For the longest time, NASCAR had just two road courses on the Cup schedule -- Sonoma Raceway and Watkins Glen.
However, the series has rapidly expanded that number in recent years with Cup races at the Indianapolis Road Course, Daytona Road Course, Road America, Charlotte Roval, Circuit of the Americas, as well as events in Mexico City and on the streets of Chicago.
Some of these tracks have since fallen off the schedule, but the number of road/street courses is currently at six total. NASCAR officials are also close to securing a new street race in San Diego, but those plans have yet to be finalized.
However, not every driver is excited about the prospect of more road and street course events, suggesting NASCAR actually remove some of them from the schedule.
In the past few days, both 2012 NASCAR Cup champion Brad Keselowski and three-time Daytona 500 Denny Hamlin have called for fewer road courses, but neither indicated that their unfavorable opinion of these events has anything to do with Shane van Gisbergen's recent dominance.
Too many road courses?
"We went from 2 to 6 road course races, possibly 7 next year," Keselowski posted on social media. "NASCAR was successfully built as a primarily oval racing series. IMSA was built as the primary road course series in North America. IMSA will always do road racing better than NASCAR and that’s ok ... Yes, TOO many road courses in NASCAR."
Hamlin made his thoughts known on his weekly podcast, Actions Detrimental. "I'm not a road course fan," he said. "I still believe we have too many of them on the schedule ... Six is a lot, considering that we are NASCAR. We're short track racing, oval racing, full contact type racing."
However, Hamlin also threw his support behind the Chicago Street Course, believing the event is important enough to keep on the schedule. As for the rest of them, Hamlin said he could "take it or leave them."
A few weeks ago, NASCAR legend Richard Petty also took aim at road courses, but his opinion seemed more focused on how it impacts the championship after SVG's Mexico win.
"You got somebody that's 30th in points that's going to make the playoffs," said Petty. "Hey man, what happened to the guy that 15th, 16th, or 18th (that's) been running good and finished good everywhere? You're making a championship situation by winning a road course, which is not really NASCAR to begin with. From that standpoint, I think they're going to have to jockey around and change some of this kind of stuff."
