Charlotte, North Carolina (AP) NASCAR unveiled its full 2025 Cup Series schedule on Thursday, two days after announcing that it will hold an overseas points event for the first time in modern history.
NASCAR announced Tuesday that it will hold a road course race in Mexico City next June, replacing one of Richmond International Raceway’s two annual short track events.
NASCAR has already declared that it would end the exhibition Clash at the Coliseum after three attempts on a temporary course created inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The exhibition opener for the season will now be hosted at Bowman Grey Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Mexico City and Bowman Grey are
The 2025 Cup itinerary has only two new locations. The rest of the adjustments are modest tweaks, primarily for playoff races.
Atlanta Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, and Watkins Glen all lost playoff slots and will now compete throughout the 26-race regular season.
The playoffs will now begin at Darlington Raceway, while Gateway outside of St. Louis and New Hampshire have been added to the 10-race schedule. For many years, the playoffs were held in New Hampshire before moving to Chicagoland and, finally, Darlington or other tracks.
Talladega Superspeedway advanced to the playoff semifinals.
However, for the first time in 50 years, the Cup Series will race 28 consecutive weekends, which will not be popular with drivers, teams, or their families. The previous modern-era record (since 1972) was 23 consecutive weekends, which was set this season when the series raced nonstop from the February 18 Daytona 500 to the July 21 Indianapolis 500.
The Cup Series will not race on Easter Weekend next year, which has been the off weekend since 2022. From there, the Cup Series will race every weekend until the season finale on November 2 in Phoenix.
“I believe that over the last five years, some of the
The message we’ve received, particularly on the Cup side, is that they’re looking for a means to reclaim their Easter weekend,” said Ben Kennedy, the great-grandson of NASCAR’s founder and current executive vice president.”So, we are able to accomplish it. Looking at the whole plan, I believe you can add extra off weeks. That also has a knock-on impact in terms of where Daytona and Darlington live, with the playoffs opening on Labour Day weekend, which has always been a tradition for them, and then all the way down to Phoenix for our championship location.
The season will begin on Feb. 16 with the Daytona 500 and end on Nov. 2 Phoenix marks the earliest finale to the Cup calendar since 1973. That year, the season completed on October 21.
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