NASCAR confirmed some rumored changes to the Sprint Cup Series schedule for 2015 on Tuesday when they released the schedule to the public. Many of the race dates are unchanged from this year, but there are a few significant changes. The changes coincide with a new 10-year television contract between Fox and NBC that begins next year and runs through the 2024 season.
Perhaps the most notable modification to the schedule is the return of Darlington Raceway in Darlington, South Carolina to its original Labor Day weekend date. The original Southern 500 race was held from 1950 to 2004. The last Labor Day edition of that race took place in 2003, with veteran and two-time champion Terry Labonte winning his last race. In 2004 it became the penultimate race of the season in November, one week before the Homestead finale, and it was dropped from the 2005 schedule. This left Darlington with just one race weekend, whose Cup event became a 500-mile night race in 2005, inherited the "Southern 500" name in 2009, and is the race that is moving to Labor Day weekend next year. A lot of NASCAR fans are happy that a classic tradition is returning to the sport.
The next big change involves Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Georgia, where the Nationwide and Cup series race this coming weekend, and which has been the home of the Labor Day race weekend since 2011. With Darlington going to that spot on the schedule, Atlanta has been moved to the second race weekend of the season, after the Daytona 500 and its associated events. In addition, there will be a doubleheader featuring a Camping World Truck Series race and a Nationwide race on the day before the Cup race. The Atlanta Truck race will increase that season to 23 races. The Atlanta races will be held on February 28 and March 1 in 2015. This will be the first time that the second race weekend will take place in the southeastern United States since 2004, the year of the last race in Rockingham, North Carolina.
Another change, which became official a few days earlier, is the Bristol spring race moving one month later, to mid-April, in an attempt to avoid inclement weather situations, which have plagued the Bristol, Tennessee area a number of times during the race weekend's March dates, including earlier this year. Bristol will be the Cup series' eighth race starting in 2015. There will also be three straight races in the southwestern part of the country in March. These will be the third through fifth races, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Nevada, Phoenix International Raceway in Arizona and Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The Phoenix date, which has been the second race of the season for the past four years, will take Bristol's old spot as the fourth race after being bumped by Atlanta. Finally, the road course race in Sonoma, California will be held one week later, on June 28; the race at Kentucky Speedway has been moved two weeks later, to July 11; and the race at New Hampshire one week later as well, to July 19, which was an off weekend this year.
The 2015 Cup season will feature three off weekends, on April 5 (Easter), June 21 (between Michigan and Sonoma) and August 30 (between Bristol and Darlington). The last race before the Chase will still be at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia, on September 12, and the season finale will stay at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida. In addition, Fox will broadcast the June races at Pocono, Michigan and Sonoma for the first time since 2006. Some races will be shown on cable counterparts Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network. This new schedule is sure to get fans excited for next year, and it could make it easier for them to travel between certain races. We'll see how it all plays out in 2015.
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