Report: Talladega Moving to New Race Weekend in 2025

What’s Happening?

Tuesday morning, the Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi reported that it is highly likely Talladega would move to a new round in a dramatic rearrangement of the NASCAR Playoff schedule. While Bianchi describes this new schedule as tentative, this change would be a break in tradition for Talladega’s fall race weekend.

• Talladega Superspeedway is a 2.660-mile track located in Talladega, AL. The track has hosted its last seven fall races on what is typically the first weekend in October and the 31st race of the season.
• The NASCAR Playoffs is how NASCAR decides its season champion. The sport cuts off its final ten races and divides them into four rounds of three races, except the final round, which is a single-race season finale at Phoenix. After each round, the field, comprised of 16 drivers, is cut down by removing the four lowest-standing drivers. Winning a race advances a driver to the next round and, in the regular season, can lock them into the playoffs.
• Known for its chaos, Talladega has been the only Superspeedway to host a NASCAR Playoff race. This has been the second race of the Round of 12 or the second round of the playoffs. However, Bianchi reports that NASCAR could tentatively move the race to the second race of the Round of Eight, the third round of the playoffs as the third-to-last race of the season.
• The chaos that could come with a late-round race at a Superspeedway is similar to NASCAR’s addition of Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval in 2018 and the move of Daytona’s traditional July Fourth race to the final race of the regular season from 2020 to 2023.

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