Should the Chase for the Sprint Cup include a road course race?

One question that comes up every year as the Sprint Cup Series heads to Sonoma, California for the first of two annual road course races is should one of those races be held during the ten-race Chase for the Sprint Cup period leading up to the finale in Homestead, Florida. Since the first Chase in 2004, all ten races have been held on ovals. A lot of NASCAR fans, including myself, are in favor of that because a road course race with Chase implications could add excitement to the championship.

If a road course race was put on the Chase schedule, it would probably be Watkins Glen, which is held in August, one month before the Chase starts. The first race in the Chase has been at Chicagoland since 2011, and switching that race with Watkins Glen would put it in between its current Chase date and its original July date from 2001 to 2010. The September race at Dover, or at Kansas the following week, could also give up their Chase spots for Watkins Glen.

Or maybe Sonoma could get a Chase spot, but that could require a lot more schedule shifting than if Watkins Glen got a Chase date. Two tracks that definitely would keep their Chase spots are Homestead, who along with sponsor Ford signed an extension to keep the Championship Weekend there until at least 2019, but possibly up to 2024, and Talladega, whose second race moved to its current fall date from July in 1997.

So will the Chase have a road course race sometime within the next few years? It's hard to say right now, because it would shake up the schedule a good bit, which could have a big effect on the new 16-driver, four-segment system debuting this year. But a lot of people want to see it happen, and NASCAR, like always, is looking into what they can do to help them get what they want to see.