Matt Weaver
NASCAR tried to get an international Cup Series race to the finish line for next season but there was a caution before the figurative white flag and the race never got restarted.
In literal terms, NASCAR did make efforts to get the Cup Series to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, Canada but was unable to come to terms before the schedule finally needed to be released last month.
Instead, the mid-summer new race date went to Iowa Speedway, a track that NASCAR owns but hasn’t used for any of its purposes since the 2019 season. IndyCar has raced there the past two seasons and invested a decent amount of resources into the facility with event title sponsor Hy-Vee Grocery Stores.
It seemed like a last-minute replacement, but NASCAR chief operating officer Steve O’Donnell was adamant over the weekend when asked about the subject that this wasn’t the case, and that Iowa was always a track they wanted to add.
“I wanted to dispel some of the rumors that were out there that Iowa came in, in place of Montreal. That’s not the case,” O’Donnell said. “In an ideal world, we actually wanted to potentially bring on both race tracks.
“When you look at our sport and the ability to go into a marketplace — really grow the sport — we want to make sure we have all the levers in place to not just kind of come in and out. We want to build NASCAR within that particular country or marketplace.”
The schedule void came in the form of Auto Club Speedway, which hosted its last race on February 26, before starting to undergo a potential downsizing into a half-mile short track that would not be completed until 2025 at the earliest.
O’Donnell said things happened too quickly for the event promoters at Montreal, who also host a Formula 1 race on the circuit, to reach a deal with NASCAR officials.
“As we continue to talk with Montreal, we realize probably a little quick to make it happen,” O’Donnell said. “In the meantime, there’s been a number of discussions not only in other areas in the U.S., but other opportunities in North America and outside the U.S. For us, it was a little bit of a pause, and an (opportunity to) evaluate all those opportunities together.”
In October, during a press conference revealing the Cup Series schedule, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development and strategy Ben Kennedy said Iowa was something they had really started to dream of in recent years.
“Iowa Speedway was something that we’ve talked about for quite awhile,” Kennedy said. “This is something we’ve been hearing from our fans for a long time and Iowa, in particular, we wanted to see a Cup race there.”
He said those goals were paused only because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Then, as we think about international venues in general, we are still bullish about finding our way either north of the border, whether than be in Montreal or Toronto or another market, or south of the border into Mexico.
“As we’ve mentioned in the past, we want to bring our NASCAR Cup Series there at some point.”
NASCAR still targeting international Cup Series events
The Xfinity Series raced at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in 2007 and 2008. It also visited the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City from 2005 to 2008. The Craftsman Truck Series contested races at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park in Bowmanville Ontario from 2013 to 2019.
The Cup Series had a trio of exhibition events in Japan from 1996 and 1997 at Suzuka Circuit and then in 1998 on the Twin Ring Montegi oval.
When doing initial preparation visits in advance of developing the NextGen car, O’Donnell even visited Australia, seeking inspiration from the Supercars platform, but also expressed interesting in bringing the Cup Series Down Under as well.
“We think it’s important for us to get outside of the United States with our series in some way, shape or form,” Kennedy said. “So that’s something we’re going to keep our pulse on as we think about 2025 and beyond.”
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.
