For 51 consecutive seasons from 1971 to 2021, the NASCAR Cup Series did not have a scheduled race on Easter Sunday, although a race did take place on Easter Sunday in 1989. That race at Richmond Raceway was rescheduled from February because of a snowstorm.
But in 2022, NASCAR scheduled a race for Easter Sunday on the dirt-covered Bristol Motor Speedway. The dirt race debuted in 2021, but it was not contested on Easter Sunday that year.
The race returned on Easter Sunday in 2023, and although NASCAR got rid of the dirt and ran on the concrete surface of the "Last Great Colosseum" in 2024, the Cup Series still ran an Easter Sunday race at Richmond.
In 2025, NASCAR returned to the tradition of the Cup Series having off for Easter, and it set up a stretch of 28 consecutive race weekends to conclude the season, a stretch that had not been seen since 1971.
Add us as a preferred source on GoogleHowever, both the Xfinity Series (now the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series) and the Craftsman Truck Series raced on Easter weekend a year ago, and both did so at Rockingham Speedway, which hadn't hosted a Truck Series race since 2013 or an Xfinity Series race since 2004. It marked the only weekend of the year to feature the Xfinity Series and the Truck Series but not the Cup Series.
No NASCAR Cup Series at Rockingham this weekend
Rockingham was not added to the Cup Series schedule, and it still hasn't been on the Cup Series schedule since 2004, as NASCAR is once again set for a race weekend featuring exclusively the Truck Series and the Xfinity Series at "The Rock" this coming Easter weekend.
The Truck Series race, the Black's Tire 200, is set to be shown live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET this Friday, April 3. It is race number five on the 25-race 2026 schedule.
The O'Reilly Series race, the North Carolina Education Lottery 250, is set to be shown live on the CW Network beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET this Saturday, April 4. It is race number eight on the 33-race 2026 schedule.
All three national series are set to be in action at Bristol Motor Speedway next weekend, although this year, the Cup Series is set to have another off weekend before the end of the year, that being the first weekend in August. None of the three national series are scheduled to be in action that weekend.
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