NASCAR playoff schedule sees several changes

This year’s NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule doesn’t look quite like it did in recent years, with changes to every round but the Championship 4.

Following a regular season which included 16 different winners, of whom 15 are playoff eligible, the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are scheduled to begin this Sunday night at Darlington Raceway with the Cook Out Southern 500.

The playoffs starting out with a race at the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) “Lady in Black” is one of the similarities when it comes to recent playoff schedules. But aside from the single-race Championship 4 to crown the 2022 champion at Phoenix Raceway, there have been changes to every single round of the playoffs.

The round of 16 is the same in that it starts off with a race at Darlington Raceway (Sunday, September 4) and ends with a night race at Bristol Motor Speedway (Saturday, September 17).

But the second race of the opening round is no longer a race at Richmond Raceway.

Richmond Raceway saw its second date moved to mid-August, toward the end of the regular season. Instead, Kansas Speedway, which had been in the round of 8 (after spending time in the round of 12), is set to host the second race of the playoffs on Sunday, September 11.

The round of 12 also sees one change. The second and third races are still scheduled to take place at the “wild card” tracks of Talladega Superspeedway (Sunday, October 2) and the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (Sunday, October 9).

But the opening race of the round is now scheduled to take place at Texas Motor Speedway, as opposed to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, on Sunday, September 25.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway has been moved back to the round of 8 and is set to serve as the opening race of the semifinal round on Sunday, October 16.

This isn’t the only change to the round of 8, however, with Kansas Speedway having been moved to the round of 16. While Martinsville Speedway is still set to host the round of 8 finale on Sunday, October 30, Homestead-Miami Speedway is set to host the round’s middle race on Sunday, October 23.

Homestead-Miami Speedway, which had hosted the Championship 4 race prior to 2020, was moved to the regular season for two years before its playoff return in 2022.

All in all, this year’s playoffs see the addition of Homestead-Miami Speedway and the loss of Richmond Raceway, with three other 1.5-mile ovals finding themselves in new rounds.

Tune in to USA Network at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 4 for the live broadcast of the Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway. Be sure not to miss your chance to begin a free trial of FuboTV today!