Watkins Glen among the 3 tracks not scheduled to host a NASCAR playoff race next season - Reports

As NASCAR is halfway through its current season, The Athletic has reported some big changes in the playoff schedule for 2025. In a recent episode of 'The Teardown', renowned journalists Jeff Gluck and Jordan Bianchi sat together as they named three tracks that will not host the post-seasonal races next season.

Although NASCAR was supposed to release its schedule for 2025 sometime in May, there has not been an official update about the same as of this writing. However, according to Bianchi, one out of the three tracks that NASCAR is not expected to host a playoff race on is Watkins Glen International. The other two are Atlanta Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Reflecting on the same, Bianchi said:

"We know about Atlanta. That's already been announced moving from starting the playoffs to mid-summer. Two other tracks that the Athletic has learned will be moving out of the playoffs; Watkins Glen and Homestead. No homestead in the playoffs; supposedly moving... I've been told... to early March or Mid-March."

Chucking out both Atlanta and "The Glen" means that the 2025 NASCAR playoffs will have just a single drafting track (Talladega Superspeedway) and a single road course (Charlotte ROVAL).

The second race that is expected to roll out at Atlanta Motor Speedway will move to June 28, 2025, whereas the first one will remain scheduled for the spring. Regarding that, no announcements have been made about Homestead-Miami and Watkins Glen yet.

With that said, there are new additions to the playoff rumble next year. The World Wide Technology Raceway and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway will probably witness one of 10 playoff races. Moreover, Darlington Raceway will shift to the 2025 playoffs.

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Jordan Bianchi reveals why NASCAR has removed the fan-favorite Homestead-Miami

Jordan Bianchi told Jeff Gluck why Homestead-Miami is off the list. According to Bianchi, adding the 1.5-mile oval South Floridian track to the beginning of the year would give NASCAR an extra "warm weather date" that will perhaps not be hampered by unfavorable weather conditions.

"I've been told that it's because they need another warm weather date. Fontana, as you know, is off the schedule. You only have two west-coast races now," Bianchi explained. "You do not have a lot of races at the beginning of the year where weather isn't going to be an issue or shouldn't be an issue."

Homestead-Miami has been an extremely coveted location for holding playoff races in the past. The track has hosted the Championship 4 consecutively from 2002 to 2019 and has been in the playoff picture for 18 years in the past two decades.

"You pad it up a little bit, you add Homestead at the beginning of the year; gives you Las Vegas, Phoenix, Homestead and then you can kind of get into that Bristol , Martinsville stretch. This kind of gives you another week to help a little at tracks that are so often plagued by inclement weather," Bianchi added.

Reports suggest that NASCAR is also planning on hosting an international race next year. For that reason, NASCAR hopes to strike a deal with promoters in Mexico City and Montreal. However, that might come at the expense of one of the two Richmond races.