NASCAR considering adding Philadelphia race to schedule

In the last few years, NASCAR has shown that they are willing to go anywhere. Could NASCAR race in Philadelphia next? There are a lot of motorsports fans in Philly, and the Cup Series could make a splash with another LA Coliseum-type event.

NASCAR wants to take the show where the fans are, where people are. Getting a race in the middle of one of America’s biggest and most historic cities would be a big deal.

Yes, there is Pocono in the Pennsylvania market, which is up on the schedule this weekend. But the Cup Series might be getting close to having a race in the middle of the City of Brotherly Love.

NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell detailed the potential plans around a future race in Philly recently. But it also reveals maybe a troubling mindset that the sport has.

“Pocono has delivered for us in terms of fans, but when you look at opportunities, one of the places we looked was Franklin Field,” O’Donnell said to the Pocono Record. “It was one of the only places we could’ve put a race track inside. Those are the type of things that, within a city, we’re gonna look at.

“The days of just building a rural track are over, but if we can build a track with some real estate development around it and partner with some people, we’re gonna look at major cities and bring the product to the fan base within the city as well.”

Franklin Field is a historic facility. It is the oldest college football stadium that still hosts home games for the Penn Quakers. Franklin Field also hosts the Penn Relays. It is the oldest and largest track & field event in the United States, held every year since 1895.

I wonder if the historic nature of the field, the track, and the facility itself could be a hindrance to NASCAR’s Philadelphia plans. While the Cup Series made it work at the LA Coliseum, Franklin Field has its own unique quirks and things.

The comment about building rural race tracks doesn’t bode well for certain fans. NASCAR is not interested in building a “new” North Wilkesboro-type track. If it isn’t already built and ready to renovate, or in a major city, O’Donnell doesn’t see much of a reason to do it.

This would almost surely be a Clash-type race, not a points race. You could only get a quarter-mile track, at most, in the facility. The inside lanes at Franklin Field are actually smaller than 400m, or a quarter-mile, all the way around.

NASCAR wants to get to Philadelphia, but is the idea feasible? I’ll let the folks like O’Donnell and the good people at Penn decide that. It would be quite an undertaking.