NASCAR's Ben Kennedy explains decision to move Championship race from Phoenix

The NASCAR Cup Series Championship race will be held at Homestead-Miami Speedway in 2026 after being at Phoenix Raceway for the last few years. In an interview with Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic, Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president, chief venture and racing innovation officer, explained the decision to move to the championship race from Phoenix.

“It is a change,” Kennedy said. “We’ve also made a handful of other pretty bold changes to the schedule — we’ve gone to new venues, we’ve shook up the Clash (exhibition race), we’ve changed the playoff schedule — and one of the remaining things that we have on our checkoff list is to also begin a rotation of our championship and move it to different venues. So glad we were able to deliver on that one.”

Homestead will also host the Xfinity and Truck Series Championship races next year. This is a big move by NASCAR as fans and competitors love the track. Homestead hosted the championship weekend for its three national series from 2002 through the 2019 season before NASCAR moved the event to Phoenix. Both tracks will be part of NASCAR’s new rotating model, where the event will shift tracks from year to year.

More on the NASCAR Championship race and Phoenix

“Weather is a big part of it,” Kennedy said in a press release. “Being in early November, we want to make sure we’re in a warm-weather climate and that it’s an atmosphere that a lot of our fans can come out and enjoy and not get the risk of a snowstorm or anything.

“We want to make sure that we’re in a big market, a large metro (area) that can really embrace us. We want to make sure it’s marketed and promoted the right way, that it feels like a world-class championship facility. And Phoenix was that for a number of years. We’re going to be putting some capital into Homestead-Miami as well.”

Phoenix will continue to host two Cup Series events next year, and the fall race scheduled will be part of the 2026 playoffs. Dates for the 2026 season will come at a later date.

“If you go into that market, whether it’s the local activations, the promotion that you see in and around the Phoenix area and out toward the track, it’s really unparalleled to what we’ve seen in the past,” Kennedy said. “So it’s been great, and for that, we wanted to continue to have them in the playoffs, later on in the playoffs and in that Round of 8.”