One of the most exciting 2024 schedule rumors was the potential addition of Montreal to the 2024 calendar. However, it did not work out, and NASCAR or Circuit Gilles Villeneuve never really explained why. What could have happened to make this race ultimately not work out?
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Montreal is definitely a market where NASCAR needs to consider the time of year. Canada winters are no joke, and Canada’s weather shows that NASCAR would likely have to hold a race sometime during the summer. Likely, a race would have to be held between June and mid-September.
The issue with that, at least for 2024, is that Formula One has a race weekend scheduled for early June, June 7th-9th to be specific. That time of year is when NASCAR ideally wanted Canada to be because of the rest of the schedule. Late July/early August is taken up by the Olympic break, the Chicago Street Race is contractually obligated to be during the 4th of July weekend, and Darlington is a Labor Day weekend tradition.
However, even with that, NASCAR probably could have moved some other dates around to accommodate Montreal. They could have moved a race like Sonoma to the spring along with shifting a race like Michigan to June to open up an August slot for Montreal, but, NASCAR chose not to do that. What else could have caused Montreal not to work out?
Moving the NASCAR circus across the border to another country is far from an easy task. Think about all of the logistics for all crews, drivers, teams, etc. that have to get to Canada. That is a traveling and logistics nightmare.
Now, NASCAR has done it before with the Xfinity Series going to Canada between 2007 and 2012 and the Truck Series going to Canada between 2013 and 2019. However, they have not done it with their top series before. It takes a lot to make it happen.
Some people have tried to blame the COVID-19 policies of Canada as a reason why NASCAR could not go there, but, all COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted according to travel.gc.ca. Therefore, that cannot be a reason, and other sports leagues have traveled to Canada relatively freely for a while now.
Honestly, it’s possible that there was just some behind-the-scenes, business reason for why nothing totally worked out. We never will totally know, but we can speculate whether or not Canada could happen in 2025.
NASCAR has made it no secret that they hope to go international at some point, and 2025 has been the year that many have pointed to where that could happen. It’s definitely possible for this to happen in 2025, but a lot needs to go right for that to happen.
As we mentioned, it takes a lot for an international race to happen, and the question is whether or not NASCAR has what it needs to make an international race happen. On top of that, can they come to an agreement with local governments in these countries to run a race in front of an audience that may have no interest in it?
The desires are big, but the logistics are big as well. It certainly could happen in 2025, but, if it did not work out in 2024, then it’s hard to make it a guarantee.
