NASCAR official opens up about future of racing in Southern California, Pacific Northwest and Northeast

A NASCAR official had some interesting things to say about the future of racing in the Southern California, Pacific Northwest and Northeast regions. NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Venue & Racing Innovations Officer Ben Kennedy appeared on Kevin Harvick’s Happy Hour and talked about which markets he would love to see host more NASCAR races.

“Southern California. We’ve had The Clash there for the past few years, we’ve had Fontana there for a number of years,” Kennedy said in the interview that premiered in September. “We’re not going to have a Southern California race on the schedule in 2025. That’s a massive opportunity because it’s a massive market, massive market for our partners, massive market for a number of people, massive market for a number of fans. We need to find a way to have a presence in Southern California somehow.

“We’ve talked about the Pacific Northwest a lot. We’ve had the Xfinity Series in Portland for the past two or three years. I think that’s another market we’d eventually like to be in. And then I would just say the Northeast in general, not any particular area whether that’s New York or Philadelphia or wherever it might be. If you look at the amount of racing that we had four or five years ago in the Northeast relative to where we’re at today, we have a lot less inventory.”

Kennedy added: “I think the good news is fans are showing up. You look at Dover, you look at Pocono, these places are packed. Even New Hampshire looks really good. I think that’s another market just as we think about continuing to expand that we’d love to have a presence in the Northeast.

The majority of the NASCAR Cup Series races in 2025 are located in the Southeast. Cities like Daytona, Talladega, Atlanta, Charlotte, Darlington (South Carolina) and Bristol (Tennessee) will host two races next year. NASCAR will also have races in Iowa, New York, Virginia, Illinois, New Hampshire (as Kennedy mentioned) California and Arizona. There will also be a race in Mexico City which will take place on June 15 at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.