Groovy Hollow Recap
A newly released court document, filed as part of the lawsuit by 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports against NASCAR, reveals several interesting venues NASCAR was considering for racing prior to the sport’s 2021 schedule revamp.
Following the 2020 season, in which COVID-19 forced NASCAR to shake up its schedule, for the 2021 season, NASCAR made its first major schedule overhaul in some time.
This new schedule included a planned race on the Daytona Road Course, a race on the dirt at Bristol, an All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway, the first Cup Series races at Nashville Superspeedway and Circuit of the Americas, as well as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Road Course, and a return to Road America.
Since then, NASCAR has made annual adjustments to the Cup Series schedule (a change that is still relatively new to the fan base), introducing races on the streets of Chicago and San Diego, alongside long-awaited events at WWT Raceway and Iowa Speedway.
However, a newly released court document filed in the 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports versus NASCAR antitrust lawsuit revealed that the sport had been planning massive changes, such as the 2021 schedule, prior to the well-received shakeups that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The document displays on the left-hand side the tracks that were part of the 2019 schedule, with the right-hand side showing venues that are “illustrative of the types of tracks and/or markets NASCAR would like to expand into.”
This implies that none of these venues was a guarantee, but showed what NASCAR was looking for in a schedule change. Furthermore, as of presstime, there is always the chance that NASCAR could consider racing at these venues.
There are five notable tracks on he left-hand side missing from the right-hand or “Future” side of the chart. These include:
To replace these venues, the right-hand side had some notable additions and changes.
One small change suggests that NASCAR was considering leaving Atlanta Motor Speedway, owned by Speedway Motorsports, to race at Road Atlanta.
This move would have been rare for NASCAR, as, if it had happened, NASCAR would have taken a race date away from SMI, though they could have swapped dates in some manner.
However, the highlight of the right-hand side of the sheet is the “New Event” section, a proverbial wish list of several venues the sport saw as potential landing zones for new Cup Series events.
Of the 12 races and 11 slots, five have joined and remained on/left the NASCAR Cup Series schedule since 2019, while others’ unique ideas have evolved into similar plans.
Joined the NASCAR Schedule:
Among these listed venues that saw similar events at other venues happen in the future was the stadium race at Soldier Field (NASCAR has since raced inside the LA Memorial Coliseum) and a dirt race at a venue called “Meadowlands”.
While NASCAR would race on dirt at Bristol from 2021 to 2023, the inclusion of the Meadowlands is odd, as there is no venerated dirt track by that name. Instead, as X user @Madman_33X pointed out, this idea could have been a race that turned the Meadowlands Racing & Entertainment Horse Track in East Rutherford, NJ, into a NASCAR dirt track.
Of course, there is no indication whether this idea ever led to talks with the venue or if NASCAR had a secret second option.
Still, some of these ideas have yet to find their way to the NASCAR schedule, such as a NASCAR Cup Series road course race in Toronto, Denver, Portland, ‘LA’, or even the Long Beach Street Course, famous for its open-wheel racing.
Nonetheless, NASCAR has moved forward with its schedule changes without these major additions. However, as a result of these races not happening, similar moves and popular additions have been incorporated into the NASCAR schedule, such as a points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.
However, not all is lost; who’s to say NASCAR doesn’t show an interest in Toronto or Denver in the future, after all, San Diego was quite the surprise.
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