Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway was arguably one of the best races on a moderate track in the history of the sport, making the sanctioning body’s decision to abandon similar tracks all the more unfortunate four years ago.
Denny Hamlin won the race at the 1.5 mile track in Kansas in a last lap duel with Kyle Larson. However, their fight was only the final climax of an action-packed event spanning 267 rounds. The race saw nine incident warnings and 37 lead changes, a record for a 400-mile race over a 1.5-mile course involving 12 different drivers.
The stats are more akin to a superspeedway event than a moderate race, but this race in Kansas had everything NASCAR envisioned when it developed the next-gen car model for its 2022 debut. The car requires all teams to source their parts from the same supplier and features aerodynamic properties that should help facilitate races where overtaking is possible.
All of these developments manifested themselves on Sunday at a type of circuit where the next-gen car has typically excelled. Middle distance racing has seen a boom in exciting races, while the quality of racing on other types of circuits has suffered.
The problem now is that just before the debut of the next-gen car, NASCAR dropped several middle-distance races from its schedule. Tracks like Chicagoland Speedway and Kentucky Speedway disappeared from the schedule entirely. Others, such as Texas Motor Speedway, Michigan International Speedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Oval, have been reduced to one points-earning race per year. And Speedway Motorsports Inc. has transformed the Atlanta Motor Speedway into a track for superspeedway-style racing.
NASCAR replaced many of these events with street racing, which were inconsistent and often lackluster with the new car model. The Cup Series schedule now features six street races, including the Chicago Street Race, and seven fewer opportunities to watch a race like Sunday’s Kansas race, as almost half of the middle distance races have been dropped from the schedule since 2019.
The biggest loss after Sunday’s Kansas race is Chicagoland as it shares similar characteristics. Both tracks are 1.5 mile ovals that opened in 2001 during NASCAR’s popularity boom. Few of the races over the first 19 years at either facility were terribly exciting, although each had its moments.
Kansas witnessed the 2008 fall race when Carl Edwards attempted to pass Jimmie Johnson on the last corner without letting off the accelerator. He hit the wall and couldn’t win, but it was a prequel to Ross Chastain’s “Hail Melon” move at Martinsville Speedway in November.
Chicagoland recorded a fantastic conclusion to 2018 as Kyle Larson attempted to track down Kyle Busch in the final laps. Dale Earnhardt Jr. did his famous “Slide Job!” The two made contact several times in the final laps, with Busch ultimately coming out on top.
Kansas underwent a redesign in 2012 when International Speedway Corp. introduced progressive banking in the curves, while Chicagoland still has traditional banking. Kansas curves now slope 17-20 degrees from bottom to top. Chicagoland’s curves have an 18-degree incline throughout.
The progressive banking probably helped the product in Kansas, but it’s not a requirement for a good mid-track event. The 2023 Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, for example, was still one of the better races at this 1.5-mile circuit and features traditional 24-degree banked corners.
NASCAR has shown its willingness to change its schedule dramatically as the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has forced the sanctions agency to be more flexible. All of the changes so far have resulted in more street courses and NHL Winter Classic-like events with the Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and the Chicago Street Race.
Still, the new car consistently delivers its best racing on the track types NASCAR gave up with these schedule changes. Would it be asking too much to give circuits like Chicagoland another chance now that the Cup Series boasts a car that produced 37 lead changes, a record for a 400 mile race over a 1.5 mile circuit, on Sunday at a track in Kansas? Which facility is closest to Chicagoland?
The Chicago Street Race in downtown Chicago might turn out to be a great social event, but the odds are against it being a good race on the narrow streets with tight corners. The unfortunate part of the equation is that a track that is now capable of producing a race that fans with the next-gen car will remember, like Kansas last week, just 50 miles away in the suburbs of Chicago rests.
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