For the first time since 2019, NASCAR will decide its season in South Florida. Championship Weekend runs Nov. 6 through 8 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, with the champions of all three national series crowned on the same 1.5-mile oval in south Miami-Dade over three nights and afternoons. Tickets are on sale now, and one of the track's premium areas has already sold out.

If the finale feels familiar, it should. Homestead hosted it for 18 straight seasons, from 2002 through 2019, and a generation of South Florida race fans grew up treating the second weekend of November as the end of the stock car year. Then the title race moved to Phoenix Raceway for six seasons. This fall it comes home, and it is not a one-off: the speedway has already confirmed it will host again in 2027.

The schedule, night by night

All three championships are on the card, one per day, so a single weekend pass covers every title fight NASCAR runs this year.

  • Friday, Nov. 6, 7:30 p.m.: the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, under the lights.
  • Saturday, Nov. 7, 5:00 p.m.: the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series championship, the series many longtime fans still know as Xfinity.
  • Sunday, Nov. 8, 3:00 p.m.: the NASCAR Cup Series championship, the race that decides the sport's top title.

The Cup finale is the main event: a season that started in February ends on a Sunday afternoon in south Miami-Dade, in front of a home crowd that has waited six years to see it again.

A rebuilt front door for the return

The track is not simply reopening the gates it closed on the finale in 2019. Homestead-Miami Speedway announced in August that it is putting about $20 million into upgrades timed to debut this fall, ahead of the championship. The work includes a redesigned main entry gate meant to get fans in faster, a full makeover of the Ally Champions Club with better hospitality space and sightlines, and an expanded fan zone with more entertainment and more food and drink.

For anyone who remembers the old arrival routine, the entry gate is the change most likely to be felt. A championship crowd arrives in a compressed window before green, and a faster front gate is the difference between watching driver introductions and hearing them from the parking lot.

Why it is back, and staying

When NASCAR announced the move in May 2025, it described a new rotating approach, with the championship shared among the sport's marquee tracks and key markets rather than parked at one venue for good. Homestead got the first turn under that model. In August the speedway said the title weekend would return on Nov. 12 through 14, 2027, giving South Florida back to back finales and a pre-sale list for next year that is already open on the track's site.

That matters for anyone weighing whether to go this year or wait. There is no need to treat 2026 as a last chance. But the first finale back after a six-year absence tends to draw a crowd that remembers what it missed, and the early sellout of the track's turn-side hospitality is a sign the demand is real.

Tickets and how to do the weekend

The speedway sells grandstand seats for Friday, Saturday or Sunday on their own, or a three-day package that covers all three championship races. Tickets run through Ticketmaster, and the track's site walks through linking a speedway account to a Ticketmaster login.

A few add-ons are worth knowing about before you buy:

  • Pre-race pass. This gets you down for driver introductions and the ceremonies before the green flag. Every guest who wants that access needs one, children included.
  • Parking. Spots near the track are sold in advance, which is the easier way to do a championship day.
  • Scanner rental. Listen to the broadcast feed or your favorite team's radio from your seat.
  • Loaded coolers on Sunday. Pre-order a NASCAR-branded cooler with up to four 12-ounce beers and two waters for $75, or six Coca-Cola products for $65. Online orders are limited to one per person, and each cooler has to be picked up by a separate guest with ID.
  • Commemorative ticket. The track is selling a keepsake ticket to mark the championship's return.

At the top end, the NASCAR One package adds garage tours, pit road access and meet-and-greets. The Ride the Wall Cantina, a shaded VIP lounge in the Midway beside the Turn 1 wall with food, drinks and its own viewing platform, is already sold out, with a waitlist open.

Getting there

Homestead-Miami Speedway sits at One Ralph Sanchez Speedway Blvd. in Homestead, near the southern end of the Florida Turnpike. From Miami it is a straight run down the Turnpike; from Broward and Palm Beach, budget for the full length of it on a race day, and leave earlier than you think. Sunday's Cup race goes green at 3 p.m., which means the drive home starts around sunset.

What it means for South Florida

For six years, the race that decided the season happened somewhere else, and South Florida fans watched it on television. Starting next month, the sport's biggest weekend is a drive down the Turnpike again, with a rebuilt track to welcome it and a second finale already booked for 2027. If you have been meaning to take the kids to their first race, or to see one more championship in person, this is the weekend.