NASCAR has shown a willingness to take the Cup Series to new destinations with increasing regularity. One of the venues on this list of potential options is a football stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Steve O'Donnell, who recently became NASCAR President, provided the insight to the Pocono Record. He said that NASCAR has considered hosting a race at Franklin Field, home of the Penn Quakers. O'Donnell said that the exploration of this idea was "pretty early."
"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 told the outlet. "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."
This willingness to take racing to fans is something NASCAR has displayed in the Gen 7 era. The sanctioning body took the preseason Clash to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for three seasons (2022-24) and then it moved it to the historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
This season also marks the third trip to the heart of Chicago for a street race. NASCAR has not announced if the series will return in 2026, but The Athletic has reported that talks are ongoing for a street race in the San Diego area of California.
Franklin Field, an Olympic-style stadium, is the oldest college football stadium still hosting games. It originally opened in the 1800s as a 30,000-capacity venue, but it underwent renovations in the 1920s. The Philadelphia stadium now holds more than 52,000 fans.
The first football game at Franklin Field was on Oct. 1, 1895. The University of Pennsylvania beat Swarthmore 40-0. According to the university, this was also the first football game to feature a scoreboard.
The historic stadium also served as the home of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 until 1970. The team donated $100,000 annually to assist with maintenance and other expenses.