NASCAR Insider Reveals Executives Embrace Texas Chaos, Rejecting Radical Overhaul Despite Complaints

A couple of days ago, defending NASCAR champion Joey Logano finally opened his account. The venue of his triumph was the Texas Motor Speedway, and the race was a bit chaotic, with a total of 12 cautions. The stoppages and chaotic restarts were perhaps similar to those of a superspeedway racing. After a rather clean race at Talladega, the week prior, drivers found themselves tested to the limits at the 1.5-mile track in Texas. But how did the intermediate track become so treacherous? To find the answer to this question, we will need to go back in time.

In 2016, drivers and teams weren’t pleased with the track surface and drainage issues of the track. The solution? A full repave of the track in the off-season. The first two corners were flattened out, and the banking was reduced from 24 degrees to 20 degrees. Moreover, the track surface in these areas was widened from 60 to 80 feet. And this repave led to the birth of the bump in Turns 3 and 4, which has been a major pain point for drivers in the Next Gen era. “Texas it’s a challenging race track.” This was Kyle Busch, before he wrecked himself during the race.

Well, a major reconfiguration of Texas, just like Atlanta, isn’t out of bounds. But, it seems like the top brass of the Texas Motor Speedway likes the chaotic nature of the track, making it one of the few intermediate tracks that adds another layer of challenge for the drivers.

“When I talked to Mark Faber, who’s the executive vice president of this place. He said that he likes when the drivers say it’s a treacherous track, he liked that. It sounds so difficult for them, obviously the drivers don’t like that, right? They feel like they want a track they can race on and have multiple grooves and all this stuff. This is what Texas is, I don’t think that we’re going to see some dramatic repave or reconfiguration right now.” Jeff Gluck shared this on the Teardown.

The likes of Kyle Busch, Brad Keselowski, and Tyler Reddick all became the victims on Sunday. A total of eight drivers were caught either in a crash, collision or spin. It’s not that NASCAR and SMI haven’t tried to find a solution to make this track more racier; they brought in the traction compound PJ1, but even that couldn’t do the trick. In 2021, with COTA luring in major auto racing series like F1, NASCAR joined the club and ditched a date at the old Texas.

Whether the drivers like it or not, this race is going to stay on the schedule. At least, until NASCAR doesn’t find a good alternative or this track goes under major repaving. Alex Bowman’s feeling summed up the mood of the entire Cup garage: “Some kind of reconfiguration is probably the best bet. Obviously, it’s a huge place for us, and we want it to race better than it does.” Although there will be debate and discussion about the future of Texas Motor Speedway, another intermediate track has been in the news for all the right reasons.

Homestead Miami Speedway returns as a championship race venue in 2026

For the first time since 2019, NASCAR will return to the South Florida race track to host the championship race for all three series. For long, Phoenix Raceway had cemented its place as the finale venue, but fans and drivers all demanded a change in the setting. Out of all the tracks on the schedule, Homestead is perhaps the best in terms of on-track product, especially in the Next Gen era. But there’s a catch, Phoenix, isn’t entirely out of the picture; rather, it will return as part of the annual rotation.

“I can tell you from a few people that I’ve talked to so far across the industry, through our partners, they’re over the moon about it. And from our fans, it’s the No. 1 asked-about championship venue as well. So we’re excited to finally get the news out there. I think it’s really a racer’s race track. I think the beauty of it is its age now. The asphalt continues to wear every single year it bakes in the sun. There’s a ton of sand, and it’s really turned it into this multi-groove race track.” NASCAR’s Executive Vice President, Ben Kennedy, said in the press release.

Given that NASCAR is going to bring about rotation with the championship venue, which tracks would you like to see besides Phoenix and Homestead?

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