In 21 years, Homestead-Miami left an indelible mark. The 1.5-mile superspeedway hosted the NASCAR Cup Series championship from 2002 to 2019. And a string of memories has animated fans at the track. Jimmie Johnson executed his superman feat of 5 consecutive championships between 2006 and 2010. Then Tony Stewart toppled Carl Edwards in the 2011 race that saw 26 lead changes. In 2015, Kyle Busch won the Homestead championship despite having a broken leg. So, Homestead is a big deal for fans.

After six years, the NASCAR leadership has finally yielded to the fans’ demands. In the first year of the annual rotation for the championship weekend, Homestead-Miami is in the cards. However, the path to this culmination was not an easy one, as some of the fans’ wishes were disregarded.

NASCAR rolls out its priorities

As aforementioned, Homestead-Miami showcased battles between the chief contenders. In contrast, Phoenix Raceway, which has held the title race since 2020, displayed wildcard races. For instance, the 2023 race at the 1-mile track saw non-playoff contender Ross Chastain beat Ryan Blaney, who was crowned the champion. In 2024, Joey Logano was supposed to be disqualified from the Round of 8. Yet he rebounded from a shocking turn of events to win two races and clinch the championship at Phoenix. So the volume of protests from fans regarding the venue has doubled, as their favorite drivers could not get through. However, the NASCAR executives were not very concerned about the sports choices of fans while deciding to move back to Homestead.

In a recent interview with journalist Claire B. Lang, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, Ben Kennedy, explained priorities. He clarified that no matter which team or driver the fan sentiment inclined towards, the leadership did not pay heed to that. Kennedy said, “We don’t ask the fans who their favorite drivers are. It’s a very generic, ‘Where would you like to see the championship race in the future? And Homestead-Miami is number one. So we don’t double-click into any other data sets.”

Instead, NASCAR gave higher importance to the teams’ voices besides key industry magnates. Ben Kennedy highlighted the entities more relevant to this conversation: “We have a small committee of folks from the team side that we’ve had a couple of conversations with about the championship location. Not only venues that they would consider, but what are you thinking about as you consider a championship market or a championship caliber facility? So they all have different parameters…Everyone has their own wants and wishes…Homestead does check a lot of these boxes.”

Kennedy continued, “For us, it’s a matter of sitting down and disseminating all those voices. You know, what does it look like strategically, what does it look like financially, what are we hearing from our industry stakeholders, and then making the best decision that we believe will set up the sport for the future.”

So this partially counters Ben Kennedy’s declaration that it is “fan feedback” that drove NASCAR to Homestead-Miami. Nevertheless, fans still do play a big role, as another venue will probably stick around due to strong fan responses.

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Sticking to the sport’s roots

NASCAR may be thinking twice about fans’ preferences for Homestead-Miami. But the higher-ups seem to be undeterred when it comes to “traditional racing.” The Bowman Gray Stadium came back to the sport’s schedule for the Clash race, for the first time since 1971. Despite the long gap, fans made it clear that the ‘Madhouse’ was never missed. 17,000+ diehard gearheads swarmed the grandstands, roaring for their favorite drivers. Even though 60 percent of the fans in attendance were from outside the Triad area of North Carolina, they knew the history of stock car racing. Somebody had a No. 3 wrapped in angel wings tattooed on their biceps, or somebody else had the outline of Richard Petty’s signature on their shoulder. Clearly, the fan reception was resoundingly good at Bowman Gray. Ben Kennedy concurred accordingly.

There were rumors afloat that the Clash race may shift to Brazil next year. Ben Kennedy said that international prospects are still in the cards: “I wouldn’t ever rule out international in the future, though. We have thoughts about a lot of it being prior to the season, in the off-season, an exhibition race. It’s a great opportunity for us to bring NASCAR racing to other parts of the world. I think it’s going to be something that we’ll continue to consider.” However, the Bowman Gray popularity toppled this possibility for now.

Kennedy continued: “But at least for now, we’ll more than likely keep it domestic… I think we’ll continue to have the Clash prior to the (Daytona) 500. It’s a great opportunity for us to build up some momentum in anticipation for our biggest event of the year.”

Evidently, NASCAR is weighing its cards in making track decisions. Whether that means paying heed to fans’ sentiments or not, the results seem to be pretty good so far!