After Roger Penske Playing Spoilsport, NASCAR President Rubbishes Regretting $50 Million Failure in Chicago

NASCAR is aware of the rising competition for viewership with the rise of Formula 1 in the US market, along with a resurgence of the IndyCar Series. Now a racing series that is said to be in decline bagged a mega $7.7 billion TV deal and made some big changes in terms of the 2024 schedule. For the first time in history, the NASCAR Cup Series will host a points race in Mexico City. Moreover, Amazon Prime and Warner Brothers will join in with their streaming services.

All of this is evidence of NASCAR finally putting its ambitious project in motion. The sanctioning body doesn’t want the sport to remain in the confines of a regional sport; rather, they are eyeing an appeal by the race fans from diverse backgrounds. Even willing to cater to those who haven’t heard of NASCAR before. But, it is easier said than done when you have rival series owned and operated by business tycoons like Roger Penske.

NASCAR is ready to invest despite no immediate results

One of the big moves NASCAR has made recently is to tap into cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. For two years, the Busch Light Clash was held at the L.A. Coliseum, and similarly, they’ve also gone street racing in Chicago. However, this wasn’t enough for NASCAR to fulfill its mega scheme, and therefore they went on to add an international points race for 2025.

They did retain the Chicago Street race for 2025 despite being peppered by rains on both occasions, but the Clash shifted to Bowman Gray. Now, apart from the Sonoma race, NASCAR wanted to establish its presence in the Southern California market and identified the Long Beach Grand Prix as its next target.

Well, it was a three-way battle as IndyCar and Formula 1 were also eyeing grabbing hold of the iconic race event. But Roger Penske got the better of both NASCAR and F1 and swept the deal away. Now, this was a setback for NASCAR, which is yet to rebuild the Auto Club Speedway and also moved the Clash to Bowman Gray Stadium. But, despite the missed opportunity, NASCAR will keep exploring more options in search of new fans and audiences.

“I think it’s really important for us to do, and we’re willing to invest. Like Chicago, financially, is a difficult race for us. It costs 50 million dollars to put that race on, and we unfortunately didn’t sell 50 million dollars worth of tickets and sponsorship. But was it a smart decision for us? I believe it was; it helped us both with Amazon coming in and Warner Brothers Discovery coming on board.” NASCAR president Steve Phelps said this in the Race Industry Week session.

He further accepted that it is indeed hard for the tracks that aren’t with NASCAR to get them signed up for this project. But, the new venues that they’ve tapped into have led to a good response. “For me, it’s really serving race fans. So if you think about Chicago or the Clash at the Coliseum, more than 70 percent of those who bought the tickets had never been to a NASCAR race. That’s a good thing for us, it is difficult to take them from other racetracks.”

Well, the fans certainly like the balance NASCAR struck with the next year’s schedule. They have managed to keep the traditional races alive and kicking but at the same time didn’t shy away from experimenting. Although the same cannot be said for the Next Gen car.

Changes on the Next Gen car aren’t entirely in NASCAR’s control

Ever since the Gen 7 car hit the NASCAR circuits, there’s been criticism on how superspeedway and short-track racing have taken a hit. More than drafting tracks like Daytona have now adopted fuel-saving strategies; meanwhile, short-oval races are now falling out of favor. Richmond already lost a date for next year, but the Roval managed to retain the road course event.

The easy fix, according to drivers like Denny Hamlin, is bumping the horsepower in the race car. But NASCAR has refrained from making any big changes to the car. And there’s a reason behind it. “It’s an industry-wide thing; it’s just not hey, NASCAR is going to do this, this, and this. It really is working with our OE partners, working with Goodyear, working with our race teams and we’re in constant collaboration with those groups.” Steve Phelps explained.

Now, there might be a reason why NASCAR has refrained from making any big changes to the new race car. And that is an entry of a fourth OEM partner. There has been a lot of noise about Honda being linked with NASCAR, and it looks like that deal is being played out behind the scenes. Even the top brass at NASCAR have opened up regarding this development, and this Next-Gen platform certainly makes the process easier for new OEMs to join in.