NASCAR: Big changes confirmed for the 2022 Cup schedule

After many months of rumors circulating and fans patiently waiting, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule was released on Wednesday.

The 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule still consists of 36 points-paying races, but we now know that several of the long-rumored changes weren’t just rumors at all.

The first change for the 2022 season affects the Clash, the exhibition event that has kicked off every Cup Series season since 1979. The Clash, which was held on the Daytona International Speedway road course for the first time in 2021 after 42 years of being held on the oval, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 6 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

This race will be the first Clash not held on either the Daytona oval or road course, and it will mark the first time the Next Gen will hit the track in competition.

The 64th running of the Daytona 500 has been pushed back by one week to Sunday, February 20 due to Super Bowl LVI being moved back to Sunday, February 13 as a result of the 18-week regular season NFL schedule. The “Great American Race” will still be the first points-paying race of the season.

Auto Club Speedway is back on the Cup Series schedule after being removed from the 2021 schedule due to local COVID-19 protocols.

The 2022 race, scheduled for Sunday, February 27, will be the last NASCAR race on the 2-mile configuration of the track located in southern California. The track is set to get a makeover and become a half-mile short track for the 2023 season. Alex Bowman won the most recent race at the track in March 2020.

NASCAR is scheduled to return to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, but on Sunday, March 27; the inaugural race at COTA was held on Sunday, May 23, 2021.

The Bristol Motor Speedway dirt race will still be held in the spring, but it will become a prime time event on Sunday, April 17, which is Easter Sunday. NASCAR does not typically run races on this holiday, but that will change in 2022.

The All-Star Race is set to return to Texas Motor Speedway in 2022, with the event scheduled for Sunday, May 22. The All-Star Race was held at Texas Motor Speedway for the first time in 2021, but it was contested in June.

The All-Star Race hasn’t been held on the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway since 2019 when the exhibition event took place at Charlotte Motor Speedway itself. The All-Star Race was moved to Bristol Motor Speedway in July 2020 due to COVID-19-related restrictions.

June is scheduled to kick off with a trip to World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. This 1.25-mile oval currently hosts races for the Truck Series and the NTT IndyCar Series, but the Cup Series has never raced at the Madison, Illinois track.

A handful of summer races have new dates, including the race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, which has been moved up to Sunday, July 31, the race at Michigan International Speedway, which has been moved up to Sunday, August 7, and most notably, an event at Pocono Raceway, which has been moved back to Sunday, July 24.

Pocono Raceway is only scheduled to host one race next year to accommodate the addition of World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway. The “Tricky Triangle” has hosted two races annually since 1982, and in 2020 and 2021, it hosted both of its annual races as part of a doubleheader weekend in late June.

The addition of a new venue in World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway and the later date for the Daytona 500 has also had an effect on the summer stretch of races. NASCAR had planned to have two weeks off during the 2020 (and then 2021) summers due to NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. But that two-week break will not exist in 2022.

The playoff schedule has also been altered. Richmond Raceway will lose its playoff race, and the track’s second race date is now Sunday, August 14, three weeks before the playoffs are scheduled to begin at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, September 4. The second race of the round of 16 is now scheduled to take place at Kansas Speedway on Sunday, September 11.

The playoff events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway have switched dates in 2022, making the latter the opening race for the round of 12 on Sunday, September 25 and Las Vegas the first race in the round of 8 on Sunday, October 16.

The final change to the playoff schedule, which also affects the round of 8, is that Homestead-Miami Speedway has been added back to the playoff schedule. The site of the season finale from 2002 to 2019 is set to host the second race in the penultimate round of the playoffs on Sunday, October 23.