NASCAR Cup Series: Assessing the 2020 schedule changes

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was released yesterday, and it features many changes. Are these changes good or bad for the sport?

NASCAR announced the 2020 Cup Series schedule yesterday, and it features many changes. After years of the fans clamoring for a schedule change, NASCAR listened.

Unfortunately, there are no new tracks on the schedule. This is because 2020 is the final ear for the five-year sanctioning agreements NASCAR signed with the current tracks. For a quick overview of the changes to the 2020 schedule, click here.

Before I offer my assessment of these changes, I encourage fans to give this 2020 schedule a chance. NASCAR was in a bind due to the five-year sanctioning agreements they signed with the tracks, but they still tried to appease the fans.

West Coast swing

NASCAR moved the West Coast swing of the three races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and ISM Raceway up by one week. This is a definite improvement.

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In February and March, there are only certain race tracks where the sport can go due to cold temperatures. The risks of precipitation or cold temperatures are not as high at these three tracks. While NASCAR could have placed Sonoma Raceway in the West Coast swing, they left it with a Sunday, June 14 race date. Perhaps the West Coast fans will go to Sonoma Raceway as well as at least one of the races on the West Coast swing.

Atlanta Motor Speedway

Atlanta Motor Speedway is scheduled to host a race on Sunday, March 15. Although NASCAR could have pushed this race ever further back in the schedule, this later date should still work.

This year, the race track was plagued by light rain, necessitating the cancellation of Xfinity Series and Truck Series qualifying. While NASCAR could’ve switched the Atlanta Motor Speedway race date with the new Homestead-Miami Speedway race date, this change still remedied a problem.

Homestead-Miami Speedway

Speaking of Homestead-Miami Speedway, it will no longer host the NASCAR championship race weekend. Instead, it will host the sixth Cup Series race of the 2020 season. The racing at the track has typically been superb, and the atmosphere of the championship weekend has increased the hype of the race weekend.

When Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, discussed the change, he mentioned the fact that NASCAR teams and drivers wanted a new venue for the championship weekend. As such, NASCAR listened, and I commend them for that decision.

Martinsville Speedway

The second best move NASCAR made was to change the race dates at Martinsville Speedway. The March Truck Series and Cup Series races at the track were postponed due to snow. Now the track is scheduled host its spring race on Saturday, May 9, the day before Mother’s Day.

The temperatures will be higher, and hopefully NASCAR can avoid any precipitation. Additionally, this race is set to take place under the lights, a first for NASCAR at Martinsville Speedway.

Pocono Raceway

Pocono Raceway is scheduled to host the first NASCAR doubleheader. On back-to-back days, there are scheduled to be two Cup Series races at the track. I am cautiously optimistic about this venture. There are two big drawbacks to this doubleheader.

The first drawback is the lengthy race weekend. There are scheduled to be five races over the course of that race weekend, including one ARCA Menards Series race, one Truck Series race, one Xfinity Series race and two Cup Series races. With practice and qualifying for all of the races in these series and the races themselves series, there will be plenty of events in a short amount of time.

The other drawback is the that Pocono Raceway lacks lights, and the weather has wreaked havoc at the track in the past. With that lengthy schedule, any delays will affect multiple series and further put NASCAR, the fans, the track staff, the media and more in a bind.

To boot, if there are multiple weather delays, it could affect the preparations of the smaller teams for the following race weekend. Speaking of which, the following race weekend is scheduled to take place at…

Indianapolis Motor Speedway

That’s right, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is scheduled to host the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 5. For those people who complain about the heat in Indianapolis in July, consider this.

Unfortunately, while the odds are better that there will not be any problems or extreme heat and humidity, this race costs NASCAR a valuable tradition. Daytona International Speedway has hosted the July 4th race weekend for a longtime, but NASCAR felt a change was needed. For the record, the second race at Daytona International Speedway should still be an exciting one, which I will touch on more below.

Staying focused on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway race date, I’m unsure what to think of it. Indianapolis Motor Speedway is a historic track, but its history is centered around IndyCar, not NASCAR.

NASCAR longs for fans to return to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but the racing at the track has been underwhelming. Perhaps with this new package the racing action will improve. Even then, I doubt that the track will ever become a NASCAR crown jewel. Personally, I believe NASCAR is trying to fit a square peg into a round hole when it comes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Off weekends

The weekends of Sunday, July 26, and Sunday, August 2, are both off weekends for the Cup Series. NBC advocated for these two consecutive off weekends because of the fact that they are set to cover the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Personally, I consider this a compromise. NBC wants to promote both the Summer Olympics and NASCAR. In its announcement of the 2020 schedule, NASCAR executives sounded optimistic that NBC will promote NASCAR during their broadcast of the Summer Olympics.

Fret not, though, race fans, as NASCAR executives insinuated that there would be Truck Series and Xfinity Series race during those two weeks.

Daytona International Speedway

Daytona International Speedway is scheduled to host the Cup Series regular season finale. This race will truly be a wild card race. For some drivers, stage points will be paramount. For other drivers, they will be aggressively racing to win in order to qualify for the playoffs.

This race is scheduled to take place on the night of Saturday, August 29. Saturday night under the lights will provide an atmosphere somewhat similar to the championship weekend. Daytona International Speedway is arguably the most historic NASCAR race track. Plus, a late August race date could mean slightly lower temperatures, which may be advantageous for attendance. Lastly, for younger race fans, it could be a final “hurrah” before school starts.

The playoff schedule

NASCAR aced the Cup Series playoff schedule. Labor Day weekend is scheduled the first race of the playoffs at Darlington Raceway, so the Southern 500 should gain even more excitement. The throwback weekend will feature memories of the past with 16 drivers remaining in the championship hunt.

The two other round of 16 races are scheduled to take place at Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway. The round of 16 schedule will resonate well with stock car fans. The need for a tremendous setup isn’t as important at these two tracks and drivers will simply race. This round has a near genius schedule.

The round of 12 are scheduled to take place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway and the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval. Fans want a variety of race tracks on the playoff schedule, and NASCAR fulfilled this need in the round of 12.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway is an intermediate track that features fast racing, Talladega Superspeedway is a superspeedway that features drafting, which typically yields big wrecks, and the Charlotte Motor Speedway roval nicely combines the oval and road course racing experience, and it should yield just as enthralling racing in the future as it did in its inaugural race last year.

The round of 8 races are scheduled to take place at Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. The intermediate tracks of Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway typically reward those drivers who have good setups. Martinsville Speedway should once again produce a phenomenal race, especially as the round of 8 finale with at least one Championship 4 berth on the line as opposed to the round of 8 opener.

Finally, the Championship 4 race is scheduled to take place at ISM Raceway. ISM Raceway was recently renovated, so it is an outstanding track. In essence, here are my thoughts about the decision to move the championship race weekend.

There have been good races at ISM Raceway, but NASCAR needed to switch up the championship weekend. Let’s give it a shot.

What do you think of these changes? Are you more or less likely to attend a NASCAR Cup Series race next season with these changes having been made?