(Photo: Blake Ulino | The Podium Finish)
NASCAR released its schedule for all three touring series on Wednesday. The Cup Series had already announced two significant changes — adding North Wilkesboro as the All-Star Race and replacing Road America with the Chicago Street Course. Besides that, there aren’t any major changes.
For the second time, the season will kick off in Los Angeles for the Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Easter is one week earlier in 2023, as is the Bristol Dirt race. It will follow Richmond in April, while Martinsville — now an afternoon race — is after. The Kansas spring race is also one week earlier, which follows a return to Dover Motor Speedway.
Richmond and the Indianapolis Road Course swapped summer dates — Richmond moving into late July and Indianapolis into mid-August. For the second year in a row, Watkins Glen and Daytona will conclude the regular season and the 10 playoff races remain exactly the same.
However, the Xfinity Series and the newly-rebranded Craftsman Truck Series have several changes. The Xfinity Series supports the Cup Series in 31 of its 33 races — the only exceptions being events at Portland and Road America. Xfinity heads to Sonoma for the first time in series history, while they’ll also race at the Chicago Street Course. NASCAR originally announced an IMSA series would race in Chicago.
The Xfinity Series will also have a new regular-season finale. Bristol moves into the first round of the playoffs while the Talladega fall race will be eliminated, resulting in an off-week in late September.
The first four events of the season remain the same for Trucks before heading to Texas Motor Speedway on April 1, where they’ll be in conjunction with the NTT IndyCar Series. The Trucks will accompany the Cup Series on All-Star weekend for a points race at North Wilkesboro and will end its regular season at Richmond.
Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park opens the playoffs while the Milwaukee Mile returns to NASCAR for the second race in the Round of 10. Sonoma and Knoxville are both off the Truck Series schedule.
The full schedules for all three series are below:
38 weekends of non-stop action.
The 2023 #NASCAR Cup Series schedule is here. pic.twitter.com/kPckLXDVVV
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) September 14, 2022
Next year is going to be big!
Get to know the 2023 #XfinitySeries Schedule pic.twitter.com/qoIOWSuhjD
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) September 14, 2022
Tough as they come. 👊
The 2023 Craftsman Truck Series schedule is here. pic.twitter.com/TBwL8IUISH
— NASCAR Camping World Trucks (@NASCAR_Trucks) September 14, 2022
