When does NASCAR return (and when are the Olympics finished)?
By Asher Fair
Following the Brickyard 400 weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which saw both the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series in action at the track's oval and the Truck Series in action at nearby Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park, there has not been any NASCAR national series action during either of the two most recent weekends.
This "summer break" has taken place as a result of NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris, France. NASCAR is currently in NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule, with the switch over from Fox having taken place in mid-June, as usual.
Truck Series races are still shown on either Fox, Fox Sports 1, or Fox Sports 2, but with the locations of these races largely coinciding with the locations of Cup Series and/or Xfinity Series races, it was better to keep things simple.
The Summer Olympics are scheduled to come to an end this weekend, and that is when NASCAR action is scheduled to resume.
In fact, the Truck Series is scheduled to be back in action on Saturday, August 10, which is one day before the Olympic Games are scheduled to conclude.
The Clean Harbors 250 is scheduled to take place at Richmond Raceway, and it is set to be broadcast live on Fox Sports 1 beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Cup Series is then set to race at the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) Richmond, Virginia oval on Sunday, August 11, with the Cook Out 400 set to be shown live on the NBCUniversal-owned USA Network beginning at 6:00 p.m. ET, after the Olympics conclude for 2024.
There is still no Xfinity Series action on the schedule until the following weekend, with the Cabo Wabo 250 scheduled to take place at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, August 17. Live coverage is set to be provided by USA Network starting at 3:30 p.m. ET.
The Cup Series is then set to be in action at the four-turn, 2.0-mile (3.219-kilometer) Brooklyn, Michigan oval the following afternoon, with the FireKeepers Casino 400 set to be shown live on USA Network beginning at 2:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, August 18.
From this weekend through the end of the 36-race 2024 season in November, there are no more off weekends for on the Cup Series schedule.
This weekend marks the first of 14 consecutive race weekends to wrap up the season. Of those 14 races, 10 are set to be contested at tracks that hosted races earlier in the year. Richmond is set to become the first repeat, as the Cup Series raced there back in late March.
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