World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway will return in 2023, while Portland International Raceway has yet to be confirmed. What can be learned for next season if both tracks are back on the schedule?
The announcement that the NASCAR Cup Series will return next season to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway came within days.
It helped that the race featured a thrilling overtime duel between Joey Logano and Kyle Busch with a sellout crowd. That has been the story since 2021, as NASCAR has experimented with new markets in Austin, Nashville, Wisconsin and St. Louis and found success with all of them.
When Gateway does come back, however, the Next Gen car will need some tweaks. The new car has been a success on road courses, superspeedways and high-banked intermediates, but it has struggled on flat tracks with minimal banking. The race at Martinsville Speedway was critically panned, and the first race at Phoenix Raceway in March also had struggles with cars passing. The same struggles were seen at Gateway, and the upcoming flat tracks on the schedule will likely suffer the same problems as well. But if NASCAR can figure out a solution to the Next Gen car on flat tracks, it has a new permanent home in St. Louis.
For Portland, the one positive was the attendance. Tens of thousands of fans flocked to the road course in pouring rain to see the NASCAR Xfinity Series in town, and the rainy conditions created exciting racing and battles for the lead.
But the rain and restarts also contributed to half a dozen crashes. Twelve cars crashed out of the race, and there were countless more that had either spun out or suffered significant damage. In addition, the teams complained about the area surrounding the track as well as the costs involved in transporting equipment to one of the most distanced cities on the schedule.
Despite the success in attendance, all of these issues are why a Portland renewal has yet to be confirmed. If NASCAR can find a way to curb the costs…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…