How weird is it that we’re done with road courses after Sonoma?
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series stay out West and head to Sonoma Raceway. Running a pair of races on the West Coast back-to-back isn’t a new thing, though. Anytime NASCAR can cut down on travel costs for teams, it should absolutely do so.
That said, and you’d be forgiven for not looking this far ahead on the schedule, isn’t it weird that this is the final road course of the year?
You read that right. After this weekend, there are no more opportunities for Shane van Gisbergen, Connor Zilisch or Brent Crews to trounce the field when it’s time to turn right, and it also means that there are no more opportunities to bring in guys like Kevin Magnussen to attract a few extra eyeballs to a race.
I’m as much of an oval enthusiast as the next guy, but with the Next Gen racing well enough on road courses and with the extra horsepower bump that the car gets in those venues, I’m somewhat disappointed in hindsight that we don’t have at least one more scattered throughout the back half of this schedule.
Perhaps in 2027, this can be remedied. With the cars racing as well as they do on road courses in their current state, adding one to The Chase only makes sense going forward.
Is this the best social media week in NASCAR recent memory?
While many of the questions we address in this column revolve around what happens on the track and in the garage, it’s important to zoom out once a week to see what NASCAR looks like through a cultural lens. And boy, did we have a doozie this week.
Sports show host Kay Adams made her way to the races at Naval Base Coronado last weekend. In the days since, she and Carson Hocevar have repeatedly exchanged social media posts, with Hocevar acknowledging that the public flirting is really just part of the bit.
Score some social capital for Hocevar, who then went on to host this week’s Dale Jr. Download, where there has been even more back-and-forth among the young drivers in the series, such as Corey Heim and Jesse Love, even pitting their sponsors against one another.
If you thought that was all, though, you’d be wrong. Because after the fallout from the Noah Gragson vs. Magnussen situation, Sage Karam hopped online to throw a direct shot at Gragson, who is rumored to be searching for a new ride in the offseason, citing that maybe Gragson himself is the reason why he gets raced harder than some other drivers.
I genuinely can’t remember the last time so many drivers were openly joking with each other, giving one another and their sponsors a hard time and just being so open about their personalities. Does that come with moments of consequence at times? Absolutely, but as a sport, you need those personalities to shine through all the noise to create stars and cultivate fanbases.
As a dirt track guy, I’ve long held the belief that there are some aspects of NASCAR in which corporate oversight has gone a bit too far, and there’s no area in which that’s been more present than in limiting the drivers’ ability to show their personalities.
It feels as though the pendulum is swinging back in the other direction, as drivers who are active online and interact with fans on a consistent basis are landing some of the larger sponsorship deals. As far as the future of the Cup Series is concerned, fans just need to hope that the pendulum keeps swinging to avoid the blandness of the late 2010s.
Is Dodge returning to the Cup Series finally happening?
All signs point to yes on this front. In reporting courtesy of The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, it was revealed that Dodge could reportedly be eyeing a return to the Cup Series in 2027 as opposed to its original 2028 target season.
This is in part because one team, Kaulig Racing, is apparently ready to make the switch as soon as next season. Dodge would enter with the Challenger body, which has reportedly already undergone wind tunnel testing, and according to Bianchi, the bigger hurdle of engine development has recently been jumped as well.
Kaulig already partners with RAM for its NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series entries and initially hoped to be the first team to enter the Cup Series with Dodge as its manufacturer. It seems that the team’s goal is now officially within reach, and we could see Chargers returning to the field as soon as next season.
That’s an affirmative yes, then, from the top brass at Stellantis. But why does this matter so much for NASCAR? Plainly put: sponsorship dollars. While Chevrolet and Ford compete for much of the same consumer base, Toyota markets itself to a broader audience, and bringing Dodge back into the fold would increase opportunities for sponsorship revenue through various brand partnerships.
Make no mistake about it, this is a big deal for the sport, which has been trying to attract a fourth manufacturer since Dodge left in 2012.
Did Magnussen do enough to earn another Cup opportunity?
Magnussen didn’t come into NASCAR and leave quietly like road-course ringers before. In fact, he came in, finished behind where he probably should have, got into an argument with a Cup regular and managed to set the single fastest lap of the race all in one day.
He did all of this, earning him plenty of screen time, with a sponsorship from Qualcomm, a company worth more than $220 billion, and a big fish that NASCAR would undoubtedly like to see in the sport more often.
The ensuing debate has sparked conversation regarding how ringers should race Cup regulars, and I don’t see where the “they should show the utmost respect and not race them as hard” crowd has a leg to stand on. These are racecar drivers. They don’t get paid to run around half throttle all day.
Magnussen absolutely did enough to earn another shot at the Cup level, especially if he wants it. While not every ringer can or will have the same success as van Gisbergen, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that Magnussen and van Gisbergen end up at the front of the field at any other road course. In fact, I wish Magnussen got to run back-to-back races at Coronado and Sonoma simply because I want to see how a driver like him can adjust week to week.
Tanner Marlar is a staff writer for Sports Illustrated’s OnSI Network, a contributor for multiple automotive news outlets, an award-winning sports columnist and talk show host, and a PhD. student at a premier college of media and mass communication. Tanner began working with Frontstretch in 2022, covering the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series.
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