NASCAR is out here winning hearts, isn’t it? When it dropped a video with Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski joking around, fans thought they had a surprise on their hands, but boy, did the governing body have more in store. The Homestead-Miami announcement hit most fans like a truck! After the countless demands to move away from Phoenix and move back to the iconic finale venue, NASCAR finally obliged.
“We talked about it for quite a while, but we felt this was the right opportunity, the right time to do it,” Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President, said. It was a breath of fresh air, but was that all there was to the announcement?
NASCAR did say they will rotate the championship weekend starting in 2026, but that’s not all. Insiders are now hinting that NASCAR is willing to bring in a few more changes.
Appearing on the Hauler Talk show, NASCAR insider Mike Forde spoke about it extensively. Initially, Forde explained that an entire organisation-wide test was likely not going to happen, after a top executive in charge of tests had put plans in motion. “Nothing on schedule, but he did reach out to Goodyear to put that in their brain, and they said that’s something we would look at. At the very least, tire tests. My guess, as far as an organisational test, where you have an entire Cup garage, I would be a little bit surprised if we did that. I’m only saying that because those organisational tests are so rare these days.”
These tire tests are nothing new for fans. With Homestead-Miami’s multi-groove racing line making things interesting and a different time of race, testing the tires out would be a good plan. However, the big kicker was an added practice session. Forde added, “You could almost guarantee extended practice at least a 50-minute practice on Friday, maybe go super old school, 50 minutes on Saturday morning. Something like I could see happening. It’s typically what we do when there is an instance like this.”
HOMESTEAD, FL – NOVEMBER 15: A general view as the sun sets during the NASCAR Nationwide Series Ford 300 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 15, 2008 in Homestead, Florida. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Back in 2020, NASCAR went from three 50-minute practice sessions to a much shorter format. It left drivers with very little time to make changes to the setup and optimise the car for the race. One of the biggest proponents of this change is Kyle Busch. Just a few weeks ago, Rowdy said, “The practice time being so limited and the adjustments that you’re able to make being so limited, you don’t have those tools at your disposal to be able to work with. So, what you show up to the racetrack with is what you got.”
That’s not all. Busch added, “The days of three-hour practices and stuff, you’d come in and make a change on a bar or a spring or a shock or whatever and you’d be like, ‘Yeah, no, I didn’t like that. Take that off.’ And then you’d go the other way with that, and you’d be like, ‘Yeah, I like that.’ Well, it’s just hard to be able to go through many changes in short periods of time.”
Whether the change proves useful remains to be seen, but the community will welcome it at Homestead-Miami. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what Christopher Bell has to say about the championship.
Christopher Bell slams NASCAR over life-altering decision from 2024
Now, 2024 was a massive moment for a lot of drivers. Tyler Reddick made it to the Championship 4 for the first time. Joey Logano had a miraculous comeback. But there was one driver who felt he was massively wronged when it came to the title, and it’s Christopher Bell. While the driver has gotten off to an extremely strong start this year with three wins in a row, and Bell didn’t hold back when talking about his grievances in the newest season of NASCAR: Full Speed.
Fans will remember Bell’s failure to get into the final round due to his wild moment that nearly recreated Ross Chastain’s Hail Melon on Bubba Wallace. NASCAR deemed it illegal and knocked Bell out. In the end, thanks to the illegal move, William Byron took his spot, and Bell wasn’t having any of it.
In the latest season of the Netflix show, the driver went on to say, “Coming down to the last lap, I believe that I’m eliminated. I get a radio transition that says we’ve got to pass the 23 car, and I lose rear grip going into turn 3. And when I did, I entered a complete death slide all the way into the wall, and I did what any driver would’ve done and accelerated to the finish line. I didn’t think that what I did was a penalty. That judgment call by NASCAR was a life-altering call. It took what could’ve been a potential championship away from me. It just didn’t dawn on me that I was going to get penalized for hitting the wall.”
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