8 Xfinity Road Courses? Bravo, NASCAR

The 2023 NASCAR Xfinity Series schedule includes eight road courses in its 33-race slate.

And apparently this a problem?

This opinion was shared by people online after the announcement. Some of them may read this site.

In 2023, the Xfinity Series will return to Circuit of the Americas, Watkins Glen International, Portland International Raceway, the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, Road America and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course; the same six tracks it visited in 2022. The Chicago street course and Sonoma Raceway are the newest editions for next season, with both tracks making their respective debuts on the Xfinity Series schedule.

Again, apparently this is a problem.

Yes, NASCAR should visit more short tracks and run on some half-miles. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series especially should be tearing up shorter circuits across the country, and the Xfinity Series of old had some of its best races on these regional beacons of short-track goodness that are no longer on the calendar. Going back to them — or visiting new ones — would be welcome.

Asking for more road courses and short tracks on the schedule don’t have to be mutually exclusive requests.

For starters, the story here is that just under a quarter of the Xfinity schedule is run on road courses. Add the four short tracks — two dates at Martinsville Speedway with one apiece at Bristol Motor Speedway and Richmond Raceway — and over a third of the races are on tracks that, frankly, provide the most excitement on the schedule with the current Xfinity car.

It’s true that the NASCAR Cup Series has seen a marked improvement of its product on the intermediate, so-called cookie-cutter tracks in recent years. It’s also true that Xfinity races at said tracks are not snooze-fests every time; occasionally there’s a real winner, a classic that’ll be remembered past, say, one year.

It’s also true, though, that the Xfinity Series doesn’t need to be visiting a lot of these tracks. How often do you see fans clamoring for Xfinity or Truck events at Michigan International Speedway? Texas Motor Speedway? If anything, it’s more a matter of adding support races to tracks that are on the Cup Series schedule. There’s no defined appetite.

Not to say that eight road courses on next year’s schedule will solve the problem of companion races entirely. Of those eight, six will still be run in tandem with the Cup Series.

Would a companion weekend at a road course be more preferrable to…