By Holly Cain | August 29, 2024
DAYTONA BEACH – New venues, a trip internationally, the highly-anticipated revival of some storied race tracks and a substantial shuffle in the Playoff slate highlight the NASCAR 2025 national series schedules released Thursday afternoon by the sanctioning body.
Calling the three 2025 national series schedules, “big and bold,” NASCAR Executive Vice President, Chief Venue and Racing Innovation Officer Ben Kennedy is enthusiastic and proud of the new schedules which include a well-thought out mix of tradition and a forward-looking presence. Sixteen race weekends will include all three national series.
“In addition to racing in Mexico, we’ve been able to bring back more historic and fan-favorite venues for the first time in decades across our national series,” Kennedy said Thursday. “Not only will this combination of venues maintain the high levels of excitement and anticipation for NASCAR racing, but it also delivers one of the most diverse and challenging schedules anywhere in motorsports.”
The sport’s iconic, Daytona 500, of course, remains the first points-paying green flag of the championship with a Feb. 16 date officially starting the 2025 season.
Thursday’s schedule announcement included a May 18 date for the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at historic North Wilkesboro (N.C.) Motor Speedway and after nearly a decade, a return trip to the storied Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway for a NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series doubleheader on April 18-19. The famed preseason-opening “Clash” moves from Los Angeles to a beloved, traditional venue, Bowman Gray Stadium on Feb. 2.
Earlier this week, NASCAR introduced the renowned Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez road course in Mexico City as a venue for both the NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series – the first international points-paying race in seven decades for the premier NASCAR Cup Series. The races will be June 14-15.
The Playoff tracks and order of competition will also feature a significant new look next season. Firstly, Daytona International Speedway’s summer night race returns as the regular season finale on Aug. 23 with Darlington (S.C.) Raceway’s Southern 500 again the 10-race Playoff opener.
Speedways in Atlanta, Homestead-Miami and the Watkins Glen, N.Y. road course will not be in the Playoffs next year. Instead, Atlanta’s two dates include the Feb. 23 race directly after the Daytona 500 and then another visit on June 28. The race at Homestead-Miami Speedway will now be March 23 in the hopes of capitalizing on Florida’s famous Spring Break vibe during that time. And the famed Watkins Glen road course returns to a late summer date, Aug. 10 next year.
World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis (Sept. 7) makes its Playoff debut the week after the Darlington opener. And Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (Sept. 13) again serves as the cut-off event for the opening three-race round.
New Hampshire (Sept. 21) also returns to the Playoff schedule after a summer race this year and joins Kansas Speedway (Sept. 28) and the Charlotte ROVAL to make up the second round of the Playoffs. Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway moves to the penultimate round, its Oct. 19 date situated between speedway races in Las Vegas (Oct. 12) and Martinsville, Va. (Oct. 26) to set the four-driver championship eligibility at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2.
Drivers responded favorably to the new schedules across social media with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch saying, “I dig the changes, should be fun.” on the X platform.
The Chicago Street Race retains its Independence Day weekend slot, July 5-6 around downtown’s Grant Park. Nashville Superspeedway will play host to a triple-header weekend May 30-June 1.
And with the addition of the Mexico City road course circuit, the NASCAR Cup Series will have six road course events total – also including Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Chicago, Sonoma Raceway, Watkins Glen, and the Charlotte ROVAL.
Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Brickyard 400 will take place July 27 and remain on the historic 2.5-mile oval track. Richmond (Va.) Raceway’s race weekend will be Aug. 15-16.
“Very broadly speaking, part of it is the result of us just candidly trying to just drive as much momentum as we can from the Clash at Bowman Gray to Daytona all the way to our championship race at Phoenix and strategically placing a lot of those events,” Kennedy said of placing certain races at specific times in the calendar.
“And a lot of this – as we always talk – is stakeholder feedback. We’re hearing from a number of different voices whether it be our track partners, our broadcast partners, whether it be teams, our drivers, so being mindful of that as well as working with our weather partners also to access how do we minimize the amount of weather impact to our events. … if there are opportunities for us to make a date change and limit our risk of weather, that’s something we’ll certainly do as well.”
This season features four broadcast partners for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series including FOX Sports, Prime Video, TNT Sports and NBC Sports. The CW will carry the full NASCAR Xfinity Series season and FOX Sports will broadcast the full NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series schedule.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will again feature a 33-race season with a seven-race Playoff run.
Important changes to the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series schedule include an expansion from 23 races to 25 races and including first-time stops at the Lime Rock Park (Conn.) road course (June 28) and a Playoff event at the Charlotte ROVAL.
Holly Cain | NASCAR
