The Age of The Road Racer, Welcome to "The Next Gen Era"

NASCAR has almost always had road course races in it's schedule. From Daytona Beach to Kitsap County Airport, NASCAR has sent its drivers left AND right. NASCAR has also, (for good reason) been seen as the sport of circles, the sport of "turn left" due to the overwhelming number of ovals, paperclips and tri-ovals in its schedules over the decades. Now this is not a bad thing in any way shape or form, but fans of all ages saw the rise of NASCAR into the early 2000's grow to what many referred to as "Cookie Cutter tracks." With gobs of new 1.5 mile tracks being built in what where seen as "emerging markets" such as Kansas and Kentucky, Las Vegas and Chicagoland each of which are considered D-Shaped ovals (more triangular vs Doglegged front stretches).

These tracks where built to meet a crowd capacity of the immense growth of both NASCAR and the steady economy in the US. These tracks where built (away from NASCAR's roots) of the down home Southern and North Eastern short tracks because they could hold the numbers of fans NASCAR wanted. And let's be honest, the racing wasn't horrible on many of these tracks unlike some *Kentucky* and fans did exactly what NASCAR had hopped.... they flocked to them. But after the 2006-2008 peak of NASCAR's popularity, the move to the Gen 5 or more commonly referred to COT car and the fall of the Economy in 2008... the fans stopped coming.... the Backstretch at Daytona (always full in the day)as well as grandstands at many many other tracks around the country came down. Why pay to maintain something that seemingly would never be used again? 

All in the meanwhile, NASCAR maintained two staple road courses on the schedule year in and year out. Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point Raceway inception-2002, Infineon Raceway 2002-2012) and "The Glenn" Watkins Glenn International Since 1957. NASCAR ran these races without interruption until 2020 due to Both California (Sonoma) and New York (The Glenn) where both in shutdowns due to the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States. With two RC races on the schedule, it was a way for part time driver/RC specialists or smaller teams that cant muster as much power on ovals to come and snag a win. But in the grand scheme of things, they didn't hold a ton of weight. 

But in 2018, NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway introduced the Bank of America Roval 400, a 17-turn, 2.28 mile long road course using the infield as well as banking and backstretch from the NASCAR oval with Ryan Blaney scoring the Inaugural Cup Series victory after a now infamous tussle between defending series champion Martin Truex Jr and 7-time champion Jimmie Johnson in the final Chicane causing both of them to spin and Blaney to run off with the win from 3rd. One of the huge keys to this race? It was in the Playoffs! The race received high praise from both fans and drivers alike and has since become site of 3 huge moments in recent NASCAR history. The for mentioned finish, Chase Elliott wrecking into turn 1 on a restart and charging to a win in 2019 and the first NASCAR Cup Series race run in the rain in decades. This gave NASCAR and idea.

in 2020, NASCAR had a dilemma due to the Covid-19 shutdowns limiting fans as well as teams from certain tracks and states. NASCAR announced that the Daytona Road Course would be used as a replacement for one of the canceled RC races earlier in the year and just before the 2021 Season it was announced that due to California still limiting events, the Auto Club race would be canceled and replaced with the Daytona RC as the second points paying event of the season. 

After the fantastic fan and driver response from the past few years, NASCAR announced yet another big change to its schedule... The addition of several new racetracks, there would now be 7 Road Courses in NASCARs schedule. They would now be more important than the Old School short tracks!!! NASCAR's fandom either rejoiced or had a panic attack. This, matted to the NEXT GEN car being released next year in 2022... this will be huge.

We now see the addition of Circuit Of The Americas in Austin, Texas, Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and Roger Penske replacing the legendary Brickyard oval at Indi with the Indi Road Course in Indianapolis, Illinois. These races replace many of the "boring" cookie cutter races that has in many fan's opinions plagued NASCARs popularity for nearly 2 decades. 

Teams and drivers that have never been good at these tracks now have to change or be replaced with those who can do well. These new tracks will give opportunities to the Michael McDowells, the AJ Allmendingers and the Austin Cindrics of NASCARs future. Reigning 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott now sits atop what many say is a schedule playing into his favor for back to back titles as he now sits at 11 Cup wins of which 5 are RC victories. Many see him as the new "Jeff Gordon" (the most NASCAR RC victories with 9) being that he has amassed more than half the wins in a much shorter period of time. NASCAR's teams and drivers will need to step up and change, they will need to become experts in a field some saw as pointless just 4 short years ago.

Being a NASCAR fan since the mid-90s, I've seen my sport go through immense changes, from Earnhardt to Gordon, Gordon to Johnson, Johnson to the "big 3". Petty's 200 to Busch's 213. I've seen 2 generations of racers and 3 generations of racecars with a 4th on its way. I've seen the peak of the sport, I've seen the loss of a legend. I can, in fact say.. This is the greatest time our sport has seen since its golden era and it will do nothing but grow from here. We talk about the Golden Era, The Modern Era. I think, We're entering the NEXT GEN Era.