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NASCAR needs to change its “stale” season finale and rotate between circuits, according to 2014 Cup champion Kevin Harvick.
The Cup schedule has been shaken up for 2018, including Las Vegas becoming the first race of the playoffs and Charlotte’s ‘roval’ becoming the first infield course to hold a date within the championship-deciding playoffs section of the calendar.
However, the season will again end at Homestead, which has hosted the finale since 2002.
Harvick said the calendar tweaks were positive for NASCAR but wants the series to go further.
“There needs to be a rotation of the championship race,” he said.
“I don’t think we should go to Homestead-Miami every year.
“I think it gets stale. It is a great race track but it isn’t all about the race track.
“It is about the event. How many times have you had a crappy Super Bowl but everybody goes to the Super Bowl because it is an event?
“That is what we need to create.”
Harvick said that because the races “are not all going to be good” it was important for NASCAR to “make the events exciting” as “that is what guarantees you the people to come back if they had a good time”.
He said the changes to the title run-in were along the right lines.
“If we don’t ever run it again, think about all the conversation that it has created,” he said.
“You have the Charlotte road course and Las Vegas and Richmond in the playoffs.
“That first round is totally different, there is nothing the same about that.
“It should be better for you guys [the media], right? You have something guaranteed to write about no matter what is happening in the sport.
“If you get the results that come out of that, which happen to be an extraordinary moment, then that is icing on the cake.
“We need to create more of our own headlines like that, that are slam dunks.”