Nascar moves 2026 season finale to Homestead-Miami

Nascar has announced that Homestead-Miami will host the 2026 championship finale.

Confirmed:

• Homestead-Miami will host the season finales for all three national series
• Phoenix will continue to host two Cup Series races per year, including one in the playoffs
• The championship finale will now rotate between circuits every season
• Preseason Clash event likely to stay in the US in 2026

Context:

As expected, Nascar’s championship race will move to Homestead, a circuit which hosted the season-ending showdown between 2002 and 2019. Previous attempts for a return have been scuppered by a lack of financial support for the event, but Nascar revealed in a release that ‘Homestead-Miami is due for improvements before its return to the championship rotation’.

Phoenix will receive a prominent spot in the ‘Round of 8’ section of the postseason. Exact dates will be announced later, but Nascar has confirmed that Phoenix will remain in the rotation of tracks under consideration for future season finales.

Nascar also revealed that the preseason Clash event is likely to stay in the US next season amid rumours of an international switch. The city of São Paulo in Brazil had expressed interest in hosting the event at Interlagos Circuit.

Comment:

“This has been a while coming,” said Ben Kennedy, Nascar’s executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer.

“It’s been since 2019 since we’ve had the championship race at Homestead. We moved it out to Phoenix for the past several years, which has been great for us. It’s been an amazing market.

“We’ve seen some great racing there, and we’ve crowned some of our biggest champions, but we’re excited to go to Homestead-Miami Speedway. I can tell you from a few people that I’ve talked to so far across the industry, through our partners, they’re over the moon about it.

“And from our fans, it’s the number one asked-about championship venue as well. So we’re excited to finally get the news out there.”

When asked about the Clash, Kennedy said: “I think as far as next year goes, more than likely it will stay domestic here in the United States. I wouldn’t ever rule out international in the future, though. We have thoughts about a lot of it being prior to the season, in the off-season, an exhibition race. It’s a great opportunity for us to bring Nascar racing to other parts of the world.

“I think it’s going to be something that we’ll continue to consider, but at least for now we’ll more than likely keep it domestic.”

Coming next:

Nascar’s final race before the All-Star break takes place this weekend at Kansas Speedway on 11th May.

Go deeper:

• What Nascar’s TV, sponsorship and social media data reveals about the series in 2025
  
• Nascar’s US$7.7bn TV deal: Why the annual value went up, who gets what, and the impact on fans