Throughout the flurry of changes to NASCAR’s schedule over the past few seasons, few racetracks with dual race weekends have remained untouched. Nonetheless, a new report reveals that one of the few classic NASCAR venues holding strong to its spots on the schedule almost met its match in recent seasons.
This past week, lawmakers in Virginia, alongside motorsports industry members, launched the Virginia General Assembly’s motorsports caucus.
This caucus has the goal of protecting both racing and the race tracks in the state amid changes to the industry and region, such as changes to NASCAR’s schedule and the growth of housing developments near race tracks.
Richmond is one of the most recent tracks to fall victim to changes in the world of racing, as ahead of the 2025 season, Richmond Raceway lost one of its two race weekends to Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico.
While this move to Mexico took NASCAR international, at least for one season, the removal of Richmond’s spring race weekend marked an end to a tradition of the historic venue hosting two race weekends a year that dated back to the late 1950s (minus NASCAR’s 2020 COVID season).
At its peak, Virginia’s top two tracks, Richmond and Martinsville Speedway, two of NASCAR’s classic venues, hosted four NASCAR Cup Series races a year.
While Martinsville continues to lead the charge with both a spring and fall race weekend, per Sabrina Moreno of Axios Richmond, one state lawmaker claims that another race weekend was recently on the chopping block before being passed on.
Though the report did not go into detail, Senator Bill Stanley, who represents Virginia’s 7th congressional district (including the city of Martinsville), claims that NASCAR looked into removing one of the ‘paperclip’s two race weekends in recent seasons, though it ultimately did not.
Of course, which race this was, spring or fall, and what track would have taken the date over, is unknown.
Nonetheless, this conversation likely began in recent seasons, as since 2021 NASCAR has often reassessed and reshaped its schedule to address struggling attendance and reach.
While tracks like Chicagoland and Kentucky Motor Speedway lost dates, with Chicago regaining its race for 2026, other tracks, like Texas Motor Speedway, Dover Motor Speedway, and Pocono Raceway, have lost one of their two race weekends to other venues.
The loss of a race weekend, though new, is par for the course to many NASCAR fans.
But, even though he thought of the removal of one of Martinsville’s two dates likely caused a mutiny in the fanbase, as the track is one of two from the Cup Series original 1949 season still hosting annual races.
Similar suggestions, such as taking away a race weekend away from other historic tracks like Bristol Motor Speedway or Darlington Raceway (which officially got its second date back in 2021), have seen extreme amounts of pushback from fans.
Regardless, there are some sectors of the NASCAR fandom that feel the Virginia/Carolinas market has too many Cup Series races, with Virginia’s two tracks hosting three points races, and North Carolina/South Carolina’s three tracks hosting five.
At the end of the day, the past five seasons have shown that such trade-offs must bring something to the table for race fans, such as the addition of North Wilkesboro Speedway to the Cup Series schedule, in exchange for Dover Motor Speedway’s points race.
Let us know your thoughts on this! Join the discussion on Discord or X, and remember to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube for more updates.
