William Byron has admitted his concern regarding the time gap between NASCAR’s return to Homestead-Miami Speedway for the 2026 championship race and the 2025 race weekend. This comes after the 2026 calendar was released for all three divisions.
Speaking ahead of the NASCAR Cup regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway, the Hendrick Motorsports driver gave his reactions to the 2026 calendar, but specifically focused on the substantial amount of time he and his fellow drivers will have to wait before returning to Homestead.
“I feel like it’s just more for the rhythm of the season is why I look at it. Like where am I going to be in that portion of the year? Is it going to be hot that time of year? Like do I need to prepare differently if we’re going to be racing?
“You know, I think North Wilkesboro is going to be really hot next year, if it’s a day race in July.
“I mean, I live in Charlotte. it’s usually like 98 degrees. So I think that one would be tough on everybody, if that’s the case, so you’re going to have to prepare differently.
“And I think I just look at the rhythm, like I said, just kind of like – where are we going to be in this part of the year? And then you look at where am I going to be at the end of the year, so how do I need to prepare for that?”
Next year sees Homestead return as the home of the championship for the first time since 2019. Kyle Busch took the win and his second championship victory that year.
“Unfortunately, like Homestead, our last true learning experience with Homestead has passed us,” the North Carolina driver continued. “It’s going to be over a year and a half when we go back there for the championship, so you’re going to really have to learn a lot of stuff quickly there.
“Maybe we’ll have a test or something that everyone can kind of get some added experience. But yeah, I think you kind of look at stuff like that.”
The addition of Homestead to the end of the season sees the back of Phoenix Raceway hosting the championship after six years. From 2026, NASCAR will rotate the championship race between different tracks. Both Homestead and Phoenix have been confirmed to be part of this rotation going forward.
“Having the playoffs be more unpredictable every year, the championship venue to be at a different location, I think gives you the ability to see different teams and drivers kind of rise to the occasion to be able to be crowned a champion,” said NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer Ben Kennedy.
“It’s marketing and promotion, for sure, and it’s location. We want to be in a warm-weather market. Ideally, being in November, that first week of November, it kind of limits you to the amount of races that you can run. … I would say the quality of the facility.
“In Phoenix, we put over $100 million into the redevelopment of that track, and it was a big catalyst for bringing this championship to the West Coast. We’re going to be putting a good amount of capital into Homestead as well ahead of the race.
“The racing product, I think, is another big part of this. And then overall, it’s just the entire industry’s feedback on this. So we collaborate with our broadcast partners, our teams. We hear from our drivers what they think, a lot of our corporate partners, and then ultimately the fans, and the fans have a large voice in this, and we get their perspective on it every single year.”
