NASCAR Track Types Explained: Every Cup Track by Type

NASCAR’s official schedule sorts every Cup Series track into one of five types: superspeedway, intermediate, short track, road course and street course. On the 2027 schedule, 22 of the 36 points races are at intermediate tracks, six at short tracks, four at superspeedways, three on road courses and one on a street course.

The type decides what kind of race it is: a pack race at Daytona, a long run on a 1.5-mile oval like Kansas, or a road course with left and right turns. This guide lists every track by the type NASCAR gives it, with its length and banking from the official schedule, and who won at each type in 2026.

The five track types at a glance

Type	Tracks	Points races in 2027	Length
Intermediate	16	22	1 to 2.5 miles
Short track	5	6	0.526 to 0.875 miles
Superspeedway	2	4	2.5 to 2.66 miles
Road course	3	3	1.99 to 2.45 miles
Street course	1	1	3.4 miles

North Wilkesboro is the fifth short track on that list, and in 2027 it hosts only the All-Star Race on May 23, which pays no points. The other four short tracks run the six points races.

Superspeedways

Daytona and Talladega are the only two superspeedways. Their turns are banked 31 and 33 degrees, more than any other track NASCAR lists a banking for, and Talladega at 2.66 miles is the longest oval on the schedule.

Track	Location	Length	Banking in the turns	2027 Cup races
Daytona International Speedway	Daytona Beach, Florida	2.5 miles	31 degrees	Daytona 500 (Feb. 21), Coke Zero Sugar 400 (Aug. 28)
Talladega Superspeedway	Talladega, Alabama	2.66 miles	33 degrees	Jack Link’s 500 (Apr. 25), YellaWood 500 (Oct. 31)

The 2026 superspeedway races went to three different drivers: Tyler Reddick in the Daytona 500 on February 15, Carson Hocevar at Talladega on April 26 and Ryan Preece at Daytona on August 29. The fall race at Talladega on October 25 is still to run.

Intermediate tracks

This is the widest group, and NASCAR’s label covers very different ovals. Phoenix and Dover are 1 mile long, while Pocono and Indianapolis are 2.5 miles, the same length as Daytona.

Track	Location	Length	Surface	Banking in the turns
Phoenix Raceway	Avondale, Arizona	1 mile	Asphalt	9 to 11 degrees
Dover Motor Speedway	Dover, Delaware	1 mile	Concrete	24 degrees
New Hampshire Motor Speedway	Loudon, New Hampshire	1.058 miles	Asphalt	2 and 7 degrees
World Wide Technology Raceway	Madison, Illinois	1.25 miles	Asphalt	not listed
Nashville Superspeedway	Lebanon, Tennessee	1.333 miles	Concrete	14 degrees
Darlington Raceway	Darlington, South Carolina	1.366 miles	Asphalt	23 to 25 degrees
Charlotte Motor Speedway	Concord, North Carolina	1.5 miles	Pavement	24 degrees
Chicagoland Speedway	Joliet, Illinois	1.5 miles	Asphalt	18 degrees
Homestead-Miami Speedway	Homestead, Florida	1.5 miles	Asphalt	18 to 20 degrees
Kansas Speedway	Kansas City, Kansas	1.5 miles	Asphalt	15 degrees
Las Vegas Motor Speedway	Las Vegas, Nevada	1.5 miles	Asphalt	20 degrees
Texas Motor Speedway	Fort Worth, Texas	1.5 miles	Asphalt	24 degrees
EchoPark Speedway	Hampton, Georgia	1.54 miles	Asphalt	28 degrees
Michigan International Speedway	Brooklyn, Michigan	2 miles	Asphalt	18 degrees
Indianapolis Motor Speedway	Speedway, Indiana	2.5 miles	Asphalt	9 degrees
Pocono Raceway	Long Pond, Pennsylvania	2.5 miles	Asphalt	6 to 14 degrees

Six of them are 1.5 miles long, and those six host nine of the 22 intermediate races in 2027, including the championship race at Homestead-Miami on November 14. EchoPark Speedway in Hampton is the Atlanta track, and its 28-degree turns are three degrees short of Daytona’s.

Intermediates held 16 of the 29 points races run in 2026 through September 19. Denny Hamlin’s four points wins through September all came at tracks of this type: Las Vegas, Nashville, Michigan and Pocono. Reddick won three, at Atlanta, Darlington and Kansas, and Blaney three, at Phoenix, Atlanta and New Hampshire.

Short tracks

Every short track is under a mile, from 0.526 miles at Martinsville to 0.875 at Iowa. A race there takes a lot of laps: the Xfinity 500 at Martinsville on November 1 is 500 laps for 263 miles.

Track	Location	Length	Surface	Banking in the turns
Martinsville Speedway	Ridgeway, Virginia	0.526 miles	Asphalt	12 degrees
Bristol Motor Speedway	Bristol, Tennessee	0.533 miles	Concrete	24 to 28 degrees
North Wilkesboro Speedway	North Wilkesboro, North Carolina	0.625 miles	Asphalt	14 degrees
Richmond Raceway	Richmond, Virginia	0.75 miles	Asphalt	14 degrees
Iowa Speedway	Newton, Iowa	0.875 miles	Asphalt	12 to 14 degrees

Martinsville and Bristol are almost the same length and race nothing alike. Martinsville’s turns are banked 12 degrees on asphalt, and Bristol’s run from 24 to 28 degrees on concrete.

Joey Logano won three of the six short-track races run in 2026: North Wilkesboro on July 19, Richmond on August 15 and Bristol on September 19. Ty Gibbs won two, at Bristol in April and Iowa in August, and Chase Elliott won at Martinsville in March.

Road courses and street courses

Road courses have left and right turns, where every oval turns left only. There are three on the 2027 Cup schedule, plus one street course laid out on Naval Base Coronado.

Track	Type	Location	Length	2027 Cup race
Circuit of the Americas	Road course	Austin, Texas	2.4 miles	March 7
Sonoma Raceway	Road course	Sonoma, California	1.99 miles	July 11
Watkins Glen International	Road course	Watkins Glen, New York	2.45 miles	September 19
Naval Base Coronado	Street course	San Diego, California	3.4 miles	August 1

Shane van Gisbergen won two of the three 2026 road-course races, at Watkins Glen on May 10 and Sonoma on June 28, after finishing second to Reddick at COTA on March 1. Corey Heim won the street race in San Diego on June 21.

What the track type means for a bet

The type is the first filter on any race-winner board. The three 2026 superspeedway races went to three different drivers, so a price at Daytona or Talladega rests on little form. At Pocono, an intermediate, Hamlin has two wins and two second places in the last four races, and a price there has a record behind it.

Read each price as a chance: a driver at +1000 is priced at about 9.1%, and a bet is worth making only when you rate the chance higher than that. Our NASCAR picks this week page covers the next race each week, and race picks from paid handicappers start with a membership.