanted to look at 5 more potential tracks that could host NASCAR races in the future. Full disclosure, though: not all of these tracks are Cup ready. Some are, some aren’t. But many of these tracks have hosted NASCAR races in the past. So, with no further ado, here are 5 Classic tracks that we’d like to see make a return to the NASCAR circuit at some capacity.
To start things off, we’re going to take a look at the Chicagoland Speedway. For those of us who grew up watching NASCAR race around this track in the mid-2000s, it’s a classic for sure! Perhaps with NASCAR’s current date at the Chicagoland Street Course, racing here in 2025 or maybe even 2026 might be a moot point. However, it has been widely speculated in recent weeks that the street course concept could be taken on the road as soon as 2026. If they move the street race to somewhere in southern California, for example, Chicagoland Speedway could make its triumphant return to the NASCAR ranks as soon as then.
NASCAR’s first race at the much-beloved Chicagoland Speedway was held on July 15, 2001. The track was part of NASCAR’s expansion with cookie-cutter intermediate ovals, but Chicagoland always had its unique features. For instance, the backstretch isn’t exactly a straightaway; it’s bowed to a curve. The length of the track is 1.52 miles. The turns are 18 degrees in banking, with the front stretch measuring 11 degrees.
Since the inaugural race in 2001, the track hosted one NASCAR race a year until 2019. Though initially on the 2020 NASCAR schedule, the rise of the COVID pandemic saw the scheduled event canceled. NASCAR has not raced there since, opting for a Chicago Street race instead. The track is owned and operated by International Speedway Corporation, a NASCAR company.
Some of the all-time greats who have hoisted the trophy at Chicagoland Speedway include Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Mark Martin, Matt Kenseth, Denny Hamlin, and Martin Truex Jr., just to name a few.
Despite consistently hosting NASCAR races for nearly two decades, the track is currently inactive. However, the land around the speedway is being kept up, so maybe one day, NASCAR can return to the facility. With the way these new NextGen cars race on intermediates, the race would no doubt be a barnburner. Chicagoland is primarily viewed as one of the better mile-and-a-half intermediates, right up there with Homestead Miami. Hopefully, one day, it will find its place back on the NASCAR Cup Series Schedule again.
Next, let’s take a look at NASCAR on dirt. I think many fans considered the Dirt Bristol Experiment a failure. Sure, the first race held with dirt on the surface was a fun gimmick, but its novelty quickly ran thin. Attendance and TV viewership dwindled as NASCAR fans wondered why NASCAR was going to run dirt if they weren’t racing at a purpose-built dirt track. Well, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had run on a legitimate dirt track previously, and it had been a fan-favorite track for years. No, we’re not talking about the debacle in Knoxville. We’re talking about Eldora Speedway.
Eldora Speedway is a half-mile banked dirt oval in Rossburg, Ohio. It opened in 1954 but rose to mainstream prominence in 2004 when Tony Stewart, three-time NASCAR Cup Series Champion, purchased the track. Stewart has owned and operated the facility ever since, which might be why NASCAR stopped going there in the first place.
A long-time home to USAC and The World of Outlaws, Eldora held its first NASCAR event in 2013 for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Austin Dillon won the inaugural event. Since then, NASCAR’s Dirt Derby has been a fan-favorite event on the truck series schedule, with many fans clamoring for a Cup date in the future. The last NASCAR race held at the track was in 2019. Like Chicagoland, it was originally on the 2020 Truck Series schedule but was removed due to state restrictions regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The track was never again placed on the NASCAR schedule. In 2021, the Trucks raced at Knoxville Speedway instead. In 2021, 2022, and 2023, NASCAR opted to put dirt over the concrete Bristol surface instead, causing some controversy.
Tony Stewart’s drama with NASCAR has been well-documented in the past. For that reason, I will not go into all of that here. But Stewart did resent NASCAR for pulling the plug on the Eldora experiment in exchange for a cheap gimmick at BMS. Many fans, specifically dirt fans, share Smoke’s unapologetic opinion.
Eldora Speedway is still active to this day and is one of the better facilities in the world of dirt racing. The track still hosts USAC and World of Outlaws races to this day. Hopefully, one day, if NASCAR ever decides to give the dirt experiment another go, they’ll heavily consider this great racetrack.
Kentucky Motor Speedway gets a bad rap. That’s mostly due to the traffic issues from the inaugural Cup Series race at the facility in 2011. 2012 saw some of those same issues, but as the event became a staple on the Cup Series schedule, many of those issues were ironed out. Like Chicagoland Speedway, Kentucky Speedway opened to capitalize on NASCAR’s expansion into untapped markets. NASCAR hadn’t hosted an event in Kentucky in many, many years before the track joined the NASCAR ranks. Also, similarly to Chicagoland, it was a response to the cookie-cutter boom of the late 1990s to mid-2000s.
NASCAR’s first event held at the track was on June 16, 2000, for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Greg Biffle went on to win the inaugural event. The NASCAR Xfinity Series joined the truckers for the subsequent event on June 16, 2001. Kevin Harvick won that race on his way to winning his first Busch Series championship. Track officials wanted to add a date for the NASCAR Cup Series as soon as 2002, but NASCAR rejected the proposal. The first NASCAR Cup Series race was not held at the track until eleven years after the track opened. By then, Speedway Motorsports Incorporated had purchased the track.
Heading into the first Cup race at the facility in 2011, late SMI owner Bruton Smith made the ridiculous remark that the race would be “bigger than the Daytona 500.” Kyle Busch won the first Cup Series race held at the facility, and NASCAR continued racing there until 2020. Cole Custer was the last winner thus far at the track. The annual Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway was left off the 2021 NASCAR schedule. NASCAR has not been back since.
Today, the track is in disrepair. There has been talk of SMI selling the track off to real estate developers. As recently as 2024, high-profile NASCAR voices such as Denny Hamlin have made a case to return to racing at the track, taking NextGen’s performance on intermediates into consideration. These outcries seemed to stop any plans to dismantle the track outright. However, with the apparent Kentucky Government’s unwillingness to invest, it remains a question as to whether or not we’ll ever see racing return to the facility. As for now, the track is defunct and virtually abandoned. But maybe someday, NASCAR can return there at some capacity. Hey, stranger things have happened…
The Late Model Stock scene still considers Hickory Motor Speedway to be hallowed ground. The CARS Tour still competes there a couple of times a year, and the NASCAR Advance Auto Weekly Series competes there. Once, though, this track was a hotspot for NASCAR competition. With the return of the historic Bowman Gray, could it be the next track to return for a one-off? It’s looking more likely now than ever before.
The Hickory Motor Speedway, located in Hickory, North Carolina, is often dubbed the most famous short track in the world. The track is 0.3 miles in length with an asphalt surface and has been a home for auto racing since its opening in 1951. Many legends of the sport have cut their teeth at the track, including Junior Johnson, Ned Jarrett, and Ralph Earnhardt, who have all won track championships at the facility. In fact, Ralph Earnhardt won the track title 5-times.
The NASCAR Cup Series visited Hickory Motor Speedway for the first time in 1953. Tim Flock won that first event, and the track became a staple of the schedule thereafter. Junior Johnson was the most successful driver at the track, winning there 7-times. The final NASCAR Cup Series race to be held at the track came in 1971. The reason the track was dropped off the schedule was that Winston came in as NASCAR’s premier sponsor. The R. J. Reynold’s Corporation wanted to drop all races under 250 miles from the schedule, which placed Hickory on the chopping block.
The track returned to the NASCAR ranks in 1982 with the rebooted Busch Grand National Series (the now Xfinity Series). The track hosted 2 Xfinity Series races a year until 1995. From ’95 onward, it hosted just one race a year on Easter Weekend. By 1998, the track was dropped off the Xfinity Series Schedule entirely after 17 years.
Hickory Motor Speedway is still an active track in NASCAR. The track hosts NASCAR Weekly races as well as the Cars Tour a couple of times a year. It is one of the more up-to-date late model facilities. With Bowman Gray’s return, there’s no reason that NASCAR couldn’t at least consider returning to this historic venue.
All right, this is no doubt the one you’ve all been waiting for. Except for maybe the Chicagoland Speedway, Nashville Fairgrounds is the track that stands the best chance of returning to the NASCAR schedule in the near future. There have been a lot of efforts in recent years in getting the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway back on the NASCAR schedule and, with involvement of SMI, it might be on the cusp of happening.
The Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is the second-oldest track in the United States which is still owned and operated to this day. NASCAR held their first race there in 1958 and it remained on the Cup Series schedule until 1984. The track was dominated in those days by the likes of Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip, who won nine and eight races respectively at the track.
After 1984, the NASCAR Xfinity Series raced at the facility in 1988 and 1989. The track became a regular stop for the series in 1995 and remained as such until 2000. In addition, the track hosted yearly NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series races from 1996-2000. Come 2001, both series moved about an hour north to the Nashville Superspeedway. Despite the top-3 series jumping ship to the intermediate track, the Fairgrounds remained a constant on the weekly racing scene. The ARCA Menards East Series held events on track between 2007-2008 and 2015-2019. The track returned to the schedule in 2021, and the East Series still runs there to this day.
The track has been involved in some controversy as of late. The NASCAR Cup Series left the track initially due to disagreements with the government of Nashville, Tennessee. With the track being so close to downtown and homebuyers building a neighborhood around it, noise became a concern. However, the track returned to mainstream prominence when Tony Stewart’s Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) brought some much-needed eyeballs to the facility. Chase Elliott won the first SRX race hosted there in 2021, and the track returned in 2022.
Since that SRX event, SMI has been in talks with the Nashville government to bring NASCAR Cup Series Racing back to the Nashville Fairgrounds. While nothing is yet set in stone, the talks look promising. Maybe someday soon, we’ll get to see a NASCAR race actually set in Nashville and not some quiet town an hour away.
That does it for us on this end, race fans! Let us know your thoughts! Which of these tracks would you like to see on the NASCAR schedule in the near future? What other tracks would you like to see? Would you be interested in an alternating schedule similar to what IndyCar has done in the past? Let us know!
And be sure to keep it right here at DailyDownforce.com for all the latest news and silly season-breaking stories in the world of NASCAR!
