Analysis of the 2024 NASCAR Schedule

(Photo: Riley Thompson | The Podium Finish)

NASCAR announced its 2024 schedule Wednesday for all three national series, ending a highly anticipated wait. Here are some of the significant changes:

Iowa Speedway to Host First Cup Series Race

For the first time in history, the NASCAR Cup Series is headed to Iowa Speedway. The race is set for Sunday, June 16 at 7 p.m. ET.

Iowa hosted 20 Xfinity races and 13 Truck races between 2009 and 2019. Both series had planned to visit the facility in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic led to NASCAR moving races from the venue. The ARCA Menards Series, however, has raced at the track each season but once since 2006. Iowa is also on the NTT INDYCAR Series schedule.

The track has been owned by NASCAR since 2013.

“Iowa Speedway was something that we’ve talked about for quite a while,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR senior vice president of racing development and strategy. “This is something that we’ve been hearing from our fans for a long time, and Iowa in particular, that we want to see a Cup race there. Unfortunately had to take a bit of a hiatus over the past few years with COVID for the Xfinity Series and Truck Series, but felt like it was important for us to get back to Iowa Speedway.”

The NASCAR Xfinity Series races at Iowa Speedway in 2018. (Photo: Jeremy Thompson | The Podium Finish)

There had been speculation that NASCAR eyed a date in Montreal, Canada for a points-paying race. While that isn’t on the docket for 2024, an international trip isn’t off the table in 2025 and beyond.

“We still are bullish about finding our way either north of the border, whether that be in Montreal or Toronto or another market, or south of the border down into Mexico,” Kennedy said. “As we’ve mentioned in the past, we want to bring our NASCAR Cup Series there at some point. We think it’s important for us to get outside of the United States with our series in some way, shape or form, so that’s something we’re going to keep our pulse on as we think about 2025 and beyond.”

Chicago Street Course Returning for Second Season

The Chicago Street Course is back on the Cup and Xfinity schedule for the second consecutive season. The event was generally deemed a success with Shane van Gisbergen and Cole Custer winning the respective races. However, rain put a damper on the weekend and some city citizens had pushback with the event.

When the deal got signed, Lori Lightfoot served as mayor of Chicago. Since then, Brandon Johnson has taken over and was reportedly more hesitant about the race continuing.

As of now, it’s all systems go for Year 2 (and hopefully a drier weekend).

The Chicago Street Course Cup Series race in 2023. (Photo: Kevin Bowman | The Podium Finish)

“I’m excited about what next year is going to look like,” Kennedy said. “We had a lot of things we unfortunately weren’t able to do this year as it relates to some of the concerts and other activities. Knock on wood, the weather will be a lot better and will look like it does outside today, and be able to get some great racing in.

“We want this to be a positive event for the city of Chicago, something that Chicagoans are proud of, and part of that comes on what happens on Saturday and Sunday of that race weekend. Part of that also comes with road closures and park closures and some of the other things that were doing in communities, whether that’s STEM or STEAM initiatives and a handful of other things.”

NASCAR is planning to work with the city on a quicker setup and teardown, hopefully leading to road closures for less time.

Atlanta, Watkins Glen Shift to Playoffs; Darlington to Close Regular Season

Late August and early September will look much different in 2024. Daytona moves from the regular-season finale up to the penultimate event while Darlington Raceway will now serve as the cut-off. Atlanta Motor Speedway takes Darlington’s place as the playoff opener on Sept. 8, moving its second date up from July. Watkins Glen International shifts to the playoffs for the first time, serving as the middle race of the Round of 16 on Sept. 15.

“Now that we’ve seen how the playoffs have shaken out the past couple of years, we wanted to introduce a little bit of variety and innovation to it with introducing Atlanta to that very first race in the playoffs, Watkins Glen right after it, Bristol Night Race in that Round of 16 to help close us out,” Kennedy said. “Introducing a drafting-style track like Atlanta to the Round of 16, to follow it up with Watkins Glen and then the Bristol Night Race is really going to test the variability of our drivers and their skills as they think about punching their ticket to the Round of 12.”

Atlanta is entering its third season post-reconfiguration with superspeedway-style tendencies. As the surface wears, it’s possible the track could turn into a more traditional 1.5-mile circuit. Watkins Glen has sold out its grandstand for eight consecutive races. Will that continue with a September date outside of tourism season in the Finger Lakes and with school back in session?

The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs is headed to Upstate New York for the first time in 2024. (Photo: Wayne Riegle | The Podium Finish)

Some of the changes, however, are related to a two-week mid-season break. NASCAR will be off for consecutive weeks in late July and early August as NBC moves its resources to France for the 2024 Summer Olympics. As a result, the 2024 season will end a week later, concluding at Phoenix on the second weekend of November instead of the first.

Maintaining tradition, NASCAR kept the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day Weekend, which lined up as the regular-season finale. Daytona moves up a week and follows Michigan International Speedway.

The move might seem temporary, but Kennedy hasn’t ruled out a permanent move for the second Daytona race.

“I’ve really enjoyed Daytona as a regular-season cutoff race,” Kennedy explained. “For the past few years, I think it’s been exciting, it’s been unpredictable, it’s created a lot of storylines. Next year with us taking two weeks during the Olympics and naturally moving the end of our season back one week shifts that, and we had a lot of conversations about does Daytona continue to stay as a regular season and do you swap it with Darlington.

“We felt like Darlington on Labor Day Weekend and being that race is something that’s core to us and something that’s special to our fans, so it’s something we wanted to keep in place and really test out as we think about for 2024, seeing that it is a little bit different. I know that ’25 is going to look different. Naturally, we’ll be in our new media rights agreement, so it won’t be an Olympic year, so I think the schedule overall will have a lot of variability to it as we think about ’25. Does that mean we’ll be back at Daytona? Potentially. Does that mean Daytona is a regular-season cutoff race? Potentially.

“We’re going to look at all scenarios, and part of it will also be looking at seeing how Darlington is as a cutoff race for the regular season.”

Atlanta and Watkins Glen will remain regular-season races for the Xfinity Series. Bristol will serve as the finale with Talladega returning to the playoff fray in 2024.

Indianapolis Shifts Back to Oval

Drivers asked and NASCAR delivered. After three seasons on the road course, the 2024 race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be on the oval — celebrating 30 years at the Brickyard. The retiring Kevin Harvick won the last race on the oval in 2020, when fans weren’t permitted to attend because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jeff Gordon won the inaugural race in 2024.

AJ Allmendinger, Tyler Reddick and Michael McDowell won the three road course races. Xfinity had raced on the road course the last four years but will also shift back to the oval. It will not serve as a doubleheader with INDYCAR as it had in previous years.

The 2019 Cup Series race at Indianapolis goes green. (Photo: Stephen Conley | The Podium Finish)

“To be able to go back to Indianapolis on the oval for their 30th anniversary, something that we’ve actually talked about for quite a while, to be able to do that is going to be special,” Kennedy said.

The Cup race, scheduled for July 21, is the final before the two-week break.

Bristol Returns to Two Concrete Dates

Bristol Motor Speedway will have two races on concrete for the first time since 2020. The spring race had been run on dirt for the last three years, including the last two on Easter Sunday. Joey Logano, Kyle Busch and Christopher Bell won the three dirt races.

Many drivers were outspoken against a dirt race at Bristol. NASCAR originally made the change in part to attract more fans to the race, which had struggled with attendance. However, a return to dirt, whether it be at Bristol or not, hasn’t been ruled out.

The 2023 Bristol Night Race goes green. (Photo: Kevin Ritchie | The Podium Finish)

“We’re certainly open to dirt racing, whether it be with our Cup Series, Xfinity Series or Craftsman Truck Series. Something we’re going to continue to consider,” Kennedy said. “As we think about what the future looks like, dirt racing does have a unique place in motorsports. You think of a lot of our drivers, they came from dirt racing. You think of some of the best racing that I’ve personally seen, it’s on dirt.

“Do I think there’s going to be a dirt race sometime in the future? I think so. What that track looks like or what the time is, we’ll see, but it’s something we’re going to keep our pulse on for sure.”

Bristol’s spring date moves to mid-March as the spring Richmond race shifts to Easter Sunday. However, Tennesee weather can still be questionable that time of year, but NASCAR’s warm-weather climate options are limited in late winter and early spring. It’ll serve as the fifth points race of the year.

“It is a bit of a challenge as we think about trying to find dates in the February and March windows,” Kennedy said. “Naturally we don’t have a ton of racetracks that we can race at in Florida or the southern part of the country where it’s a little bit warmer in February and March, so we do have to stay mindful of it.

“We feel like having Bristol that time of year will make a lot of sense, and coming out of the West Coast Swing heading back to Bristol, Martinsville and then Richmond on Easter, those have always been somewhat close to each other and have some date equity around it, so we didn’t want to move them too far from their current homes.”

The Truck Series will join Cup at Bristol in the spring. All three series will be at the half-mile short track in September.

Road America, Mid-Ohio Off National Series Schedules

Neither Road America nor Mid-Ohio will be featured on a NASCAR touring series schedule in 2024. After hosting Cup races in 2021 and 2022, Road America hosted only an Xfinity Series event in 2023. The Road America Xfinity date essentially shifts to Iowa. The 4.048-mile road course has hosted the series in each season since 2010.

Mid-Ohio hosted the Truck Series for the last two seasons and has hosted a NASCAR series in each of the last 10 seasons except for 2020.

Road America won’t host NASCAR in 2024. (Photo: Logan Skidan | The Podium Finish)

More Than Half of Cup Schedule on Broadcast Television

For the second year in a row, 21 of 38 Cup races will air on broadcast television. The Clash at the Coliseum and the first seven points-paying events will air on FOX, up until the Easter Sunday night race. Talladega Superspeedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Sonoma Raceway all have events scheduled on the mothership network.

In the second half of the season, Nashville Superspeedway, the Chicago Street Race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway will all air on NBC. The final six playoff races, starting at Talladega, will also be broadcast on NBC.

Six Xfinity Series dates, including three of the first five playoff races, will also air on NBC. The Truck Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway in June will air on FOX.

The other 22 Truck Series races are on FS1, as well as the other Cup and Xfinity races through June 8. Beginning on June 15, all Cup and Xfinity races not on NBC air on USA Network.

Full schedules for all three series are below (bold denotes playoff race).

2024 NASCAR Cup Series Schedule

2024 NASCAR XFINITY Series Schedule

2024 NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series Schedule