NASCAR has been witnessing quite a lot of changes with its racing schedule over the years. This year we will be heading down to Chicago for the sport’s first-ever street circuit race. However, while the governing body is hell-bent on finding a new stream of audience in order to grow its fanbase, there is one place that the organizers seem to have forgotten to push towards which Brad Keselowski recently pointed towards.
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As per the Roush Fenway Keselowski driver and co-owner, NASCAR should be looking on towards getting their races just north of the homeland into the Canadian market.
He believes that branching up north would help with their quest to push beyond borders and establish themselves in a new market.
Brad Keselowski believes NASCAR has a big market in Canada
The 2012 Cup Series champion shared his thoughts ahead of this weekend’s race at Nashville. He elaborated on how NASCAR could even pursue its street course program, but outside of American borders. However, he did not necessarily agree with the concept of street course racing over oval racing.
But he indicated that the concept of having such races internationally could work out for the sport towards exploring other markets.
According to Racer.com, Keselowski stated, “I’ve been pretty steady on this. I think, for a number of years, but we have to get to Canada. There is a big market for us there. We need to get to Canada and on an oval in Canada. I think that particular market is underserved and full of a ton of NASCAR fans that would help us branch out somewhat internationally. While in a manner I think could control costs for the owners in a respectful way.”
He added, “I think the layup for us as a sport is to find these road courses in different countries. And that’s better than nothing. But it’s not the way I would prefer to show what NASCAR’s capable of.”
NASCAR’s History in Canada
It is not that NASCAR has never been to Canada in the past. In fact, they have raced the Truck Series at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park from 2013 all the way to the 2019 season. Furthermore, the Xfinity series has also seen a few races at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal from 2007 to 2012.
There were even plans to build a ¾ mile oval race track along with a 2-mile infield road course. At one point, even the NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon had been involved with the design plan for the same. However, due to unfortunate circumstances and other complications, the project eventually came to a grounding halt.
Had the track been constructed in a timely manner, we could have had a NASCAR race scheduled there, and therefore, drawing in a major market and expanding the overall fanbase for the sport.
While the Canadian Motorsport Park bites the dust, NASCAR still has an opportunity to work out a few races in Canada. Be it the unproven landscape of street course races, or the good ol’ ovals that everyone enjoys, there are plenty of opportunities for the great American series.
Maybe if all goes well it could potentially find itself dominating the North American racing market sometime in the future.
