Some NASCAR drivers want fewer road courses — here’s why they need to get over it

For a large portion of the history of the NASCAR Cup Series, drivers faced no more than two road courses in a season.

In past decades, the two mainstays were Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen. In the decades before, Riverside International was also on the docket before it closed in the 1980s.

But things and times have changed: NASCAR Cup now has six road course races in total in 2025 with the additions of the Charlotte ROVAL, Chicago Street Course, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and the Circuit of the Americas.

It's a change of pace for a field of drivers who largely only drove on ovals as they ascended the ranks. Some have welcomed the challenge. Others are just hoping it disappears.

Keselowski, Earnhardt Jr. not fans of more road course racing

With the increased number of road racing the Cup Series does, and how much it is being dominated by a subset of drivers, the complaints have been aplenty.

It's been the Shane van Gisbergen show, as he has now won three-straight road courses in his rookie season, putting him among the upper echelon of drivers in terms of playoff points. Meanwhile, the New Zealander sits 26th in overall points. But let's not dwell on the playoff system right now.

Sonoma was the latter end of back-to-back road races, with another coming up in less than a month at Watkins Glen in New York.

Brad Keselowski has clearly had enough.

Keselowski sounded the alarm on the six-race road slate, with a possibility for seventh next year at a street course in San Diego (although it's unclear if it'll replace another road course or an oval). He goes on to say that IMSA (which hosts the 24 Hours of Daytona and other races at Road Atlanta, Sebring and more) is the sport to watch for road courses, not NASCAR.

The 2012 Cup champion wasn't alone in this assessment.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. agrees that NASCAR's growth on the road isn't necessary. Former Cup driver Matt DiBenedetto also jumped on Keselowski's side.

NASCAR's schedule has plenty of room for road courses

Can we take a step back for a second?

With the addition of playoffs, stages, in-season tournaments, etc., there have been plenty of complaints about preserving the roots of NASCAR. A lot of them are planted in nostalgia and an unwillingness to try something new.

But here are the facts about the 2025 Cup Schedule.

There are 36 points races. Six of the 36 are on road racing tracks. Rounding up for good measure, that is 17% of the Cup slate for the season. If you include the two exhibitions at Bowman Gray and Charlotte, that drops even lower.

Meanwhile, there are nine ovals that host more than one Cup Series weekend. Yes, of course, there is no reason to remove some of the sport's biggest tracks from a second weekend, but there are some where it really isn't necessary (Phoenix, especially).

In other words, there is room to expand to different venues.

Overall, I agree that the sport shouldn't expand past 25 percent or more of the races being on tracks with right turns, but in a season that spans February to November, six of these types of races is a fine balance.

The days of almost every track having two dates and there only being two road courses begged for more variety in the 2000s and 2010s. Now we have it, and the nostalgia is kicking in again for some fans and drivers.

NASCAR drivers need to improve, not shy away, from road courses

To be entirely fair to Keselowski, he claims his complaints about road courses have nothing to do with his performance on them.

But it's hard to imagine he would speak up if he was one of the pros on those types of tracks. Keselowski's grabbed a P11 at Sonoma, his best road course finish in three years. His last top five at one was over four years ago. As for Earnhardt Jr., he never won at one and only netted three top fives in 35 tries.

NASCAR in 2025 isn't the NASCAR of old where drivers who can't handle the road courses can just throw up their hands and punt on them, or even let a road course ringer sub in for them. Six races are too many to simply shy away from, it is imperative to be well-rounded. Although the playoff system does encourage punting more than a full-season points format would but anyway...

Ever since van Gisbergen won on debut against the Cup field in 2023, drivers should've been motivated to improve and challenge the new guy. And now that he's completely humbled them three times this season, that hunger should be growing.

The field should not be hoping the likes of Tyler Reddick, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Christopher Bell and Chase Elliott can do the job for them. The only drivers I can recall taking a big step forward in this regard in 2025 are Chase Briscoe and Ryan Preece.

More drivers need to take the approach of sharpening their road skills, rather than hope Chicago disappears or Charlotte gets rid of the ROVAL.

Otherwise, we might as well just give SVG two more wins on the season.