NASCAR’s Championship Weekend will return to Homestead-Miami Speedway next year, but the bigger news is that it will mark the beginning of a bold new direction. Starting in 2026, NASCAR will rotate its title-race tripleheader across a select group of tracks, bringing the sport’s biggest weekend to new venues and fans.
The move draws comparisons to major sporting events like the Super Bowl or Final Four, which change locations annually. But unlike traditional sports where the playing field remains constant, NASCAR’s varied track layouts introduce an added layer of unpredictability that could redefine how championships are won.
“If you’ve watched a lot of other sports properties that are moving the location around year after year, part of that is to build up pent-up demand,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President for Race and Venue Innovation. “But part of it is that variability in a lot of the markets… Having the playoffs be more unpredictable every year, the championship venue to be at a different location, I think gives you the ability to see different teams and drivers kind of rise to the occasion.”
Since 2002, only Homestead-Miami and Phoenix Raceway have hosted NASCAR’s season finale. The upcoming change, still being refined by the NASCAR Playoff Committee, aims to add fresh energy while preserving competitive integrity. The committee is currently evaluating a mix of tracks owned by NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports, and independent operators.
Kennedy emphasized several key factors in selecting future hosts: climate, facilities, fan interest, and competitive quality. Warm-weather venues are essential given the early November date, and investment in infrastructure—like the $100 million-plus spent to modernize Phoenix Raceway—plays a major role. Homestead, too, is slated for upgrades in advance of its return as host.
“We’re going to be putting a good amount of capital into Homestead as well ahead of the race,” Kennedy noted.
Fan feedback is another major consideration. According to Kennedy, Homestead ranked No. 1 among fans for a future championship event, helping solidify its return in 2026.
As for track types, superspeedways and road courses are unlikely candidates. “Never say never,” Kennedy said, but called those formats too unpredictable for a championship decider. Traditional ovals remain the focus.
That perspective sits well with drivers like Joey Logano, a three-time Cup Series champion who’s won titles at both Homestead and Phoenix. “You don’t want an oddball race,” Logano said. “You want it to be the grassroots of what our sport is built off of, which is ovals… Throwing in a road course or any other oddball type racetrack, superspeedway, it’s too much by chance and it wouldn’t be ideal I don’t believe for our sport.”
Homestead-Miami Speedway President Guillermo Santa Cruz called it an honor to lead off the new format and sees it as a chance to help define what a rotating championship should look like. “It’s good for the fans, it’s good for the drivers, and it’s great for everybody,” he said. “It’ll allow us to really set a lot of precedent and then work with NASCAR more broadly to see how the model is going to be executed.”
Santa Cruz added that being first gives Homestead a unique opportunity to shape the future. “There’s nothing like having that ability to be the first one up and to have that blank sheet of paper in front of you and say, ‘OK, what are we going to do?’”
The answers to that question may ultimately reshape how NASCAR crowns its champions—and where.