When it comes to both food and racing, three-time and defending NASCAR Cup champion Joey Logano doesn’t like either being stale. With Sunday’s Chicago Street Course Race — the third year it’s been held on the streets of downtown Chicago — there is speculation whether NASCAR will return next year for a fourth straight season or if it may take the street course concept to another market.
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Several reports have surfaced in recent weeks that NASCAR may be considering a street race in San Diego and Philadelphia. There’s also talk about a street race north of the border in either Toronto or Vancouver — or perhaps on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal.
Logano likes the three-and-out concept when it comes to new venues. For example, NASCAR held the preseason Busch Clash race for three straight years at the Los Angeles Coliseum before pulling the plug after the 2024 event and moving it to Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina this year.
So if this indeed is the third and final race in Chicago, Logano is fine with it.
“I’m always a big fan of going to new facilities because it’s worked every single time,” Logano said Friday during media availability in Chicago.
“Early in my career when we never did anything like this, it was the same schedule every year for decades. Nothing changed. A big change would be like moving a date a couple weeks from where it was. It wasn’t changing anything.
“Now we’re going to new venues. You think of Road America, we’re not too far from there, and that was a huge success. The L.A. Coliseum, the first couple of years was a huge success.”
But there is a caveat in Logano’s mind: that stale feeling. He would like to see NASCAR continue to bring new tracks online, even if it’s just for a three-year period.
To Logano, going to a new track brings with it an air of mystery and parity for all drivers that other tried-and-true tracks no longer have.
“I think if you do it too long it gets stale,” he said. “I think there are tracks that are part of our roots that we must go to, but I think there’s a handful of tracks that should be on a three-year term kind of thing that you can just move around and go to new places.
“Look at what happened at Bowman Gray this year — a huge success, a new track. People love going to see something new. The unknown. The uncertainty of all the teams not knowing what to do. It’s fun to watch.
Speaking further, Logano emphasized the importance of variety in the schedule. “You have an idea now of what Chicago is gonna look like. We know what Richmond looks like. We know what Daytona is gonna look like,” he said, highlighting how familiar tracks remove the element of surprise. In contrast, new facilities bring uncertainty — as he noted with Bowman Gray — and he believes that this sense of unpredictability is essential to keeping the schedule exciting and fresh.
