Dale Earnhardt Jr. did not mince words when it came to his opinion of holding the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race at Phoenix Raceway. During a recent episode of his "Dale Jr. Download" podcast, Earnhardt Jr. provided his opinion on the low-banked one mile oval in suburban Phoenix.
"Look, Phoenix is going to Phoenix sometimes," said Dale Earnhardt Jr. during his Dale Jr. Download podcast.
"I think the general opinion is there are more exciting racetracks. Look, you can try your hardest to build 50 racetracks of different types and there's going to be a great one and there's going to be one that's not so good and Phoenix kind of falls right in the middle somewhere. It has some great events. We had a great event in the Xfinity series the night before. That's the thing. It has potential."
Phoenix has held the NASCAR Cup Series Championship race since 2020, previously it was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway, and it will hold the final race of the season until at least 2025. From 2002-2019 the final race weekend of the NASCAR season was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
"We're going to get great races there, sometimes not so amazing," Earnhardt said. "Look, last year at Phoenix I thought was great. The one car holding off the 12 for the championship in the cup series. Well that was entertaining to me. I was entertained and so not so much this year and that's okay. Sometimes you're just going to have those."
As a Phoenician that has attended races at Phoenix Raceway as both a fan and journalist I have seen the track from both perspectives. It is a top-notch facility for fans and allows great access to the drivers and teams in a tidy package that seats less than 50,000. It's a smaller track and for fans lucky enough to attend it has a feeling of intimacy that could be lost on larger facilities.
That said, I do believe that the NASCAR Championship Weekend should be rotated from various facilities, like the Super Bowl, but I also realize that Arizona's winter weather is conducive for late season racing without worrying about the elements. However, it is practical to rotate the NASCAR Championship Weekend between the warm weather tracks like Homestead-Miami, Las Vegas, Daytona, and Charlotte.
In my opinion, I found the NASCAR Cup Series Championship Race to be very entertaining with the Championship 4 drivers all in the Top 10 at the checkered flag and Joey Logano fending off a hard charging Ryan Blaney in the closing laps.
"Should we race somewhere else for the final race of the year? We probably should move it around," Earnhardt said. "I think that Phoenix has had a great run, but I got to give Phoenix a lot of credit. They have put a ton of money into that racetrack it. It's not a bad facility to go and have a good experience."
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