NASCAR announces a rotating championship final round, NASCAR at Texas beats the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix in TV viewership. Here’s a breakdown of all the announcements and breaking news in the NASCAR industry this week.
Homestead Hosts Championship in ’26, NASCAR beats F1 in Viewers, Rotating Championship Finale; NASCAR News Update
Lots of exciting news has been announced this week so far, and it is only Tuesday. So let’s go through all the exciting announcements we have been giving so far.
Homestead-Miami Speedway will host the NASCAR Season Finale in 2026:
The fans have been heard and will rejoice. Homestead-Miami will host the championship in 2026. Phoenix Raceway is currently the championship race, it has hosted the final race since 2020. Many race fans have been passionately advocating for this due to the lackluster racing Phoenix puts on.
“As we celebrate our 30th season, it is fitting we will start our next decade returning to our championship roots at Homestead-Miami Speedway,” said Guillermo Santa Cruz, Homestead-Miami Speedway President. “The 2026 NASCAR Championship Weekend will offer the brightest young stars of the sport the opportunity to join the illustrious 18-year history of championship racing in South Florida alongside veteran fan-favorite drivers.”
The NASCAR Championship Weekend will be November 6th through the 8th, 2026.
A title will be won once again in South Florida 🔥
Select grandstand tickets for 2026 are now available https://t.co/15cDOLXRXv. pic.twitter.com/g9hcup5QFq
— Homestead-Miami Speedway (@HomesteadMiami) May 6, 2025
READ MORE: Team Penske Flounders at Homestead as Kyle Larson Surges Late to Win
NASCAR Announces Rotating Championship Race Host:
In addition to Homestead being announced as the 2026 championship host, it was also discussed by NASCAR’s Executive VP Ben Kennedy that the championship race would rotate to different tracks in the years to come. With Homestead taking over from Phoenix in 2026, the future of the championship race has not been decided as of yet, but Kennedy says they are working with tracks, similar to how the NFL and Super Bowl hosts collaborate.
Kennedy also said that superspeedways are not being considered at the moment for the championship race. He spoke at the press conference Tuesday, saying, “Never say never, but I think we’ve unanimously agreed that it needs to look and feel like what we would expect traditional NASCAR racing to look and feel like.”
“Short tracks, intermediate tracks, mile tracks are all on the board. Superspeedways, I think we all feel like right now we wouldn’t consider that as a championship venue, not that Daytona isn’t a championship caliber venue.”
I think this will be an exciting addition to the schedule in years to come. Some excitement for when the schedule is announced and challenge the championship contenders for years to come.
NASCAR At Texas Beats F1 Miami GP in TV Viewership:
TV viewership numbers for this weekend have been released, and it was NASCAR that won the weekend. Sunday saw the Wurth 400 at Texas Motor Speedway go head-to-head versus the Formula One Miami Grand Prix. In recent history, it was the Miami Grand Prix that came out on top.
But that changed this weekend. An average of 2.5 million viewers tuned into the race at Texas Motor Speedway, and only 2.1 million tuned in for Formula 1.
The Miami Grand Prix dropped drastically in US viewership in 2024. Last year’s race earned a record-breaking 3.1 million average, and a high of 3.6 million viewers in the United States.
NASCAR has been on a roll recently with viewership. This season so far has seen an average viewership of 3.59 million, a slight decrease in viewership. The decrease can likely be attributed to fewer races on Fox and getting pushed to FS1. Fox signed a new TV deal with IndyCar, broadcasting every race on Fox.
It will be interesting to see how the average viewership fluctuates as we get into the summer stretch and new broadcast partners begin their stints.
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Main Photo
Credit: Chris Graythen, Getty Images
Recording Date: 3/25/2025
