One of the major hangups that is reportedly keeping the 2024 schedule from being released is Montreal. What once seemed to be a guarantee to some is now questionable at best. If Montreal does not make it onto the 2024 schedule, then where can NASCAR go instead with that race date?
Now, Road America announced that they would not be hosting the NASCAR Xfinity Series next season, so, this seems next to impossible. However, would having a race that NASCAR was banking on happening at a certain time of year not happening constitute an unexpected turn of events? That would be the only scenario where Road America could come back.
What this offers is another road course to replace a road course race that NASCAR was looking to add. It is also a popular road course that would definitely bring in a good crowd if they don’t feel too miffed by NASCAR continuing to leave them.
If NASCAR cannot reach the Montreal market, then why not try to go for a new market at Portland International Raceway? This would also work out pretty easily in the 2024 Cup Series schedule. If NASCAR were to swap the Sonoma and Auto Club dates, they could put Portland where Sonoma was and Sonoma where Auto Club was.
Portland’s Xfinity Series race was held during that time of year as well. It also is a brand new market that NASCAR’s highest division has not touched yet. It is not as exciting as Canada, but it is still worth a lot of hype.
If Montreal does not pan out, that opens up a date on the schedule for North Wilkesboro Speedway. If Montreal does not work out, it would be a nice PR save to give North Wilkesboro a points date. It would be a very popular move amongst many core NASCAR fans.
The issue with this would be the short track product. The short track product has just not been very good, and that could impede North Wilkesboro’s case. However, this would be about offering something cool in place of Canada from a PR standpoint.
The reason Michigan is on this list is because of its proximity to Canada. It is the closest NASCAR Cup Series track to Canada, and it even has a Canadian flag flying in Victory Lane. If Montreal cannot get a race, then why not give one to the track closest to it?
The issue with this is the lack of PR excitement. Instead of an exciting, new venue, we get a track NASCAR goes to every year getting a second date. Yes, the racing product has been good the last couple of years, but, is that enough?
Again, why not another inaugural event to replace what would have been an inaugural event? Iowa Speedway has come back to life in recent years with IndyCar running some incredible events there thanks to Hy-Vee. Would Hy-Vee be willing to support a NASCAR race? Iowa Speedway is also still owned by NASCAR.
This would be interesting to see, but is the track in a big enough market for NASCAR? There is a reason why Iowa has no major professional sports teams, and that is because of its’ small market. As a result, that could keep NASCAR away.
Maybe NASCAR can put another interesting event in place of Montreal should Montreal not work out. What other race tracks could NASCAR go to?
Another race weekend in the books. While Ryan Blaney battled back from several pit road setbacks to win his second straight race at Phoenix, other drivers were much to be desired. It was a big win for Penske but for several others, they leave the first “real” race of the season scratching their head with a lot that they need to figure out. Here are the biggest losers of NASCAR’s Spring 2026 Phoenix race weekend.
I’m afraid that this is starting to be habitual. Another race weekend at RCR for Kyle Busch, another terrible result. Well, the finish wasn’t exactly awful. While 17th is hardly up to Kyle’s standards, it’s about as good as it gets anymore for the two-time champion who hasn’t won a race in nearly a hundred starts.
To start things off, there was a reason to be cautiously optimistic about the future of that RCR No. 8 Chevy. New crew chief. Personnel changes. A new Chevy body. He even scored the pole for the 68th running of the Daytona 500 last month. But, since then, it has been a sharp slope downward. He was mostly a non-factor in the first three races. And, today, it seemed like the No. 8 Chevy was out to lunch. They unloaded slow. They qualified in the back of the pack. And, before Stage 1 even ended, Kyle was running 34th with no apparent issues and went a lap down to leader Ryan Blaney. To add insult to injury, Kyle Bush had a tire go down on him three times today. More than any other driver. It appears to be back to the drawing board for team No. 8.
You could say that the Hendrick No. 48 team had a rough weekend in general. But I think it would be more accurate to say that the entire start to 2026 has been catastrophic. Heading into today’s race, even with Bowman starting the first three races of the season, the No. 48 team was 36th in points, last among all full-time drivers. Even Cody Ware was ahead of him. If that’s not bad, I don’t know what is.
To rub salt in the wound, their driver missed today at Phoenix due to showing symptoms of vertigo. So, Anthony Alfredo was into sub and…it went about as well as you’d expect. He went a lap down early and never recovered. He got caught up in the incident involving Joey Logano and DNF’d. Officially, they scored a 33rd finishing position. This is the worst start Bowman could ever imagine, considering that he’s in a contract year.
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that I’ve lost my marbles. “Come on, dude! Penske just swept the weekend! How can they be losers?” Hear me out. Let’s start first with the two other Penske drivers, shall we? Joey Logano caused not one, but two multi-car pileups, one involving his Penske teammate, Austin Cindric. Cars were utterly destroyed. Before that, both Cindric and Logano were running solidly in the top 10.
So, it’s not for a lack of speed that they make our Biggest Losers list. The reason they’re listed here is that a lot of their problems today, if not all of them, were self-inflicted. Logano was driving sloppily and that took out Cindric. And even race winner Ryan Blaney almost lost this race on pit road numerous times. Rookie mistakes by the pit crew constantly had him charging from behind. Pit road penalties. He was like a yo-yo going back and forth throughout the field. What saved him in the end was that, on that last restart, Blaney took two tires and Christopher Bell took 4. If that had not happened, it is extremely possible that Blaney ultimately would have lost the race and it would have been because of their numerous mistakes in the pits.
They got lucky this week. They probably won’t get that lucky again. They need to clean up those nagging, senseless mistakes.
Ole, Danny boy. If Alex Bowman’s seat is the hottest in the series, Daniel Suarez has to be the second hottest in the garage. That No. 7 car has been a revolving door of drivers for the last several years and it looks like Suarez is shaping up to be Spire’s latest victim. It’s the same old story with the team: they show impressive speed in qualifying and even early on in the race. But rarely do they ever put a full race together. That criticism isn’t just for Suarez, it applies to the team across the board.
But Carson Hocevar is the team’s golden child. He’s not going anywhere. And the team seems pretty high on Michael McDowell at the moment. That leaves Suarez looking like the odd man out, a seat-warmer, if you will. He needs to perform. And, he’s done well to start, admittedly. But he qualified 5th for today’s race. He even earned a few stage points in the opening stage. Then, he faltered and left the race with an unceremonious whimper. Ultimately, after he was no longer a factor, he was caught up in a mid-race wreck. He finished 30th. That’s a tough pill to swallow for the Mexican-born driver. If he wants to keep his ride next year, he needs to show stark improvement in the coming weeks. I have a strong feeling that that ride is about to be a highly sought-after commodity once silly season rolls around.
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The first checkered flag of the 2026 rendition of the NASCAR West Coast Swing (as abbreviated as it is) has officially flown. It was an exciting race, full of close, tight-cornered racing, a plethora of tire issues littered throughout, and a couple of heartbreaking, hard hits. Surviving it all was Ryan Blaney, who captured the flag in the Straight Talk 500 at Phoenix Raceway. He survived pit road mishaps and passed a total of 49 cars to win the race today. It marks his 18th career victory, sweeping the weekend for Team Penske. So, for Blaney and Team Penske, the race was the highest of highs. Not everyone escaped unscathed, though. Here are the key takeaways from NASCAR’s spring date at Phoenix.
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Following a relatively clean first stage, Stage number 2 and beyond was littered with cautions. Most of these cautions were a result of tires going down after only about 20 laps or so of use. But the caution on Lao 216 was purely driver error. Joey Logano, who was running 7th at the time, made a move down on the apron approaching the finish line. Chaos ensued. Here’s what happened.
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