NASCAR is now set up to confirm a full 36-race schedule
By Asher Fair
NASCAR is set up to confirm a full 36-race schedule for the 2020 Cup Series season at some point in the future after canceling three previously scheduled races.
NASCAR made the move to officially cancel three races which were initially on the 36-race 2020 Cup Series schedule earlier today, a move that was inevitable after they recently added three races to the schedule which were not initially on it.
Three races were added to an 11-day span from Sunday, May 17 to Wednesday, May 27 that would have originally included just one race. Two of these races are scheduled to take place at Darlington Raceway while one is scheduled to take place at Charlotte Motor Speedway, along with the previously scheduled race at the latter.
Eight races have been postponed already as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, bringing the projected race total down to 28 from 36.
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So the addition of these three races brought that total back up to 31, meaning that if all eight postponed races were to be rescheduled, the schedule would include 39 races, three more than the goal of a full 36-race campaign.
As a result, even had all eight of them managed to be rescheduled, three other tracks would have had to lose race dates.
Not all eight of them will be, however.
The three races which NASCAR canceled were scheduled to take place at Richmond Raceway, Sonoma Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway.
The race at Richmond Raceway was one of the eight races that had been originally postponed (Sunday, April 19). The track is still scheduled to host a playoff race during the round of 16 on Saturday, September 12.
However, Sonoma Raceway and Chicagoland Speedway do not have any other race dates. Their races were scheduled to take place on Sunday, June 14 and Sunday, June 21, respectively.
As a result, the projected race total dropped back down to 29, not 28, from 31. With seven tracks still seeking to be rescheduled, this sets NASCAR up to achieve the goal that they have made clear all along: a 36-race season.
Aside of Richmond Raceway, the seven tracks that saw their races postponed as a result of the pandemic are Atlanta Motor Speedway, Homestead-Miami Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, Talladega Superspeedway, Dover International Speedway and Martinsville Speedway.
The four races that have already been contested this year took place at Daytona International Speedway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Phoenix Raceway.
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NASCAR is expected to announce more schedule changes at some point in the near future, as the only thing released this far is a four-race schedule during the aforementioned 11-day span. Beyond that 11-day span, the next race on the original 2020 schedule is scheduled to take place on Sunday, May 31 at Kansas Speedway.