NASCAR Senior VP’s Vow to “Go Back” to Old Track After 2023 Leaves Fans Divided

Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) organizes the Brickyard Weekend every year. The event hosts IndyCar and NASCAR races. And according to the 2023 schedule released by the IMS, August 11-13 will mark the dates for the event next year.

NASCAR Xfinity Series at the IMS will be held on August 12 while the Cup Series race will commence on August 13. This would only be the second time in the past seventeen years that the Brickyard Weekend will take place in the month of August. Since 2006, the event has been hosted in July or September. Moreover, In 2021, NASCAR stopped racing at the Indianapolis oval and shifted to the road course due to a sharp decline in spectator attendance.

Channel 90, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, recently tweeted a short clip of their conversation with Ben Kennedy on the 2023 NASCAR schedule. Kennedy who is a former driver is currently the Vice President of NASCAR’s strategy and innovation. During the conversation, Kennedy talked about NASCAR’s return to Canada or Mexico. And he also discussed his plans to return to the IMS oval.

Reacting to the news, NASCAR fans left their mixed views on Twitter. A few of them seemed excited about the news, whereas, some others did not like the idea of getting back at the oval. Other users also expressed their opinion on the upcoming schedule dates.

Moreover, talking about NASCAR in 2023, Ben Kennedy said that this is the most diverse schedule that NASCAR has ever seen. Further, he said; “We’ve got some of the best drivers of the world and the best drivers of the US in order to compete for the championship.”

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Apart from that, he also pointed out how difficult the season is going to be. He said; “You not only have to get around ovals but you have to go around road courses and street courses and dirt track at Bristol. And all these other different types of tracks in order to be able to punch a ticket to the playoffs.”

Ben Kennedy on NASCAR going back to the Oval and expanding to Canada and Mexico

During the interview, NASCAR Radio’s Dave Moody mentioned that the schedule for the 2023 season seems jam-packed. He said that after ten consecutive weeks of road course races, the drivers will race at the Watkins Glen track. Further Moody pointed out that this was something that NASCAR has never done before. And asked what the thinking surrounding the decision was.

To this, Ben Kennedy explained; “Yeah, naturally it’s the way the schedule is. And you know the little bit of movement on the date side within the event of Watkins Glen has moved around. So ultimately, it kind of ended up back to back.” Immediately after that, Kennedy opened up about going back to the oval. He said; “On the Indi (Indianapolis) front, we will be back to the road course again in 2023.”

Further, Kennedy revealed that he has been working with IMS President Douglas Boles to work things out. He explained; “The Brickyard 400 on the oval was something special and was a marquee event. And when we go back to the oval, and we will go back to the oval at some point, we would really wanna make it that marquee event that it kinda was. Really trying to make it something special in the future when that finally does happen.”

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Apart from that, Kennedy revealed that Mexico and Canada are two markets that NASCAR wants to have national races with in the future. And also said that they are currently searching for the best options. He said; “I think we still need to work out what exactly that looks like. That’s something we are going to be looking at, probably next year or the next two years.”