When asking NASCAR fans about tracks they hope to see the Cup Series race at, Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina is often at the top of the list, and for good reason. It’s a high-banked, short oval that would suit the Next-Gen car quite well. Unfortunately, there are a few reasons why Rockingham may never return to the Cup Series schedule.
Currently, Rockingham Speedway is an independently owned facility. It has been owned by both International Speedway Corporation (ISC), which NASCAR bought in 2019, and Speedway Motorsports Incorporated (SMI), which owns North Wilkesboro amongst other tracks.
As of 2024, only 5 races are held at tracks not owned by either NASCAR or SMI. The Clash, COTA, Pocono, Indianapolis, and Gateway. Even then, The Clash is an event that NASCAR traditionally hosted at Daytona, and SMI has an agreement with COTA to host the race there. So, the only three truly independently-owned NASCAR races are Pocono, Indianapolis, and Gateway.
That means Rockingham likely has 3 dates they can work with. Pocono and Gateway both sold out in 2024, so, NASCAR isn’t leaving those places anytime soon. Indianapolis is arguably the most iconic race track in the world, so, it’s unlikely that NASCAR would leave that venue, even if they don’t draw the crowds they used to.
For Rockingham to join the schedule, SMI or NASCAR would have to give up one of their dates, unless one of the entities rebuys the track. That’s not an impossibility, but, it’s not exactly likely.
NASCAR’s controversial expansion in the 1990s stemmed from one simple fact, there were too many races in too small of an area. For most of NASCAR’s history, there were two races per year at Bristol, Martinsville, Charlotte, Darlington, Rockingham, North Wilkesboro, and Richmond. That meant nearly half of the races every year were within a 5-hour drive of each other.
By the mid-2000s, Rockingham and North Wilkesboro lost their dates, and Darlington was down to one race per year. All of this is in favor of tracks in newer, bigger markets like Texas, New Hampshire, Kansas, Chicago, and so on. While NASCAR ultimately took too much away from its core audience in the Southeast, it had to expand out of the Southeast to reach the rapidly growing fanbase.
NASCAR has done an admirable job at trying to win these core fans back with the revitalization of tracks like Darlington and North Wilkesboro. However, adding Rockingham back in addition to North Wilkesboro, plus Darlington, Bristol, Martinsville, and Richmond all having two races per year creates the same problem of too many tracks in one area all over again. Then again, an argument can be made that more in the Southeast is better for NASCAR because of how popular NASCAR is in that area.
The best way Rockingham makes sense to add is to remove a date from one of these tracks. Bristol, Martinsville, and Darlington are all among the most popular tracks on the schedule. North Wilkesboro just got revived, and it’d feel silly to step backward after just a year or two. Richmond could sacrifice a date, but, then you run into the issue of NASCAR losing a date at a track they own.
Could Rockingham come back to the schedule? It’s certainly possible, but, there are some tough issues NASCAR must consider.
