Should the NASCAR championship race be moved to Texas?

Moving the final race of the NASCAR playoffs around is an idea worth exploring, and Texas Motor Speedway is as good a place as any to host it.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts 500 on Sunday wasn’t the most exciting NASCAR race ever — the track still doesn’t have enough grooves after its repave a few years ago to warrant that title — but it was intriguing and had a lot of different stuff going on.

Crashes took out a bunch of big names, including some of the top drivers in the sport. A couple different strategy plays were attempted, though none ultimately factored into the outcome of the race.

Texas Motor Speedway already hosts a playoff date, but here’s an interesting thought: Why couldn’t it be the site of the championship race some NASCAR season?

That’s not a thought yours truly came up with, but one that Kevin Harvick expressed to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram after this weekend’s race.

"I like a rotation of the championship race. I like moving the all-star race around to different cities. If you put six or eight tracks in the championship mix, every year you’re going to have a built-in conversation and that’s the part I think we’re missing.I guarantee you’d have fans come to a championship race if you held it [in Texas]. It’s not fair to have it in one market. It’s not fair to Texas Motor Speedway to not have the opportunity to have the championship race to build their race market."

Harvick went on to elaborate a little more on the benefits a rotation of the championship weekend would have for the tracks involved, which is definitely true. The bigger idea, though, is that it could also pay off by making the final race a little bit more of a can’t miss event.

This is no disrespect to Homestead at all, and there are tracks that this writer would never want to see host the Championship 4 (won’t name any names, just to be nice). Texas, though, would make all the sense in the world to be part of any potential rotation.

It’s extremely fast. The chances for passing should only improves as the racing surface wears a little more over the next few years. And as we saw Sunday, it’s wild and unpredictable without being a total wreckfest like the restrictor plate races often are.

Next: O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 highlights, stage results

NASCAR needs to shake things up somehow, and it’s obviously hesitant to make broader, sweeping changes in the overall schedule on a year to year basis. Rotating the championship race would be a way to give things a different look every season without causing widespread upheaval.

If that happens, Texas Motor Speedway should definitely be part of the plan. We’re with Harvick on this one.