Chase Elliott Urges NASCAR to Make “Educated Decisions” on Which Tracks the Sport Visits for the Championship Finale

Jerry Bonkowski
|PublishedMay 11, 2025

Apr 5, 2025; Darlington, South Carolina, USA; Hendrick Cars driver Chase Elliott on pit road during the Great Clips 200 at Darlington Raceway. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

Chase Elliott is all-in on NASCAR’s recent announcement that it will begin a rotating schedule for the season-ending and championship-deciding weekend, starting next year at Homestead-Miami Speedway (HMS).

For now, NASCAR has only announced HMS in 2026 as the season finale. But after that, it’s expected that a different track will host the championship-deciding weekend.

Tracks likely to be part of the rotation include HMS, Phoenix Raceway, Texas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Tracks such as Daytona, Talladega and Atlanta will not be on the list because NASCAR does not want a superspeedway race to determine a champion, particularly with the propensity for multi-car “big one” wrecks.

While in favor of the new rotational system, the Hendrick Motorsports driver and 2020 NASCAR Cup champion cautions that NASCAR must be judicious in which tracks it chooses.

“I think at the end of the day they (NASCAR) kind of have an open box on whatever they want to do,” Elliott told Frontstretch.com on Saturday at Kansas Speedway.

“And we have enough of a sample size with the car for the last few years that I think we should be able to make a very educated decision on what would be the most entertaining from a fan perspective and also the most rewarding to make sure you’re crowning a champion,” Elliott added.

Chase Elliott welcomes Homestead, even if it’s just for 2026

As for returning the season-ending race to Homestead – even if it’s just for one year in 2026 – Elliott is looking forward to the track that hosted the NASCAR Championship Weekend from 2002 through 2019 before things shifted to Phoenix.

Elliott said, “When it moved from Homestead I thought that (rotation at the time) was the plan in general. I don’t know how long it’s been in Phoenix now but it’s like, a long time. So I’m glad to see it move around.” Ironically, Elliott won his Cup championship in the first year that Phoenix hosted the season finale in 2020.

Still, Elliott likes having different venues each year to give a different feel and build more excitement for fans. “I think it’s important to have that shift and not just be at one track,” Elliott said approvingly.

While it’s unclear if the finale will move from Homestead in 2027, the strong driver backing should encourage NASCAR to double down on rotating venues.

Post Edited By:Abhishek Ramesh

About the author

Jerry Bonkowski

Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran sportswriter who has worked full-time for many of the top media outlets in the world, including USA Today (15 years), ESPN.com (4+ years), Yahoo Sports (4 1/2 years), NBCSports.com (8 years) and others. He has covered virtually every major professional and collegiate sport there is, including the Chicago Bulls' six NBA championships (including heavy focus on Michael Jordan), the Chicago Bears Super Bowl XX-winning season, the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs World Series championships, two of the Chicago Blackhawks' NHL titles, Tiger Woods' PGA Tour debut, as well as many years of beat coverage of the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA for USA Today. But Jerry's most notable achievement has been covering motorsports, most notably NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA drag racing and Formula One. He has had a passion for racing since he started going to watch drag races at the old U.S. 30 Dragstrip (otherwise known as "Where the Great Ones Run!") in Hobart, Indiana. Jerry has covered countless NASCAR, IndyCar and NHRA races and championship battles over the years. He's also the author of a book, "Trading Paint: 101 Great NASCAR Debates", published in 2010 (and he's hoping to soon get started on another book). Away from sports, Jerry was a fully sworn part-time police officer for 20 years, enjoys reading and music (especially "hair bands" from the 1980s and 1990s), as well as playing music on his electric keyboard, driving (fast, of course!), spending time with Cyndee his wife of nearly 40 years, the couple's three adult children and three grandchildren (with more to come!), and his three dogs -- including two German Shepherds and an Olde English Bulldog who thinks he's a German Shepherd.. Jerry still gets the same excitement of seeing his byline today as he did when he started in journalism as a 15-year-old high school student. He is looking forward to writing hundreds, if not thousands, of stories in the future for TheSportsRush.com, as well as interacting with readers.

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