Recently NASCAR has been looking to change up its 36-race, February-to-November Cup Series schedule, which drivers have called “stale” and tired. From playing with individual races (like adding the roval at Charlotte Motor Speedway) to slightly rearranging the order of visits to tracks.

Although the 2020 schedule has not yet been released, people are already looking ahead to after the 2020 season, when NASCAR’s current five-year contracts with tracks expire. Next season’s schedule is expected to be public by April 1.

Amid troubles with attendance and viewership, NASCAR is trying to shift its focus back to diehard fans after “losing (its) way,” NASCAR president Steve Phelps told The Daytona Beach News-Journal prior to the 2019 season. So what does that all mean for major scheduling changes?

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has a “wish list” for which tracks he’d love to see return to the Cup Series schedule, but he doesn’t know if it’s a realistic dream.

During the Ask Junior segment of his weekly Dale Jr. Download podcast this week, a fan asked what the now-NBC Sports broadcaster thinks of returning Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina to the schedule. He explained:

“Rockingham is on there, but it’s not near the top, all right? Nashville Fairgrounds (Fairgrounds Speedway), for me, is at the top of that list. I think that North Wilkesboro (Speedway in North Carolina) would be on that list as well. It’s just really, I feel, unlikely that we will go back to North Wilkesboro or Rockingham, unless there is a sure almost guarantee that we will get the kind of crowds not only at the race track but also folks tuning in. I think the tune-in crowds on network and so forth that watch the race is there. “But will we get people to actually go to the race? Not just the first event. Everybody’s gonna go to the first race. Will they keep going to the second event, the third event, the fourth event, the fifth event? Is it sustainable to be going back to these race tracks?”

Earnhardt emphasized that when looking at these old NASCAR tracks, you can’t talk about one without the other. But his concern is valid, especially when both tracks would have to be renovated. NASCAR’s last Cup Series event at North Wilkesboro was in 1996, and Rockingham’s last one was in 2004 — although the Truck Series was there in 2012 and 2013. But the latter track got a new owner last year.

Autoweek reported in September that renovations are planned to make it a “multipurpose entertainment facility” for concerts, festivals and racing, and the track initiated “exploratory conversations” with NASCAR.

Dale Jr. continued to explain his hopes and reservations about the sport returning to tracks like Rockingham or North Wilkdesboro:

“I’m all in on NASCAR’s sort of new vision of returning to their old ways and looking at the sport through the old lens and sort of reverting back some of the things they’ve been trying to do to change the sport or to try to grow the sport. I’m all in on really focusing back to our core audience, and that core audience loves Rockingham. They love North Wilkesboro. They love the history. “But I just don’t know whether it’s a real viable option that can make money. And it’s a great idea, it’s a great dream. But is it a realistic dream? I’m not sure. So if it happens, I will love it, but I’m just apprehensive I guess.”

For now, Earnhardt is just hoping the Cup Series awards banquet moving to Nashville in 2019 means a race there isn’t far behind.