NASCAR World Tour

[raysox]

The year is 2020. Formula 1’s popularity is declining worldwide. Uncle Bernie’s Iron grip, a season schedule featuring 9 East Asian races, and boring seasons featuring one team’s dominance over the rest of the field made it almost unwatchable. The races were drawn out, and passing is at a premium. Meanwhile in the States, NASCAR was flourishing. The new Chase system is being declared better than sliced bread. The drivers and fans agree that this system gave NASCAR a new life.

An Englishman from stirred up some support for NASCAR with watch parties. The passing and driver conflicts were unlike the polite nature of Formula 1. He talked to the owner of the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, England about the possibility of holding an exhibition race at the track. They loved the idea since there hadn’t had a major American series on the track since the CART open wheel series raced in 2002. The idea got a lot of support from fans in the UK. NASCAR has been approached many times to try and get a race hosted in a foreign country, but they wanted to do the exhibition race right. The owners of the track had Mike Helton agree to bring the series there for an exhibition race after the season ended, if they sold out the race. Sure enough, 52,000 pre-sale tickets were sold by the July 1^st deadline, and the race was scheduled 2 weeks after the Homestead finale. This would be the first NASCAR race out of North America since 3 races in Japan in the late 90s. The race went exceedingly well, Kyle Larson won in front of a sellout crowd, holding off a charging Chase Elliot. The race showed that NASCAR could have a global presence.

The following year, other tracks lined up the stock car series to make a trip to their country. Twin Ring Motegi hosted NASCAR in 1998 and the series made another trip east in 2021. The year after, the triangle shaped EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany. The international trip became a favorite for drivers and fans. At the German race, there began grumblings of an international stock car series. The idea was to compete in places that Formula 1 rules with an iron fist. So for a year, the heads of NASCAR began planning a possible series. They had the idea to turn NASCAR into the world governing body of Stock Car racing, competing with F1. They had several tracks that had declared interest. Phakisa Freeway in South Africa was trying to land the series as a flagship event at the track. Australia was a huge market that NASCAR wanted to tap, Calder Park Thunderdome (who hosted a NASCAR event in 1988) was the top choice for stock car racing. Both of which were listed to host the 2023 and 2024 NASCAR global race.

Super powers like Hendrick, Haas, and Penske could easily support a world team. New car makes from around the world could support their team, more efficiently than Formula 1. Holden and Ferrari were the first global brands that supported this idea. Leaked Gen6 plans for a Ferrari started surfacing, showing that the league may be evolving behind closed doors. In 2024 NASCAR announced that they were “close to finalizing the schedule” for a 2025 NASCAR world league schedule. Twitter pictures started surfacing of testing sessions in places like Argentina and Abu Dhabi, and an out of the blue announcement of Monza in Italy resurfacing, and updating their oval track. The information was there, but no one knew how it was connected. Then, going into Speed Weeks at Daytona, Brian France announced that next year, the day before the Daytona 500, the new “NASCAR World Tour” would hold their inaugural race.

St. Paul based 3M were announced as the series sponsor, dropping major cash. The series would start in Daytona in February, and run through the finale Homestead Weekend in November, the day before the Sprint Cup finale. The new 18 race schedule would stop in 17 countries, on 6 continents. The Chase system would make an appearance on the schedule to make sure the first year isn’t a flop with a blowout winner. The first 14 races determined the 8 Chase drivers, who had 3 weeks to advance to Homestead on points, or wins. The best finish at Homestead would win the championship. Immediately, the track diversity pleased the fans sick of a tri-oval heavy schedule. The schedule featured ovals, and shortened sections of road courses ordered depending on location, and the surrounding races. Handpicked by NASCAR, the tracks were first looked at in their ability to hold exciting racing rather than buying their way onto the schedule year 1. NASCAR said the home track series that would run in the region would race the day before the World Tour came to town, as the Xfinity Series did in comparison to the Sprint Cup series. The league would be capped 28 cars with 2 drivers per team due to capacity in certain pit roads.

50 year old Jimmie Johnson announced his interest in the series immediately, who had already sealed 100 victories and 10 championships in the early 20s, a new challenge would be the fun to retire to. Drivers in NASCAR’s Drive to Diversity program were also being rumored to fill the seats. Formula 1 drivers that had been forced out of their seats saw stock car racing as a viable option, due to several European tracks. Teams like Red Bull Racing began looking into the option of running a team in the series. This would be a full out effort of all involved so they could say they’re the first champions of the NASCAR 3M World Tour.

The biggest problem was that no one knew what the series would do to the Sprint Cup Series. NASCAR officials said that the league would run side by side with Sprint Cup, and be racing in different markets at different times, not competing with their main series. They would try to promote world drivers, fans, and sponsors, ultimately feeding back into Sprint Cup. But how could the league financially support global transfers of cars and supplies? With a shorter schedule, and many off weeks, the series cost should hypothetically come out less than Formula 1.

So I planned out an 18 race schedule, and made race logos for each. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with all this though. I created a template to paint cars with on inkscape. But this will be mostly about the schedule and logos. I figure that this would be the best place to post this!

Here are some things that you may or may not have thought of

• The gaps in dates, existing, and future technology would make travel and rebuilding crashed cars easier. Formula 1 could ship those cars, so why couldn’t NASCAR (who already did in the 1990s).

• The tracks will be ran both clockwise/counterclockwise depending on the track. This would make the fuel entry location facing the track on some locations. The two directions split evenly, 8/8. I figure that instead of bringing a left and right sided cars, the gas man would just have to be on the outside for the clockwise tracks.

• My first focus was on oval tracks. I put as many as I could find on the schedule. Next, I started looking at countries I wanted on there, and found the best fitting track. Most of the time, it was an outer track of a road course. Others were short courses of Formula 1 tracks that would be fun to see a race at. I wanted as much diversity as I can. I chose Daytona for the same reason. Nowhere else has restrictor plate tracks. Other than that, most of the tracks are flat with elevation changes, and long straights for drafting.

• “NASCAR would never work outside the US”, I read while researching the Japanese series, that China wanted to host NASCAR, but it wasn’t financially sound. That, and they don’t have a track that would work (that I know of). Their F1 track isn’t exactly stock car friendly. I would LOVE to include China, but the tracks that even could be considered either were never built, or I’ve only found plans of.

• I made this chart to demonstrate the web of NASCAR series to show how hypothetically, the series would become the top tier for the world series, and run alongside the Sprint Cup.

• The Chase system is great.

Schedule

[VictoriaGooner]

I am definitely looking forward to watching this concept series unfold Mike. When are you planning on releasing the schedule? Any chance of releasing a few of the teams and liveries as a teaser? This could be another great concept series from you!

[JamieRose]

This is going to be good. I hope you make some sort of rendering of what a Ferrari stock car would look like!

[Buster]

Amazing idea. Can;t wait to see what you come up with.

Are you going all out on the foreign car makes for stock car models? BMW, Porshe (perhaps use their 4-door body), Audi? I'd use an Aussie Ford Falcon and Monaro for a twist.

[raysox]

I thought I was ready to release the schedule but I realized that my images were too big and I needed something else to help convey my schedule. That'll be up soon if I get a break in studying.

[Raysfan12]

Time for America's domination of the world's motorsports!

[nathan8848]

The chase is greater then sliced bread. Sorry, I quit there. But, this sounds interesting, after taking some time to read it.

[mbannon92]

Man, you have a lot of free time on your hands for a college student

This is actually a really cool idea. I'd be interested to see how NASCAR would do internationally, especially with the precedent of F1 and other non-US series. More-so, I'd be really interested to see what the different makes of cars look like. Speaking of which, if you want some help mocking up liveries I'd be more than happy to pitch in! I always loved drawing cars and creating cars on the NASCAR Racing games, but it's been YEARS since I've done one.

[raysox]

Schedule

The team wanted exciting and new racing. There’s only so many ovals outside of the US, and NASCAR made those their first priority. They signed up 11 oval tracks, similar to what Sprint Cup would run. They decided to look at road courses with oval formats, or shortened versions of world class circuits. That filled up the remaining 7 races, and challenge the drivers. Only 1 true cookie-cutter mile and a half track was on the schedule, which excited fans.

They had to put the races in the right order, to limit travel and be efficient as possible, and be put at a time where the most fans possible would be able to watch. Daytona and Homestead were put first and last to open and close with the Sprint Cup season. Originally, the organizers wanted to put another race in the US at the half way point, but they decided against it due to the number of tracks wanting races. They decided to tour the Americas, then Asia, stop in Canada for a travel break, then seven European tracks, outliers in Abu Dhabi and South Africa and back for Homestead.

The races were scheduled to not interfere with Sprint Cup and Formula 1. The organizers made sure to use up the off weekends that Sprint Cup uses to showcase the world league. Most of the time, the races would be at a much different time than their American counterpart. The first 3 races would need to be ran on Saturdays due to similar time zones to be separate from Sprint Cup. After Daytona, the series can drive to Peubla, Mexico to race at one of the best racing facilities in the country. The 1.25 mile oval Autodromo Abed. The first type of road course is a track just outside Brasilia, a flat 6 apex 1.67 mile track named after Brazilian legend Ayrton Senna. Buenos Aires’s Autodromo Galvez would host the first of the premier races during the off days of Sprint Cup. Then, the Asian schedule. Australian time is 16 hours ahead of the US, putting a noon race at a prime time 8pm start. The schedule runs to the Buddh Circuit in India, which Formula 1 stopped running at. To get top level racing there, the massive circuit promised a sell out for running on their short circuit. The huge straights would be like normal NASCAR, but the elevation changes and tight turns would challenge the drivers. Finally, as a strategic move, they put a race in Japan on Memorial Day. This would make it the first race of the epic Monaco-Indy 500-Coke 600 weekend.

Before and after the Asian swing, the series had several weeks off to recuperate. NASCAR would return to the road course in Montreal during an opening in the Sprint Cup season. The season would be half over, and the teams would have to get their passports ready for Europe. NASCAR’s Whelen Euro Series would benefit most from this. They would follow the series in this 7 race swing, racing the day before as such as the Xfinity series does. The square Rockingham track in England would host the first race of this European tour. 2 weeks later, the first night race of the season at the Raceway Venray in Netherlands. The track is a half mile bull ring, which is a mix of Martinsville and Bristol. The track owners put in an infield pit road, lights, and new grandstands for their big event. If this was a day race, the race would overlap with the Hungarian Grand Prix. The track was small enough to put lights on, so they decided to make it a spectacle.

Originally, the oval at Monza was set to be the last race of the regular season. The newly renovated oval put safer barriers on the high banked turns, and a cleanup and an attempt to widen the run offs to make the track bigger. But the organizers moved the race for 2 reasons. The last race of the regular season would be a week after Formula 1 runs on the track, so to give them time to prepare, they moved up their date. Also in testing, the oval produced restrictor plate-type racing, and they didn’t want a wildcard race to determine who advanced. A new track in Sweden had opened up for this purpose. The track was a copy of Richmond, and their lights allowed the track to host a second night race. Race fans loved this news, because they could pull a double header at Viking Motor Park, and Spa the next day. Two weeks later, the series had a weekend all by itself running at Red Bull Ring’s short circuit in Austria. Then finally to end the regular season, the series went to the Pocono-shaped EuroSpeedway in Lausitz, Germany. Probably the best oval facility in Europe would be a fitting final race of the 14 regular season races. This would take place the day after the night race at Richmond that ends Sprint Cup’s regular season.

The top 8 drivers based on wins and points advance to the Chase. The final four tracks were chosen for their diversity, and representation of the rest of the schedule. The final European track would be at the Slovakiaring, a road course track with an outer ring that makes a good 4 turn track. Next, the series goes to two places that most people believe southern-roots NASCAR would never go. The Yas Marina Circuit at Abu Dhabi would be a great place to race under the lights, putting the race in the morning for US fans. Their short circuit has rhythm turns, 2 long straights, and some tight turns. For the last race in this round of tracks takes the series to South Africa. Phakisa Freeway is a 1.5 mile tri-oval track shaped like Las Vegas. The track has sat empty for many years, and the series running there would be a great event to showcase the track. Finally, the final race at Homestead runs the day before the finale of the Sprint Cup season. The best finish of the 4 drivers that advance wins the Championship. Causing excitement for the fans used to clinched championships.

Here's the schedule, and what the series is up against.

Finally, some race logos!

[willmoen]

this is amazing. great work, I would love to see this actually happen, but on a side note, the green and the orange should be flipped on the India flag and the red and blue should be flipped on the South Africa flag. I noticed that so I just wanted to mention it. otherwise, great work.

[nathan8848]

I noticed your Sprint Cup series only has 15 races, while the 3M Series has 18. That's a total of 33 races. Instead of having all the double-headers. It would almost be better having the races for each series flip-flop each week. Leave Daytona, Coke 600, Indianapolis, and Homestead have the double headers.

[willmoen]

I noticed your Sprint Cup series only has 15 races, while the 3M Series has 18. That's a total of 33 races. Instead of having all the double-headers. It would almost be better having the races for each series flip-flop each week. Leave Daytona, Coke 600, Indianapolis, and Homestead have the double headers.

that's just because he's showing what sprint cup races are lining up with the 3M series races. those aren't the only races for the sprint cup. same with Formula 1

[nathan8848]

I noticed your Sprint Cup series only has 15 races, while the 3M Series has 18. That's a total of 33 races. Instead of having all the double-headers. It would almost be better having the races for each series flip-flop each week. Leave Daytona, Coke 600, Indianapolis, and Homestead have the double headers.

that's just because he's showing what sprint cup races are lining up with the 3M series races. those aren't the only races for the sprint cup. same with Formula 1

That makes sense.

[raysox]

this is amazing. great work, I would love to see this actually happen, but on a side note, the green and the orange should be flipped on the India flag and the red and blue should be flipped on the South Africa flag. I noticed that so I just wanted to mention it. otherwise, great work.

Wow, yeah I think both got flipped when I was switching around the schedule and just didn't realize the difference. Fixed above! Thank you though!

[DolphinManatee]

This is awesome!

On the schedule, is it supposed to be "Raceway Velray" or "Raceway Venray." If it is the latter, then you have a typo in the schedule graphic.

This is a nice mixture of ovals and road courses. I would watch this if it were real.

[marble21]

Racing on the old Monza Oval would be epic. They resurfaced it just this year - but you probably already knew that.

[TheFallenHaveRisen]

I change I would make is the name of the Japanese race, seeing as my first thought when I saw the name was "Why'd you pick Fuji over the Motegi Oval", then I saw the second part of the logo

[raysox]

I change I would make is the name of the Japanese race, seeing as my first thought when I saw the name was "Why'd you pick Fuji over the Motegi Oval", then I saw the second part of the logo

Well that's on you. Sponsorship is more important than word association. Or if you read any of the other things I made that said Motegi, you would know I didn't choose Fuji.

[JamieRose]

This whole thing is awesome. It's very well thought out and it shows that you put a lot of time and effort into this. I'm thinking about trying my hand at making some car mock-ups for a few different brands (something I've wanted to do for some time, but this has given me some inspiration to actually do it).

[willmoen]

I just noticed that the schedule says ESET 400 at slovakiaring, but the logo says ESET 200. Also it says the BBVA Argentina 250 in the schedule but the logo says the BBVA Argentina 400 on the logo