KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The first domino of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule fell on May 6, when NASCAR announced that Championship Weekend would be returning to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the first time since 2019.
But the season finale won’t just be at Homestead going forward. Instead, NASCAR will rotate the host, giving multiple tracks and media markets the chance to experience the championship-crowning moments.
For Cup drivers, the decision to rotate the finale was a welcome one, if not long overdue.
“I think it was great that they announced that,” Ryan Blaney said. “I think that’s the right way to do it, whether it’s every year, every two years, whatever you want to do.”
“I think it’s great, and when it was moved from Homestead [in 2020], I thought that [rotating] was the plan in general,” Chase Elliott said. “It’s been a long time [in Phoenix], so I’m glad to see it move around. I think it’s important to have that shift and not just be one track.”
“I think it’s awesome, and I think it should have happened a long time ago, and I’m glad to hear that we’re starting the rotation,” Christopher Bell said.
With rotation the plan going forward, what tracks should be in the rotation to host the championship?
“The ROVAL,” AJ Allmendinger joked. “Just kidding.”
While there are plenty of exciting tracks worthy of hosting the season finale, the rotation will be limited by weather as long as the finale is held in November. In addition, Ben Kennedy — NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer — announced in a zoom press conference that superspeedways and road courses wouldn’t play host, with a plan to focus primarily on short and intermediate ovals.
“I like how Ben shot down the Daytona finale idea,” Blaney said. “I think that was very smart of Ben.”
With those limitations in play, the various Cup drivers interviewed by Frontstretch in Saturday’s (May 10) media sessions routinely listed three particular tracks as an ideal and realistic championship rotation: Homestead and Phoenix Raceway — the two hosts of Championship Weekend since 2002 — along with Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“I think if you could rotate it between Miami, Phoenix and like Vegas,” Blaney said. “I think that would be another good track. Weather’s good at all those places that time of year. They draw great crowds; they’re really good racetracks.”
“Vegas is one that definitely comes to mind that is deserving of it,” Bell remarked. “… Vegas, Homestead and Phoenix being three that certainly make sense to rotate between the championship event.”
“Las Vegas is one that comes to mind,” Tyler Reddick echoed.
“I’m just happy to hear that it is going to rotate,” Kyle Larson said. “I’d imagine Phoenix, Vegas, Homestead probably. But everybody’s good everywhere, so it doesn’t matter a whole lot.”
Charlotte Motor Speedway, while not in as favorable of a climate as the other three, was another place mentioned as an ideal host.
“Charlotte would be a great venue,” Bell said. “I think you’d be rolling the dice with weather there, but maybe a day race at Charlotte would be acceptable.”
“I feel like Charlotte Motor Speedway would be great,” Reddick said. “Obviously we were just at Phoenix, but it’s a good climate for championship weekend. Outside of that, there’s not a whole lot of tracks to choose from in November that will be the right temperature.”
“As weird as it sounds, I think Charlotte would be one of the better ovals for a championship race,” William Byron said. “The Charlotte oval’s gotten really, really tough, really competitive.
“Homestead’s obviously great; Vegas is great; Phoenix is OK. I think you have three or four that you could choose from that are decent climate wise.”
Climate will ultimately be the deciding factor. A track like Kansas that is consistently home to some of the best racing the Next Gen car has to offer would be a great finale in terms of excitement, but several drivers were wary about cold weather literally raining on the parade.
“I think Kansas would be a great place if the weather cooperated, but that’s just too much of a tossup,” Blaney remarked.
“I would love to see [Kansas] host a championship race, but you don’t really know what to expect in November,” Larson said. “You might have beautiful weather, or it could be freezing or snowing whatever. It probably needs to stay at tracks where you can count on the weather being favorable.”
The opportunities would be endless if the season ended in September or even October, but a rotation of just three of four tracks would also work well, as the cycle of tracks wouldn’t start repeating until the end of the 2020s decade.
But most important is that a rotation of tracks for Championship Weekend is finally here, and it will be better because of it going forward.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf