Will NASCAR host Cup Series races internationally? Executives provide an update

There may be NASCAR Cup Series races outside the United States within the next few years.

Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell said there are a “number of opportunities” on the table for the 2025 schedule in the annual State of the Sport address on Friday inside the Phoenix Raceway media center. This comes as next year’s schedule added Iowa, but neglected to include a race in Montreal, which The Athletic reported was widely expected.

“I wanted to dispel some of the rumors that were out there that Iowa came in, in place of Montreal. That’s not the case,” O’Donnell said. “In an ideal world, we actually wanted to potentially bring on both race tracks.

“When you look at our sport and the ability to go into a marketplace — really grow the sport — we want to make sure we have all the levers in place to not just kind of come in and out. We want to build NASCAR within that particular country or marketplace.”

Sources told The Athletic last month that NASCAR and Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve were unable to strike a deal that made sense for both sides. O’Donnell said Friday that negotiations moved too quickly to get a deal done in time for next year and reiterated NASCAR’s desire for international expansion.

“As we continue to talk with Montreal, we realize probably a little quick to make it happen,” O’Donnell continued. “In the meantime, there’s been a number of discussions not only in other areas in the U.S., but other opportunities in North America and outside the U.S. For us, it was a little bit of a pause, and a, ‘Let’s evaluate all those opportunities together.’ ”

NASCAR had a void in its 2024 schedule with California’s Auto Club Speedway, near Fontana, being reconfigured from a two-mile oval to a short track. It added Iowa Speedway, a 0.875-mile oval, for a Sunday night race on June 16.

The Cup Series will still be in the Golden State twice, starting with the season-opening Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. NASCAR president Steve Phelps confirmed that demolition has begun at Fontana but said he didn’t know the timing of when that’ll be finished, nor its exact parameters.

“We are still planning on building a short track in Fontana. The timing of that, I don’t know,” Phelps said. “This isn’t the best time to be building based on inflation, and the cost of capital, etc. But our intention is to continue to be in the southern California market. That, for 2024, will be at the Coliseum. But it is our intention to build a short track in the Inland Empire.”