Worst NASCAR / Indycar circuits

[PTRACER]

With so many Tilke circuits on the calendar, it's pretty easy for fans to vote for the worst F1 circuit in history....but what about in NASCAR and Indycar?

Are there any ovals, street courses or road courses that American racing fans would look at and say "Why on earth did they race there?"

[XcraigX]

Hard to draw the same parallels.

The cars are so equal that the track doesn't make much difference. There is close racing no matter where they race.
However, you could argue that the road track races in NASCAR don't offer the same experience that the ovals do. On the ovals, you get tight pack racing with many, many lead changes. Where on a road track (Sonoma, Watkins Glen, etc.) the race looks more like an open-wheel race with a few lead changes and a much more spread out field. Even then, the racing is much closer than F1 could even dream about. But that's also why I don't get into these series either. The ovals get monotonous.

For me, I rarely watch NASCAR, but I usually try to catch the road tracks (and the new ROval at Charlotte). It's just more fun seeing these guys trying to master road courses with the big cars. And there is usually a unique winner at these events instead of the usual suspects.

[Cheeveer]

In NASCAR, all 1,5 milers in use today.

Indycar has had plenty of questionable street courses. Houston was lacklustre, Denver likewise (both of them).

Oval racing depends so much at the aero package. Phoenix these last few years was horrid because of that, but Phoenix pre-2005 was a classic. But also for Indycar, the 1,5 milers were usually awful. Those pack racing races got old quickly, and lest we forget that one of them killed Dan Wheldon.

[DaleJuniorFan]

I feel 2015's race at NOLA was a low-point in Indycar scheduling. The fact that people have been begging for years to go back to quality circuits from CART's golden age and they chose a flat, featureless club track in the middle of a Louisiana swamp with poor drainage and 10 miles worth of runoff area was just depressing. That the race turned into such a massive farce only added insult to injury.

Or you could call it karmic revenge for putting it on the schedule in the first place. Your choice.

[acerogers58]

The original Homestead-Miami NASCAR configuration was extremely boring and basically a bigger New Hampshire.

[Michael Ferner]

Basically every track in the South was questionable for so many years, as AAA and USAC tried to establish a fanbase there - Lakewood Speedway was always dusty, and that first turn was criminal; Atlanta Speedway was not really suited to Indy cars. Texas World Speedway was substandard as well, I think, but okay-ish.

Also, there was Dover Downs Speedway in Delaware which was bad. Michigan State Fairgrounds was very bad by the fifties, holes and ruts in the surface. Tacoma Speedway in Washington was bad, with gravel filled in between spaced boards. Actually, the longer one thinks the more spring to mind.

[PTRACER]

I feel 2015's race at NOLA was a low-point in Indycar scheduling. The fact that people have been begging for years to go back to quality circuits from CART's golden age and they chose a flat, featureless club track in the middle of a Louisiana swamp with poor drainage and 10 miles worth of runoff area was just depressing. That the race turned into such a massive farce only added insult to injury.

Or you could call it karmic revenge for putting it on the schedule in the first place. Your choice.

NOLA was pretty interesting, it was so rustic and simple compared to the squeaky clean tracks we see on the F1 calendar.

One circuit that I sometimes wonder about is San José. Do Indycar fans look back at that circuit negatively? I never saw modern openwheelers leaping off the ground over bumps like that before.

[mattia2]

Oh god, Baltimore. what a dumb track. Also San Jose was really stupid, easily the worst track ever thinked.

[MonteCristo]

The start of San Jose was majestic.

[kals]

From an Indycar perspective:

St Pete, it's hugely overrated
Detroit, awful circuit
Toronto, *yawn*
Portland, I don't understand the hype

[Cheeveer]

TBH, none of the street circuits in Indycar are great, as in Macau-esque. Today's Long Beach is pretty meh, but it's still a historical venue that we'd be a lot poorer without. St. Pete ain't fun, Detroit is usually a shitshow but I like it, it's kinda fun. Toronto is usually a bore too, but with all these tracks, we need them.

[PTRACER]

Whatever happened to Cleveland?

Talking of inappropriate NASCAR tracks, I remember watching the Nationwide (?) race at Montreal quite a few years ago, where Jacques Villeneuve was making a cameo. The circuit is one of my favourite in the world, but on that type of circuit, the stock cars looked really awkward.

Although this thread is more about BAD tracks, rather than inappropriate ones. Else we would have to mention Brands Hatch Indy as well.

[kals]

Whatever happened to Cleveland?

The Burke Lakefront Airport had long been rumoured to have car racing return to it. Years back it was even suggested that Indycar would run a doubleheader event at the circuit, one race using the original circuit with a second race on an oval. More recently it's been speculated that the reduction of air traffic going into and going out of there will result in the airport being shut down and redeveloped into housing or shops, or a combination of.

[Antonov]

Walt Disney World Speedway

[kals]

Walt Disney World Speedway

Ah yes, the Mickyard. What didn't you like about it?