The latest visit to the 0.625-mile North Wilkesboro Speedway cast a pressing question in the hearts of many drivers: Why wasn’t this venue holding a points-paying race in the Cup Series? It has produced incredible racing experiences for both drivers and fans over the past few years and proven itself to be worthy of mattering more.
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Many have proposed nullifying the All-Star Race and making the race at North Wilkesboro a regular-old points-paying event. This means there would be 37 races in a season.
Denny Hamlin, for one, isn’t fond of this idea. The Joe Gibbs Racing veteran proposed cutting a race from the current calendar to make space for a race at the short track.
And the fixture he had in mind to be done with was the race at the Charlotte Roval. He expressed the thought on Actions Detrimental and said, “Don’t put it past anyone. More races equal more money.”
Moreover, he doesn’t think that a points race at North Wilkesboro would garner the same hype as the All-Star Race.
“I just think, from a hype standpoint, you’re going to get more hype out of something called an All-Star weekend than you are out of a regular season race at North Wilkesboro,” he explained. “It doesn’t make it a bigger event because you decide to pay points.”
Interestingly, his fellow driver Brad Keselowski had a similar line of thought.
Why Keselowski wants the Charlotte Roval to go
The RFK Racing co-owner told the media last weekend that North Wilkesboro deserves to have a points-paying race. He also stressed that the oval at the Charlotte Motor Speedway is too good to have just a single race weekend.
So, his solution was to include the North Wilkesboro Speedway in the regular season at the cost of the Charlotte Roval and move the All-Star Race to Charlotte.
When asked why the Roval had to go, he reasoned that more people attend the Coca-Cola 600 than they do the race at the Roval. He added, “I’m very strong about the Roval has got to go.” The 2023 Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, liked this idea. But he wanted to hold off on moving the All-Star Race to a different location for now.
The 250 laps on Sunday were the best short track racing of the year after all. Richard Childress Racing driver Kyle Busch wanted the All-Star Race to remain at North Wilkesboro as well.
It has been two years since the short track was repaved. The common expectation is that it will only continue to get better. NASCAR is yet to provide an official word on its plans for the future.
