NASCAR has made multiple significant changes to the schedule since 2020, some far bolder than others. This is something that Chase Elliott truly appreciates.
Look at the tracks where NASCAR has competed in recent seasons. They took on a dirt version of Bristol and raced on the streets of Chicago. They competed at Road America, Circuit of the Americas, and inside the LA Memorial Coliseum. Now, NASCAR will take two of its series to a road course in Mexico City.
"For NASCAR to branch out, I'll give them a lot of credit," Elliott said in response to a question from AltDriver. "They've been really trying to switch it up over the last few years.
"And I don't think all of it's gone great, and that's totally okay, but they've been willing to try."
The schedule used to be something that fans and teams could predict. They knew where the season's exhibition races would take place, they knew where the regular-season finale would be, and they knew all of the races that made up the playoff schedule.
This has not been the case in recent seasons. Certain races have remained in predetermined spots, such as the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600, and Southern 500. Others, however, have shifted dates or gone to entirely new venues through schedule changes.
Photo credit: NASCAR
This season's playoff schedule is a fitting example. The opening round features Atlanta, which moved from its spot in July as part of the changes.
The opening round also has Watkins Glen. The road course has traditionally been a summer race, but it moved into the playoffs for the 2024 season.
"I think that is something that we should all admire and appreciate is the effort to go to different places and try new things," Elliott added while looking forward to next year's Mexico City race.
"And it's okay if they don't all go perfect or go well, but certainly to get outside of the country and to just go do something different, I think will be fun."
The turning point for NASCAR was actually something that shut the sport down for 10 weeks. When COVID disrupted the 2020 schedule, the sanctioning body had to take a step back and examine multiple factors surrounding the season schedule and how they could return to racing quickly.
The 2020 schedule did not feature tracks that had become mainstays over the years. Instead, there were extra races at Darlington and Charlotte, tracks within a short drive of the team shops. NASCAR also had the Daytona Road Course host a points race.
This shutdown also occurred after NASCAR merged with ISC, a move that brought 13 tracks into the company.
"I'd say for us, certainly, as a company but then as an industry too, our culture changed," said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer. "We had to approach things differently. We had to be bold.
"We had to think outside the box in order to get our events in. I think that's permeated over the past couple of years, right? You know, we've taken a lot of these big, bold steps. Frankly, we've gotten outside of our comfort zone."
The moves outside of the comfort zone have led to new fans checking out the sport, especially in Chicago. The next step is bringing the NASCAR Cup Series to Mexico for the first time.
What happens after the inaugural Cup race in Mexico City remains to be seen. There is a potential for multiple international races as NASCAR examines the possibility of taking the national series to Brazil or back to Montreal.
For now, however, NASCAR will just focus on making next season's race successful before working on other changes.
"As you think about international expansion, this is certainly a big move for us," Kennedy said. "It's a bold move for our sport.
"Certainly comes with a lot of bandwidth and resources, and we want to make sure that this is successful and we can have a great event here."