In the high-speed world of NASCAR, where fortunes change as quickly as drivers navigate a turn, Chase Elliott has never been one to mince words. He might not be as expressive as the likes of Denny Hamlin or Kyle Busch, but when he speaks, his opinions hold some weight. For the last week or so, NASCAR’s decision to shift the championship race back to Homestead Miami has been the talk of the town. And like every other driver, Elliott also shared his two cents on the change with NASCAR adopting a rotating format.
Now, Phoenix Raceway does hold some fond memories for NASCAR’s most popular driver. He was the first NASCAR champion to be crowned at the Phoenix Raceway in 2020. This was the first time that the championship race moved Homestead to the Hot Mile, but despite that, Elliott welcomes this new change. However, he warned NASCAR about the possible pitfalls with this new rotating format, and the tracks he would not like to see host the all important finale race.
NASCAR Charts New Course for Championship Weekend
“Going forward, the title-race tripleheader will rotate among a handful of tracks, showcasing the big-event feel at new venues and markets,” NASCAR stated in its announcement. Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer, explained that the decision was driven by several factors, including building “pent-up demand” and creating “differentiation as it relates to the competition and racing product.”
For Elliott, the change seems overdue. When asked about the rotation model, the 2020 champion responded with eight simple yet powerful words: “I think it’s important to have that shift.” He elaborated further, “When it moved from Homestead, I thought that was the plan in general. So I don’t know how long it’s been in Phoenix now, but it seems like a long time. So I’m glad to see it move around.”
Do you agree with @chaseelliott’s thoughts on the rotating finale? pic.twitter.com/AvofTDMfyt
— Frontstretch (@Frontstretch) May 11, 2025
The Next Gen platform has opened up multiple options for NASCAR to consider where they can take the NASCAR circus for the championship race, but Elliott feels not all tracks are worthy of the mega event. None of the drivers would want the finale to be on a superspeedway track like Daytona and Talladega. And their concerns are genuine, no one wants a crash or a fuel mileage strategy to crown the Cup Series champion. He even chalked off Atlanta Motor Speedway from the potential venues.
Chase Elliott believes NASCAR has enough data to make the right call. “The speedways are off the table, Atlanta would be off the table in my opinion now. I think at the end of the day they kind of have a open box on whatever they want to do and we have enough of a sample size with the car for the last few years that we should be able to make a very educated decision on what would be the most entertaining from the fan perspective,”
As it turns out, not only Elliott, but his championship rival, Joey Logano, also wouldn’t want NASCAR to host championship weekend on the drafting tracks.
Logano Explains Why Superspeedways Shouldn’t Host NASCAR’s Championship Race
Now, a lot of NASCAR fans have a gripe against the Penske star with the way he won the championship last year. A fuel mileage race win in Nashville, followed by a DQ of Alex Bowman, set the stage up for him to clinch his third title. Although he received a lot of flak from the NASCAR faithful for how he used the format to his advantage, he did what the system demanded of him. But, even for a driver who wouldn’t mind a slice of luck or favorable result dictating his championship fate, a superspeedway track isn’t a viable option to host the finale.
“When you get down to the nitty-gritty of the playoffs, especially if it’s coming down to one race, like it is right now, you don’t want an oddball race, you want it to be the grassroots of what our sport is built off of, which is ovals, right? Whether it’s a short track or mile-and-a-half, that’s what our roots really are. That is what built our sport. Throwing in a road course or any other oddball type racetrack, superspeedway, it’s too much by chance and it wouldn’t be ideal I don’t believe for our sport.” Logano stated.
Now we do have tracks like Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Bristol that are worthy of hosting a championship race. But which track, apart from Homestead and Phoenix you feel can host the blockbuster NASCAR weekend?
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