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Does Kansas Speedway have what it takes to host the championship stage?

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Writing this on Sunday evening, as Ross Chastain picked up the win and became the Playoff’s spoiler, a question keeps popping up in my mind that won’t go away.

Should Kansas Speedway host the championship finale?

The history of the final race can be found in the early years of NASCAR out on the west coast at Riverside, where the historic road course took place on the final spot on the calendar. Then, NASCAR moved the finale in 1987 closer to the Southeast in Atlanta Motor Speedway, which held that slate in the sport until 2002, where it moved even farther south to Homestead Miami.

In 2019, it was announced that the popular track in Miami would not host the championship in 2020, as Phoenix was chosen as the place where the future champions of NASCAR would hoist the Bill France Cup at the end of the year.

NASCAR has stated in the past that they intend to move the finale around from track to track, but Phoenix has hosted the finale for five straight years, with another in the year 2025. Phoenix, like nearly half of the tracks on the circuit, is owned by NASCAR, so it is unlikely that a Speedway Motorsports track (Texas, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and many others) would gain that right from NASCAR.

That leaves a very few amount of “normal” tracks that could land the spot of earning the season finale. But one track that has continued to put on entertaining racing, yet still earning the title as a “normal” track is the one located just outside of Kansas City; Kansas Speedway.

So I asked four drivers on if Kansas has the capabilities of hosting the championship. Here’s what they said.

Denny Hamlin:

“It seems like from a driver’s standpoint and a competition standpoint, that this track puts on some of the best racing that we have. Even though 1.5 mile tracks have been really good over the Next Gen era, this track (Kansas) seems to stand out amongst them. Being biased from my standpoint, absolutely, put it as the one winner takes all. But certainly, there are a lot of factors that go into that.”

Kyle Larson:

“How’s the weather here in November? It could be chilly, snowy, or it could be sunny. Sure, the racing here is great, but I think the championship race should go to a place where you know the weather is going to be sunny and consistent. I think the sport would not do well with a delayed race, whether it be hours or days even. It’s easy to pick your favorite track, but I think climate plays a big factor.”

Austin Cindric:

“I think it always puts on a good race. The restarts here are crazy. I’ve always really liked coming here and it’s always been a pretty big sports town. I’ve always enjoyed going to Kansas City, so yeah I see no reason why it couldn’t.”

Christopher Bell:

“I do if weather was not an issue. I think it would be a great place to hold the championship. Kansas certainly could be an amazing championship venue if weather isn’t an issue. The Next Gen car has raced so well on the multilane intermediate race tracks like Kansas, Vegas, Charlotte, and Homestead too.”

It’s a matter of time if the 1.5 mile track located in Middle America gets the coveted spot on the calendar. But one might think that it has earned every right to host the Championship Four race.

Kaleb Vestal
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