Your Future NASCAR Sprint Cup Schedule

[call_me_andrew]

I started tinkering with this a few weeks ago. I'm going to accept a more plausable schedule where I am forced to accept the realities of the Chase.

2/13 Daytona/Shootout 
2/20 Daytona 
2/26* Phoenix 
3/6 Las Vegas 
3/13 off
3/20 Atlanta 
3/27 California 
4/3 Talladega 
4/10 Texas 
4/17 Dover
4/24 off/Easter 
4/30* Richmond 
5/7* Sonoma 
5/15 Bristol 
5/22 Charlotte/All Star 
5/29 Charlotte 
6/5 Martinsville 
6/12 off
6/19 Michigan 
6/26 Pocono 
7/2* Daytona 
7/10 Loudon 
7/16* Chicago 
7/24 Dover 
7/31 Indianapolis 
8/7 Kansas City 
8/14 Pocono 
8/21 Michigan 
8/27* Bristol 
9/4 Darlington 
9/11 Loudon 
9/16 off
9/25 Watkins Glen
10/1* Richmond
10/9 Martinsville
10/16 Charlotte
10/23 Phoenix
10/30 Atlanta
11/6 Texas
11/13 Talladega
11/20 California
11/27 Homestead

*Saturday

I moved the July off date to June in the hopes that it would encourage drivers to race at Le Mans. I figure this allows NASCAR to gain international recognition (especially if the drivers give a respectable showing of themselves) at zero cost to NASCAR.

A few races have been swaped around; Darlington is on labor day weekend, Sears Point is on mother's day weekend, Watkins Glen is in the Chase. The main focus of the date swapping was to minimize occasions where there are two consecutive west coast races.

I added one extra off week at the start of the Chase. This breaks up a long stretch of races, gives some breathing time before the Chase, and gives vendors a chance to capitalize on Christmas shopping.

[NaBUru38]

I haven't seen Nascar races in years (basic pay television doesn't include Speed in Uruguay), so I vote without knowin the sport. I'd cut one of the Cup races at Phoenix, Michigan, Dover, Richmond, New Hampshire, Martinsville and Pocono, and no second race for Kansas.

[Mark in Oshawa]

I haven't seen Nascar races in years (basic pay television doesn't include Speed in Uruguay), so I vote without knowin the sport. I'd cut one of the Cup races at Phoenix, Michigan, Dover, Richmond, New Hampshire, Martinsville and Pocono, and no second race for Kansas.

Cutting one from Phoenix, Dover, Richmond and Martinsville would likely get you lynched. All 4 are real popular races to watch from the stands AND on TV. Richmond and Martinsville in particular are sacrosanct...

[Mr. Mister]

Not a fan of exhibition races, so I got rid of them. I'd support something similar to the NASCAR races at Suzuka/Japan (and Calder Park before that) to send some cars overseas to help generate international interest (it's a bit costly to do at the moment, so I'd hold off on that for now), but just running a different format race at the same exact tracks they always run on with the same drivers there every week has no appeal to me.

I pucked mostly based on tracks I like, but I threw in a few I really don't like because they're either popular with everyone else (Daytona/Talladega), have a lot of history (Daytona/Talladega), and/or in areas the sport does need to go to (Texas/Vegas).

Off-weekends can go wherever; I wasn't thinking about dates and I just stuck races close to where I thought they'd fall (i.e. Charlotte's probably a bit too early for Memorial Day, but I wanted it there...Darlington and Labor Day, too).

One thing I wasn't pleased with was the "blocks" of road races. I just couldn't spread them out while still making geographical sense.

No repeat dates for any track other than Daytona. Not a fan of visiting the same track twice.

And, as you'll notice, I like my schedule a bit shorter...

1. Daytona International Speedway
2. Rockingham Speedway
3. Atlanta Motor Speedway
4. Martinsville Speedway
5. Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
6. Phoenix International Raceway
7. Texas Motor Speedway
8. Talladega Superspeedway
9. Charlotte Motor Speedway
10. Richmond International Raceway
11. Dover International Speedway
12. New Hampshire Motor Speedway
13. Mosport Park
14. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve
15. Pocono Raceway
16. Daytona International Speedway
17. Indianapolis Motor Speedway
18. Watkins Glen International
19. Iowa Speedway
20. Burke Lakefront Airport (Cleveland)
21. Portland International Raceway
22. Infineon Raceway
23. Darlington Raceway
24. Bristol Motor Speedway
25. New Jersey Motorsports Park
26. Nasvhille Superspeedway
27. Gateway International Raceway
28. Homestead-Miami Speedway
29. Miller Motorsports Park
30. Las Vegas Motor Speedway

[Mark in Oshawa]

You got me happy with all the road courses...especially ole Mosport up the road from here...but I am sure ISC and Bruton Smith would not be happy if you showed them this sched...

[Mr. Mister]

You got me happy with all the road courses...especially ole Mosport up the road from here...but I am sure ISC and Bruton Smith would not be happy if you showed them this sched...

I don't think Bruton Smith will be happy until they show him a schedule with 18 dates at Las Vegas, 17 at Bristol, and 1 at Kentucky.

[BobbyC]

Here's how I would think:

February 12: InBev Shootout
February 20: Daytona 500
February 27: Subway Fresh Fit 500
March 6: Shelby American
March 20: Showtime 500 (paired with Canadian-American Festival Days)
March 27: Goody's 500
April 3: Toyota / Save Mart 350
April 9: Samsung Mobile 500 (Note Saturday night - NASCAR doesn't want the race against the final round of The Masters)
April 17: Food City 500 (run later for better weather)
May 1: Aaron's 499 (Off week for Mother's Day)
May 15: Crown Royal 400
May 22: Sprint All-Star Race XXVII
May 29: Coca-Cola 600
June 5: Autism Speaks 400
June 12: Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 presented by Target
June 19: Heluva Good! 400
June 26: Lenox Industrial Tools 301
July 2: Coke Zero 400
July 9: Lifelock.com 400
July 17: Kobalt Tools 500 (Atlanta)
July 31: Meijer 500 (Kentucky)
August 7: Brickyard 400
August 14: Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500
August 21: Carfax 400
August 28: Texas 500
September 4: Price Chopper 400
September 10: One Last Race to Make the Chase

CHASE

September 18: Heluva Good! 400km (Watkins Glen goes to 400km)
September 25: Sylvania 300
October 2: AAA 400
October 9: Pepsi Max 500
October 16: Bank of America 500
October 23: TUMS 500
October 30: AMP Energy 500
November 6: Ford 400
November 13: Irwin Tools Night Race (5:30 PM green flag)
November 20: Southern 500 (5:30 PM green flag)

Darlington's spring race is paired with the Canadian-American Festival Days in Myrtle Beach. The Canadian Tire Series would race at either Dillon, Florence, or Myrtle Beach. This will be paired together.

The Texas race is moved to Saturday night, as NASCAR will not want to be against the final round of The Masters.

Pocono and Indianapolis will swap dates as not to conflict with the New England 200 IRL race.

Watkins Glen moves to the Chase, and moves to the traditional "major" weekend at the track.

California loses its spring date with Darlington receiving an end of season date. Atlanta loses its spring date to Kentucky.

Big Move: The Chase will end with three wild races in the final four.

[Scotty G.]

If I were Mike Helton and the gang, here is what my Cup schedule would look like. Whatever issues you have or problems you forsee, let me know. There might be some problems with this, that I haven't even realized...


(dates are rough estimates)


2-13 Daytona 500 (FOX)
2-20 Phoenix (FOX)
2-27 Las Vegas (FOX)
3-5 Bristol (FOX)
3-19 Martinsville (FOX)
3-26 Homestead (FOX)
4-2 Nashville (night) (FOX)
4-10 Texas (FOX)
4-17 Talladega (FOX)
4-30 Richmond (night) (FOX)
5-6 Darlington (night) (FOX)
5-27 Charlotte (night) (FOX)
6-4 Elkhart Lake (TNT)
6-11 Michigan (TNT)
6-17 Kentucky (night) (TNT)
6-25 Sears Point (TNT)
7-1 Daytona (night) (TNT)
7-8 Chicago (night) (TNT)
7-23 Brickyard 400 (ESPN)
7-30 Pocono (ESPN)
8-6 Iowa (night) (ESPN)
8-14 Martinsville (ESPN)
8-20 Atlanta (night) (ESPN)

(start of Chase)

9-3 Loudon (ESPN)
9-10 Watkins Glen (ESPN)
9-17 Kansas (ESPN)
9-23 Fontana (night) (ESPN)
10-1 Dover (ESPN)
10-7 Bristol (night) (ESPN)
10-15 Talladega (ESPN)
10-21 Charlotte (night) (ABC)
10-28 Richmond (night) (ABC)
11-4 Texas (night) (ABC)


-33 races

-23 in regular season, 10 in playoffs

- 2nd races dropped from Pocono, Michigan, Fontana, Loudon, Dover, Atlanta and Phoenix

-races added at Iowa, Elkhart Lake, Kentucky and Nashville

[slorydn1]

This was the thread I said I remembered in Ying Yang's "Nascar Road Racing" thread http://www.motorsportforums.com/nasc...ad-racing.html

Man this thread is even older than I remembered

My Schedule is a little outdated, too, seeing that Gateway and Nashville have closed, and the calender is 2011. But you get the idea. I guess that means we could now FINALLY give Mark in Oshawa his wish and hold a Cup race at Montreal (that July 24th date looks about right), and how about we give the May date I gave to Gateway to a rotating European F1 track-like maybe Spa one year, Monza the next, Silverstone after that (etc, etc,etc). This might take some moving around of the off dates, with maybe a week off before and after the European Adventure.

It might be time for me to play with this again, using an updated calender

[patrickmartin]

Love the idea of Vegas ending the year. Personally, without Homestead being the final race spot forever and a day, I really don't think it brings much. Plus, Vegas is Vegas. Pocono loses a race (for the love of God take a race away from that place). And being from Martinsville, Call_me_andrew, the summer date here would be incredible. The weather in late March-early April can either be pretty pleasant or a doggone nightmare...annnd a summer date would finally give Martinsville a viable reason to put up some lights ( )!!!