A schedule shakeup for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series could come as early as the 2020 season and Gateway Motorsports Park is positioning itself for the shortlist for when league officials are ready to talk.

Schedule realignment has gained momentum this summer with Speedway Motorsports Inc. working towards a NASCAR return to Fairgrounds Speedway Nashville. Iowa Speedway is always a popular suggestion every time the Xfinity Series travels to Des Moines, too.

But no other oval facility is immediately capable of hosting the premier series of NASCAR quite like the 1.25-mile circuit located just outside of St. Louis.

"I think you could say our crowds tell the story," track owner and former open-wheel racer Curtis Francois told Autoweek on Friday. "We consistently deliver great crowds in very challenging times because we have built this dedicated following from the grounds up... I think we are ready right now.

"Certainly, we would make any improvements that we needed as we’ve done for the past seven years. We’ve built fan engagement areas. We’ve repaved the track. We’ve added over 20,000 parking spots. I think 'turnkey' is a great word for it."

For NASCAR purposes, the facility already features an industry-standard infield and amenities. It has a SAFER barrier, sufficient hospitality space and is located at the intersection of two major interstates near a major downtown locale.

The greater St. Louis area boasts more than 2 million residents, and Gateway drew more than 40,000 of them for the return of the Verizon IndyCar Series in 2017. The follow-up event this summer drew somewhere between 25,000 and 30,000.

Meanwhile, the facility also contains a quarter-mile NHRA drag strip, and the AAA Midwest Nationals was a sellout last month.

That tells Francois that his community is ready for a NASCAR Cup event.

"They would enthusiastically support a NASCAR Cup race," he said. "As we have demonstrated, our staff would do a tremendous job. So, again it comes down to our crowds telling the story. Could we host a Cup race? Absolutely. We have a fresh repave and all the infrastructure improvements. But that doesn't tell the story. We did all of this so the crowd would come and they responded. We've demonstrated that time and time again."

But Gateway has another trump card it is willing to play once NASCAR is ready: midweek racing. Francois without hesitation has indicated that he is willing to let Gateway be the guinea pig when it comes to finding a facility gutsy enough to host the elusive but often-discussed prime-time middle-of-the-week Cup race. "I think Gateway is uniquely positioned to host a midweek race," Francois said. "One of the things you have to consider for a midweek race is that people may have to take work off on a Tuesday or Thursday for a Wednesday race if they are going to travel. "But with St. Louis, we are five minutes away from downtown. We would have a huge local group who would take advantage of what I think would be a very unique motorsports event. Because we're so close to the population center, Gateway could make a midweek race flourish and be really special." As it stands, Francois hasn’t officially entered into any negotiations with the sanctioning body. Any conversations between the two parties to this point have been casual. It’s worth noting that Gateway previously hosted NASCAR Xfinity Series races from 1997 to 2009 when the track was owned by Dover Motorsports. The Truck Series previously raced at Gateway from 1998 to 2010. It returned in 2014 and has been on the schedule every year since. Read more from Autoweek Racing Unable to address a stagnant schedule, NASCAR turns to a polarizing competition package Q&A: Making sense of NASCAR's 2019 rules package Meet NASCAR's new president: Steve Phelps as a collaborative vision for stock car racing

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