Road America president on possible return of NASCAR to Wisconsin track
Mike Kertscher was asked if there’s anything new on the possibility NASCAR would come back to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Here’s what he said.
ELKHART LAKE – If NASCAR is returning to Wisconsin with a national race anytime soon, Road America’s president gave no indication that would happen at his track.
Mike Kertscher characterized his most recent contact with NASCAR officials as an exchange of pleasantries during the Rolex 24 at Daytona endurance race weekend in Florida in January.
“I mean, they know who we are,” Kertscher said May 1 during his annual, wide-ranging Q&A with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “They certainly understand what we’re capable of.
“There’s nothing to report. There’s nothing to hide either. If it works for them, it works for them. And we’re here. We’re also not waiting around. We’re moving forward.”
The 2025 season marks the first since 1992 that there will be no races in Wisconsin for the Cup, Xfinity or Craftsman Truck series.
Road America hosted the second-level Xfinity Series from 2010-23 as well as a pair of premier Cup Series races in 2021 and ’22 on a two-year deal sandwiched between the end of NASCAR’s time at Chicagoland Speedway and the beginning of its street race in downtown Chicago.
Although NASCAR wasn’t at Road America at all last season, the Milwaukee Mile hosted the truck series for the second straight year. Then that date went away for 2025 due to a scheduling conflict with IndyCar.
“We’d love to see NASCAR come back,” Kertscher said. “It looks good here. It’s a nice product. Our success certainly isn’t defined by having it here, but we’d love to see it come back.
“I lobby all the time. But ultimately it’s their choice, it’s their series. They’ve got a lot of choices. A lot of people vie for a NASCAR date, many of which have never had one, and we were blessed with so many great years and two wonderful Cup races.”
The Mile, located 65 miles south on the grounds of State Fair Park in West Allis, hosted NASCAR from 1993-2009 before a promoter failed to pay the sanction fee. The date then was moved to Road America.
The trucks returned to Milwaukee in 2023 and ’24, but promoter Track Enterprises was not able to find an alternate date in ’25 after State Fair Park and IndyCar shifted their date to Aug. 23-24 at the last minute. Track has neither ruled out nor committed to returning at some point.
Road America has major spectator weekends featuring IndyCar and the IMSA sports car series, three vintage racing weekends, motorcycles, amateur racing including the SCCA National Championship Runoffs, as well as car club events and track rentals. The 4-mile track on 640 acres in rural Sheboygan County rarely has open dates.
As if to illustrate that point, some 70 cars were on track in a light drizzle throughout Kertscher’s interview on a weekday morning.
“Our other events have grown and our schedule is packed,” he said. “There are no open dates here.”
