What Is The Longest NASCAR Racetrack.

With NASCAR racetracks being some of the longest motor racing events of any motor sport you would think there would be some incredibly long tracks to manage these 300 to 600 mile long races. However these races, despite being so long are often run on tracks as short as mile or even half mile long. It is actually quite rare to find a NASCAR race on a long track. However we will take a look at the longest tracks in NASCAR here in this article and why there are relatively few of them.

The longest racetrack currently utilized by NASCAR is the Road Racing Circuit of Road America in Wisconsin at 4.066 Miles in length ( 6.54 Km). However NASCAR ovals which are more commonly used are headed in length by Talladega at 2.66 miles (4.28 Km), Daytona and Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 2.5 miles ( 4.02 km)

We take a look at the longest NASCAR Tracks, and the Longest of the different NASCAR tracks used. We have put these in tables to present the information easier to use.

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What is the longest NASCAR Race track

Although not all NASCAR tracks are created equal, and there are obvious differences between the tracks including shape, configuration and materials used there are some pretty long ones out there both in oval and road configurations. However there is one track that is longer than all the others and at 4.048 miles long Road America is one of the longest and actually fastest road racing tracks not just in the USA but in the world. We will look in a little more details in the sections below.

Longest Road NASCAR Track

Road America was constructed in 1955 although it was known as Elkhart Racing circuit then and has seen a number of additions and reconfigurations until the 4.048 mile long track used by NASCAR today, Making it the longest track in NASCAR currently, although it is being replaced in 2023 by a street race at Chicago. You can read more about Road America track facts here.

NASCAR has only run 3 races on this long track in it history, the first was in 1956 a year after it opened, then no more races were held there until 2021 and 2022 ( with Chase Elliot and tyler Reddick winning the races respectively) it is now planned to be replaced by the controversial Chicago Street Race in 2023! We have more on the Chicago street race here.

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Table 1: Longest Tracks in NASCAR

NASCAR Longest Race Tracks	Type	Length Miles	Length Km.
Road America	Road Race Circuit	4.066	6.54
Talladega Super Speedway	Oval Race Track	2.66	4.28
Chicago Street Circuit	Street Circuit	2.2	3.54
Bristol Motor Speedway	Dirt Track	0.533	0.85

Longest Oval NASCAR Track

While Road America may be the longest overall race track in NASCAR racing it i a Road course which by nature are more likely to be longer than an Oval, which often requires more space for those wide sweeping turns.

The longest oval in NASCAR racing is Florida’s Talladega Superspeedway. It is 2.66 miles (4.28 Km) long and is just longer than its more famous home of the Daytona 500 – Daytona Super Speedway which is 2.5 miles long and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway home of the indy 500. Talladega is also, un surprisingly one of the faster of the NASCAR Tracks due to its extra length and steep 33 degree banking.

However, even with Talladegas 2.66 ( 4.28 Km) track being so huge, it is not the longest in the world. The Autódromo Ciudad de Rafaela in Argentina is actually longer at 2.89 miles (4.66 Km) Though it has less banking and slower speeds than Talladega.

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Longest NASCAR Street Circuit

NASCAR in its 75 year long history has never raced on street circuits so this would have been an easy section to write… well until this year. In 2022 NASCAR announced that they are planning a race on the streets of Chicago in 2023 that will replace the Road America race.

This race, the first of its kind, will be on a circuit of 2.2-mile track and drivers will, get a view of the Field museum, Grant Park, and more although they wont have much time for sightseeing.

Longest NASCAR Dirt Track.

Bristol Motor Speedway is NASCAR’s longest Dirt track, although it was used as a dirt track for the first time since 1971 in the 2022 season. It was a resounding success and is likely to reappear for the 2023 season. The Bristol dirt track is 0.533 miles long which is actually the second shortest in the NASCAR season, but as it is the only ( current) dirt track in NASCAR is gives it the title of Longest Dirt Track and second shortest overall!

Why are NASCAR Race Tracks Short?

So while, as you can see form the table below, there are 12 NASCAR race tracks over 2 miles long in the 2022 season (at least) the majority are under that and range all the way down to a quarter mile of 400 metres long (although as a showcase event) There are numerous reasons for this which we explain below.

NASCAR is first and foremost a spectator sport, and the short ovals, and even the large ovals allow race goers the opportunity to see all the one track action, or at least the vast majority of it.
Tracks like street circuits and road tracks like used exclusively in F1 mean those in attendance have to rely on TV screens to see other race areas, and will only see the actually cars very briefly.
NASCAR is a sport with a 70 year history, and the cars in the early day would not be capable of reaching the speeds that modern NASCAR racecars’ can achieve. So these early tracks had little need to be the lengths some later tracks are, although Daytona, Indianapolis and talladega are actually older tracks and still very large.
There are alot of NASCAR tracks, and they are unsurprisingly costly to build, the price to build richmond when compared to Road America is hugely less. Also as some tracks are used sparingly it does not justify the cost to build huge tracks with little use.
Nascar tracks between 1 and 2 miles had the advantage that they could still hold a lot of fans ( up to 100,000) without the cost of huge construction projects.

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How many tracks over 2 miles

We have in the tables below the tracks over 2 miles that are used in all National Series of NASCAR. So you can expect to see the Cup series, Xfinity and Truck racing. There are currently 12 tracks used across the NASCAR national divisions that are 2 miles long or over.

Table 2: NASCAR tracks over 2 miles

Track	Length in Miles	Length in Kilometres	Track Type
Road America	4.048 Miles	6.515 Km	Road Course
Circuit Of the Americas	3.426 Miles	5.514 km	Road Course
Talladega Superspeedway	2.660 Miles	4.281 km	tri Oval
Daytona international Speedway	2.5 Miles	4.023 Km	tri-Oval
Pocono Raceway	2.5 miles	4.023 km	Tri Oval
Indianapolis Motor Speedway	2.439 Miles	3.925 Km	Road Course
Charlotte Motor Speedway	2.280 Miles	3.669 Km	Road / oval
Sonoma Raceway	2.52 Miles	4.06 Km	Road Course
Watkins Glen international	2.45 Miles	3.94 Km	Road Course
Mid Ohio Sports car Course	2.4 miles	3.9 Km	Road Course
Auto Club Speedway	2.0 miles	3.219 km	D shape Oval
Michigan International Speedway	2.0 Mile	3.219 Km	D shape oval

How many NASCAR Tracks between 1 and 2 miles

Below we have the many NASCAR racetrack used across the national series of NASCAR including Cup, Xfinity, and Truck. We also have linked to the NASCAR track facts articles where we have them. There are 12 tracks between 1 and 2 miles listed below.

Table 3: NASCAR Tracks between 1 to 2 miles long.

Track Name	Length in Miles	Length in Km	Track Type
Portland International raceway	1.950 miles	3.14 Km	Road Course
Las Vegas Motor Speedway	1.544 miles	2.485 Km	Tri-Oval
Atlanta Motor Speedway	1.540 Miles	2.478 Km	Quad Oval
Kansas Speedway	1.520 Miles	2.446 Km	Tri-Oval
Charlotte Motor Speedway	1.5 miles	2.414 Km	Quad -Oval
Homestead -miami Speedway	1.485 Miles	2.390 km	Oval
Texas Motor Speedway	1.440 Miles	2.17 Km	Quad Oval
Darlington raceway	1.366 Miles	2.198 Km	Egg Oval
Nashville Superspeedway	1.333 Miles	2.145 Km	Tri-oval
Worldwide technology raceway	1.250 Miles	2.012 Km	Egg Shaped Oval
New Hampshire Motor Speedway	1.058 Miles	1.703 Km	Oval
Phoenix raceway	1.022 Miles	1.645 Km	Dog leg oval

NASCAR Tracks Under 1 mile

A short track is defined by NASCAR as a track under 1 mile long. There only a few of these in the NASCAR National Divisions with the shortest being the CLash Venue at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The shortest of tracks are in the table below ( from the season 2022)

Table 4: NASCAR Tracks under 1 mile

Track	Length in miles	Length in Km	Track type
Dover Motor Speedway	1 mile	1.609 Km	Oval
Richmond Raceway	0.750 Mile	1.207 km	D shape Oval
Lucas Oil Indianapolis raceway	0.686 miles	1.104 km	Oval
Bristol Motor Speedway	0.533 miles	0.858 km	Oval (dirt)
Martinsville Speedway	0.526 miles	0.847 km	Oval
Knoxville Raceway	0.500 Miles	0.805 km	Dirt Oval
Los Angeles Coliseum	0.25 miles	0.40 km	Oval

We have loads of information on the site that covers both the Race Tracks and some of the more interesting facts. We have listed some below.

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Conclusion

So the longest NASCAR track overall in the Road America Race Track at 4.066 miles long. However 2022 will be the last year for a while it is on the NASCAR schedule being replaced with a street race in Chicago. Once that happens the longest track will return to The circuit of the Americas at .4 miles long.

As we mentioned the longest oval track in NASCAR is the Talladega superspeedway which is visited two times a year and the longest Dirt track is Bristol which was reintroduced for the first time since 1971 in 2022.