This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series prepares for its first night race of the 2024 season. Night racing is becoming a rarer occasion as time goes on with only 7 regular season night races scheduled plus all non-points events. This is down from 2014, for example, when 10 regular season races, plus all non-points events, were scheduled under the lights. These are all of the night races on the 2024 NASCAR schedule, along with why NASCAR does not race at night much anymore.
*February 3rd: Clash at the Coliseum
The Clash has historically been a daytime event, but, NASCAR moved the event to Saturday night for from 2003 and 2016, when the event was still at Daytona. After 4 more years in the daylight (2017-2020), the event moved back to the nighttime on the Daytona Road Course in 2021, and eventually the LA Coliseum in 2022. The future of the event is in flux with the LA Coliseum contract running out, so, whether or not it stays a night race is TBD.
*February 15th: Duels at Daytona
The Duels at Daytona were moved from Thursday afternoon to Thursday night beginning in 2014. Since they were already on cable TV anyway, it made sense to move the races from weekday programming to a weeknight. The decision has been a welcome one, as more fans are available to watch midweek racing at night than during the day.
March 31st (Easter): Richmond
In 2022, NASCAR broke away from tradition and began racing on Easter Sunday. The first two seasons of NASCAR on Easter came at night on the Bristol Dirt track, but, now that Bristol Dirt is off the schedule, NASCAR moved the Easter date to Richmond. A night race on a holiday seems like a match made in heaven.
*May 19th: All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro
The All-Star Race has been a nighttime affair since Charlotte Motor Speedway installed lights for the first time in 1992. This made a major impact on the sport, as Charlotte was the first non-short track to install permanent lights. The race has been at night ever since, and North Wilkesboro continued that tradition in 2023.
May 26th: Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway
The Coca-Cola 600 is NASCAR’s version of an endurance race, and the race became even more difficult in 1993. After years of being held in the daylight, Charlotte Motor Speedway and NASCAR elected to move the race to start in the evening, with the race starting in the daylight and ending under the lights. The result is wildly changing track conditions, which creates an often unpredictable race.
June 16th: Iowa
Iowa Speedway’s first Cup Series race in 2024 will be contested under the lights. The track has hosted various night races in the Xfinity Series, ARCA, the Craftsman Truck Series, and IndyCar throughout its history. Iowa will be the first NBC NASCAR broadcast of 2024, and it takes the night race idea from Nashville Superspeedway, which hosted its first scheduled night race in 2023.
August 11th: Richmond 2
The summer race at Richmond will join the spring race as a nighttime show. It will be the first time since 2019 that Richmond has both of their races scheduled at night. Richmond is no stranger to night racing, as they had both of their races scheduled for Saturday night every year from 1998 until 2015.
August 24th: Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona
To escape from the daytime heat and humidity of the Florida sun, Daytona International Speedway moved its annual summer race to the nighttime starting in 1998. It has remained there ever since, and it joins Bristol as the only two Saturday night races on the 2024 schedule
September 1st: Southern 500 at Darlington
In an effort to keep Darlington relevant on the NASCAR schedule, the track installed lights for the 2004 racing season, and the first Southern 500 night race came in the spring of 2005. Darlington made a neat tradition out of the Mother’s Day weekend race, and the track regained its’ Labor Day Southern 500 slot in 2015. The race has continued to be held at night to escape from the South Carolina heat.
September 21st: Night Race at Bristol
Bristol Motor Speedway still hosts the definitive night race in NASCAR. It’s the traditional short track Saturday night slugfest on national television in front of a crowd of over 100,000 people. The track hosted night races in the summertime throughout the later 20th century, when night racing was still a novelty to NASCAR.
As we mentioned in the intro, NASCAR has cut down on night racing in recent years with only 7 regular season races scheduled under the lights. NASCAR has also gotten away from the practice of hosting night races on Saturday instead of Sunday, with 5 of 2024’s 7-night races being on Sunday.
The simple reason why is TV ratings. Look no further than the Bristol Night Race in 2023, which saw only 1.562 million viewers, far and away the least-viewed NASCAR race of 2023 that ran on its’ scheduled date. In fairness, Bristol did have a brief weather delay, but, this is not just a Bristol trend.
In 2023, regular season night races run on schedule averaged only 2.72 million viewers, which was below the overall average of 2.89 million. Night races simply do not bring in as many viewers.
This doesn’t mean night racing is going extinct in NASCAR. It does mean, however, that night races on their own are just not as big of a ratings hit as other races are.
Where do all the drivers stand after the first official points race in the standings table?
After winning the opening points race of the season at Daytona by leading one lap, Tyler Reddick made it to the top of the standings. Under the new rules, he managed to pull up 58 points. He pocketed 55 for the win and added three more by finishing Stage 2 in P8. He may have squeezed out at least one more had he landed inside the top 10 in Stage 1, but after getting swept into a Lap 5 crash, Reddick limped the Stage 1 in P20, giving him no extra points.
Rounding out the top 10 are Brad Keselowski with 39 points in sixth despite a P5 finish, followed by his driver, Chris Buescher, in seventh with 39, Bubba Wallace in eighth with 37, Carson Hocevar in ninth with 36, and Ryan Blaney in 10th with 36.
Atlanta could be a springboard for Elliott, who owns an average finish of 11.4 across 14 starts there, with two wins, including one in last year’s fall race, plus three top fives and nine top 10s. The track could also pull Kyle Busch back into contention. Having already shown his speed at Daytona by winning the pole, he may potentially pull it off at the 1.54-mile track. The RCR driver sits P14 in the standings, but with an average finish of 8.8 at Atlanta since 2023 across six starts, the place might finally snap his 94-race drought.
Then again, Connor Zilisch has only one start at the track and came home P11 last year when he made his third Cup start there, making Atlanta a stage where he could stamp his mark.
Ryan Blaney will also have a better chance than anyone else to climb through a win or even points alone at Atlanta. The No. 12 Team Penske driver has one win there from 2021, but consistency has been his strong suit, with seven top fives and nine top 10s in 15 starts. And that puts him in a position to move the needle when the field rumbles into Atlanta.
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The Daytona 500 and Speedweeks may be over, but that doesn’t mean the chaos will cool off for the stars of NASCAR’s three National Series, as they roll into Hampton, Georgia, to the high banks of EchoPark Speedway for one of the schedule’s most unique race weekends.
Note: This article will be updated as more information about the weekend comes out.
One race weekend is in the books, and a 36-week march back to Florida is underway for the three NASCAR National Series. Whether you are going to be at the track or home, what does the forecast look like for the race weekend in Hampton, Georgia?
Before the Races (10:00 AM – 2:00 PM)
During the Truck Race (2:00 PM – 5:00 PM)
During the OAP Series Race (5:00 PM – 8:00 PM)
After the Race (8:00 PM – 11:00 PM)
Before the Race (11:00 AM – 3:00 PM)
During the Race (3:00 PM – 7:00 PM)
After the Race (7:00 PM – 10:00 PM)
NASCAR got lucky at EchoPark in 2025, and, as a matter of fact, everywhere else, but that doesn’t mean weather hasn’t affected the track’s races in the past with spot showers and major showers taking on race weekends. Take the summer of 2023, when the race took on a large rain shower that resulted in the race ending after just 185 laps, with race winner William Byron the leader at the time of caution.
Note: This article will be updated with a more accurate and detailed forecast as the race weekend nears.
