"It has that championship vibe" - Joey Logano, Austin Hill lead NASCAR drivers in selecting future playoff tracks
Several NASCAR drivers recently came together to voice their preferences for future playoff tracks. While some drivers, like Joey Logano, advocated for their home tracks, others suggested re-introducing a former Championship 4 venue.
In an Instagram post by brracing, Team Penske driver Logano, a Connecticut native, chose the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, an oval track located in Loudon, New Hampshire, as his first choice. The two-time Cup Series champion said:
"I'm a New England guy. It's where I'm from. So Loudon is one of the first tracks that come to my mind. That's my home track."
Austin Hill, meanwhile, preferred the Homestead-Miami Speedway. The Richard Childress Racing driver also discussed the core of championship racing that it offers. He said:
"It has that championship vibe to it. The racetrack races very well from the inside lane to the outside lane. There's so many lanes that you can run."
Similarly, defending Xfinity Series champion, Cole Custer, chimed in and selected the 1.5-mile track in Homestead, Florida. The Stewart-Haas Racing driver said:
"That place was such a great track. As the championship raced four in NASCAR in years past and you're just able to have to see great racing there with people side by side and racing hard."
NASCAR insiders touched upon the decision to remove Homestead-Miami venue from the playoffs
In an episode of The Teardown podcast, NASCAR analysts Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi discussed NASCAR's decision to flip the Homestead-Miami track from a playoff venue to an early spring race for the 2025 NASCAR schedule.
Bianchi believes that the Florida track is a perfect venue as it only hosts a single race which adds to its uniqueness.
"This is the perfect like venue because it's so different than anywhere else. It's just so different that no one really has an advantage, because you can't like, Oh, we don't go there twice a year. There's no other track on the schedule that compares at all to this. And I think that that's true, and that's what helps adds to the uniqueness of this," he said.
Meanwhile, The Atheltic's Gluck claimed the Homestead-Miami Speedway to be a true oval and "the perfect championship track." Here's what he said:
"I just wish that there's, you know, sometimes NASCAR makes decisions and there for the better. But when you have something that's a good thing, please don't mess with the good thing because this was really the perfect championship track, and I think someday, hopefully, it'll be back there again and everybody will go. Why did it ever leave?"
Along with Homestead-Miami, tracks like Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International will move from the playoffs to the regular season. Meanwhile, World Wide Technology Raceway and Joey Logano's home track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, will host playoff races.