and 2 races at North Wilkesboro after 1996 the NASCAR schedule had only 17.6% of races under 1 mile. Tracks with a length between 0.5 and under 1 mile had the highest percentage of the schedule from NASCAR's first season in 1949 until the mid 1990s when tracks between 1.000 and 1.499 miles equaled them in percentage. Tracks between 1.000 and 1.499 miles had the most races in the late 1990s until 1.5–1.999-mile tracks passed them in the early to mid 2000s after the loss of races at Rockingham and Darlington. Today 1.5–1.999-mile tracks have over 30% of the races. The counterargument is that these "traditional" venues are in markets whose support for racing had long declined – Darlington failed to sell out races until it was cut to one date in 2005 while North Wilkesboro had no infrastructure and little ability to expand beyond 50,000 seats, and Rockingham failed to sell out its races for over five years. The 2008 NASCAR–Detroit meetings also saw two automakers call for the addition of at least two new road races. One of these manufacturers also favored reducing the total number of races by at least four while at the same time increasing the number of road races from its current two to at least four. The most obvious way to achieve these goals would be to reduce the number of tracks that host two events a year. These demands were rejected. Decline of road courses (1970s to 2020) Since the seventies, NASCAR has increasingly focused its emphasis on oval courses. Such a plan was questioned as a key detriment to NASCAR, generating the stereotype of drivers and the sport as "a bunch of hillbillies driving in circles for three hours." Previously, some races were held on road courses, but by 1990 only two road courses were in use: Sonoma Raceway, and Watkins Glen International. This can be explained by the decrease in handling ability over the course of the vehicles' development. Also notable is the establishment of NASCAR layouts at Sonoma and Watkins Glen: the former omitted the Carousel section of the layout from 1998 to 2018 while the latter omits the Boot, again due to handling issues. In the 2010s, NASCAR began refocusing on road courses, with the Xfinity Series competing at Road America beginning in 2010 and Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in 2013 due to the loss of fellow road