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The fans are asking NASCAR to do what no one was asking for just a few short years ago, add more intermediate tracks to the schedule. Dale Earnahardt Jr. looked at some solutions in a recent episode of the Dale Jr. Download, even predicting that Marcus Smith could get rid of the Charlotte Roval. That was not the only prediction he gave on the 2025 schedule either.
I think that Marcus is smart. If I know Marcus, he’ll shelve the Roval and take advantage of this popularity that this Next-Gen car has on the mile and a halfs. I feel like that we got the Roval because of how bad the product was at Charlotte. It was terrible. He had to do something, and he comes up with this great idea. The Roval was good out of the gate in the same vein that racing at the Coliseum was cool the first time, but, for me after after one or two, I’m done.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
That’s a pretty bold prediction, but, it makes a lot of sense. The Charlotte Roval does not serve the same purpose it once did.
It was added to the schedule in 2018 because the Gen-6 car was incredible on road courses, but, NASCAR did not have the flexibility to add more road courses. Why not take a race away from a boring intermediate and do something new? Now, NASCAR has 3 other natural terrain road courses and a street race, including Watkins Glen being moved to the Playoffs. It also doesn’t help that the racing product on road courses with the Next-Gen car has been hit-or-miss at best.
That being said, Marcus Smith has publicly spoken highly of the Roval. He said during an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio in the fall of 2023, “I love the ROVAL and I love that it makes Charlotte Motor Speedway the most unique venue in motorsports.”
Was Kansas enough to Change Smith’s mind?
This is where we get into more speculative territory. Dale Earnahrdt Jr. looks at another potential intermediate track to add back to the schedule, Chicagoland Speedway. He openly wonders if the Chicago Street Race is sustainable for years to come.
How long can we race in the Streets of Chicago? Is that a sustainable thing? Can you do that year over year for a long time? I don’t feel like that’s realistic. I think that it’s so expensive to do that eventually ythe crowd is going to level off right after after the first couple of years.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
The Chicago Street Race has been rife with political opposition and even some local opposition. It’s easy for those opponents to tell NASCAR that there is a purpose-built race track in the area, instead of shutting down city streets during peak vacation season.
It’s also worth noting that two Chicago sports teams, the Bears and the White Sox are looking at building new downtown stadiums. That may require the city to pony up public funding, but, the city is not as willing to give them funding. If these established teams struggle to get public funding for new stadiums, how long before someone with enough power sees the Street Race as a pointless expense?
Dale Earnhardt Jr. also predicted that NASCAR would race internationally in 2025, specifically mentioning Mexico. That’s not a new report by any means, but, he brings up an interesting perspective on what racing internationally means.
More international races mean more races on road courses, which, makes it that much more important to add other types of tracks onto the schedule, specifically short tracks.
NASCAR wants to be big enough and successful enough for it and its race teams to be able to travel outside of this country and have have amazing events. That’s going to most likely be road course racing, and, man, we have enough. If we didn’t have many road courses, it wouldn’t bother me that much but we got a lot. And, what’s whittling away? One of our favorite things, short track seems to be because the mile and a half package is so great. We’re going to try to add a couple more of them somehow you you’re going to try to shoehorn one or two more of those back into the schedule…What’s got to sacrifice is our short tracks.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is right that, if NASCAR wants to race internationally, it would probably be a road course race. What would you sacrifice at that point? Intermediates put on great racing, so, short tracks may be the first ones to go.
Sure, the short-track package is not great, but, how far is too far? It’s a tough balance to strike because short-track racing is part of what makes NASCAR unique, but, it’s also not producing the best racing. Where is the balance there?
The 2025 schedule is set to be an interesting one. It could be one of NASCAR’s boldest yet, and Dale Earnahdt Jr. raises some interesting questions about the schedule.
