Richmond Raceway will open the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2027, replacing World Wide Technology Raceway Gateway in the postseason.
CONCORD, N.C. -- Richmond Raceway will open the Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2027.
Richmond will move into the NASCAR Cup Series' postseason for the first time since 2021. The 0.75-mile short track will replace World Wide Technology Raceway Gateway's date.
WWT Raceway earned a Chase date in 2025 after drawing sellout crowd in each of its first three years of hosting a Cup Series race. The 1.25-mile track, in the shadow of the Gateway Arch and St. Louis, will host a Chase race this year again before moving to an August date in 2027.
The NASCAR Cup Series will kick off the Chase at Richmond with a race there Saturday, Sept. 11, a night after the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series will kick off their Chase there. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will not join them on that weekend.
Meanwhile, WWT Raceway will get the NOAPS cars for a race Saturday, Aug. 21. The Cup Series cars will race there the following day.
WWT Raceway came back from essentially the dead in 2014 when the NCTS vehicles brought NASCAR back for the first time since 2010. The NCTS races drew good enough crowds to justify NASCAR bringing the Cup cars there for the first time in June 2022.
In 2023, Kyle Busch earned his final Cup Series win at the track. Other Cup winners include Joey Logano (2022), Austin Cindric (2024) and Denny Hamlin (2025).
NOAPS took over the NCTS slot in the weekend in 2025 when it moved to later in the season. Connor Zilisch won the NOAPS race last year.
Richmond Raceway has a much deeper history with the Chase than WWT Raceway. From 2004 to 2017, Richmond was highly-anticipated as the cutoff race before the Chase in the Cup Series. Then, from 2018 to 2021, it moved into the Chase itself.
However, sagging attendance and interest in the track meant its spot on the schedule shifted to a mid-August date in 2022 and then a late-July date in 2023.
Since then, Richmond has seen a turnaround. Although the track went to one date in 2025, it has stayed in its mid-August date and even sold out camping well in advance of the race weekend while attendance has improved each year.
Now, it gets its chance to be in the spotlight again in 2027 as the Chase opener for two different NASCAR national series.
With the announcement of Richmond Raceway in the Chase, Watkins Glen International is set to host its 2027 NASCAR Cup Series race on Sept. 19.
