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NASCAR continues to delay the release of the 2024 schedule, and the date of its release remains a mystery. So, how much longer can NASCAR realistically wait until they have to release the 2024 schedule?
NASCAR has significantly changed when they released their schedule in recent years. For the later part of the 2010s, the schedule was usually released early in the season around late March or early April simply because there were no major changes. Aside from a date swap here or there, the tracks were essentially the same.
That changed once the 2020s rolled around, and NASCAR released the schedule in late September over the last three years. The 2021 schedule was released on September 30th, 2020, the 2022 schedule on September 25, 2021, and the 2023 schedule on September 24, 2022.
It is also worth noting that the latest release, the 2021 schedule, had the most new venues of any schedule in recent years. Back in October of 2022, Steve Phelps said that the 2024 schedule would be the “Most aggressive when it comes to schedule variation” according to Bob Pockrass.
With that in mind, you would think that NASCAR would like to get the schedule out by the end of September. However, recent reports have said otherwise, as Pockrass reported that the schedule is still “2-3 weeks away” for what seemed like the 100th time in six weeks. How much longer can NASCAR wait?
In relatively recent memory, NASCAR has waited until late October to release their schedules. NASCAR waited until October 15, 2013, to release their 2014 schedule and October 26, 2015, to release their 2016 schedule. That is as far into the year that NASCAR has gone in recent years to release their schedules.
NASCAR has not officially said anything on this, but, they likely want to stay within precedent. Luckily for them, within the last decade, they have waited well into October to release the 2024 schedule.
With this in mind, it is likely that early-mid October could be the 2024 schedule release. However, the best guess for a hard cut-off would be the end of October. There is another reason why NASCAR would not want the schedule to be released beyond October.
The Championship weekend at Phoenix comes in the first weekend of November which is November 3rd-5th with the Round of 8 at Martinsville finishing out the weekend of October 27th-29th. NASCAR probably does not want any major announcements being made the week of the Championship race as most other sports follow that same protocol.
It seems the hard cut-off then would be Martinsville weekend, so, October 27th-29th is likely the hard cut-off. Based on precedent and general PR protocols, it is hard to see NASCAR waiting any longer than that race weekend to announce the 2024 schedule. If they do wait longer than that, we enter into uncharted territory.
