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The Biggest Changes Coming to the 2025 NASCAR Schedule

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Joshua Lipowski

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What’s Happening?

The 2025 NASCAR schedule remains largely a mystery as the Olympic break nears. While plenty of potential changes have been reported, with a few announced, NASCAR has not finalized the schedule. Today, we look at the biggest changes to watch for on the 2025 schedule.

  • The 2024 schedule had some major changes due to the addition of the Olympic break. However, 2025 will revert to NASCAR’s typical schedule format, meaning some dates could change.
  • The 2025 schedule has a few dates that we already know and even features some changes. How do they affect the rest of the schedule?
  • Fans are waiting impatiently for the 2025 schedule. What is it that’s holding back the 2025 schedule?

New Venues

Since 2021, NASCAR has become more aggressive with the schedule, allowing for more drastic changes than in previous years. From 2022 through 2024, NASCAR has added two new venues per year, and NASCAR could potentially hit that number again this year.

First is a swap of the Clash at the LA Coliseum. NASCAR’s contract with the facility ran out after the 2024 event, and a return seems unlikely, at least for now.

Over the last few months, a favorite has emerged for the season-opening Clash: Bowman Gray Stadium, a track NASCAR purchased earlier this year. While no official announcement has been made, multiple reports have indicated this could host the Clash in 2025. It would likely be similar to the Clash at the LA Coliseum, but the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, location means cold weather in early February.

The second potential new date remains a mystery. In the spring, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that Mexico City would be on the 2025 NASCAR schedule. Jordan Bianchi reported in early May that “Confidence is high” about Mexico joining the schedule, replacing a Richmond date, but times have changed.

It’s now July, and no official announcement has occurred. Bob Pockrass reported following the Chicago Street Race that whether or not NASCAR races internationally is something NASCAR has to determine before releasing the schedule.

It’s playing out similar to the 2024 schedule release. Montreal, Canada, also a 2025 schedule candidate, was the hot schedule topic of the summer of 2023 as a possibility to fill Auto Club Speedway’s vacant spot. It never happened, and NASCAR added a race at Iowa Speedway instead.

Outside of these venues, it doesn’t seem likely NASCAR will add anything more to the 2025 schedule. Any other changes will be date swaps.

Date Swaps

The 2025 schedule will revert to the 38 events in 40 weeks model that NASCAR used in 2022 and 2023. One off-weekend will likely be scheduled on Super Bowl weekend between the Clash and the Daytona 500, and a second will be scheduled sometime during the regular season, presumably Easter. In May, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic originally reported that NASCAR is expected to have Easter weekend 2025 off.

Easter is scheduled for April 20, 2025, the same weekend as the Talladega spring weekend in 2024. Talladega has hosted a spring race since 1970, but the track’s second race was hosted in July or August from 1970 through 1996. As unlikely as it may be, maybe NASCAR could get creative and move Talladega’s early date to the summer, but, in all likelihood, Talladega will probably move somewhere else in the springtime to ensure a warm weather spring date.

The Olympic Break is no more for 2025, and that break forced changes to the schedule. This included pushing the schedule back a week, making Darlington the regular season finale and Daytona the penultimate race of the regular season. Multiple reports indicate Daytona will return to being the regular season finale, and Darlington will become the Playoff opener once again.

We also already know that Atlanta will no longer be the Playoff opener in 2025, regardless of whether or not Darlington returns to that spot. Atlanta will open NASCAR’s new in-season tournament and start TNT’s portion of the 2025 schedule the last weekend of June.

That late June slot is currently occupied by Nashville Superspeedway, meaning Nashville will be on the move for 2025. Nashville has been a summertime race since joining the schedule in 2021, so it could slot earlier in June or maybe when the 2024 Olympic break is in late July or early August, potentially making it part of the in-season tournament.

Jordan Bianchi’s most recent schedule report came after the New Hampshire race. He disclosed that two additional tracks, Wakins Glen and Homestead, are reportedly being removed from the 2025 Playoffs, while Gateway and New Hampshire are reportedly joining the Playoffs. Homestead would reportedly move to the spring, with Watkins Glen returning to its traditional August date.

If Homestead-Miami moves to the spring, something has to move. Maybe we could see tracks like Bristol or Dover, notorious for weather issues in the spring, moving to later in the season, potentially Gateway’s vacant weekend. With New Hampshire in the Playoffs, maybe that’s where Nashville slots in to keep the date close to the current one.

Another loose end is Iowa Speedway, a track NASCAR has yet to commit to for 2025. While the first Cup Series weekend featured a sell-out crowd and a solid race to boot, the track is not in a major market, and it still holds only around 30,000 spectators, low for a NASCAR track. If more new venues join the schedule, will NASCAR stay in Iowa? After two years, NASCAR quickly pulled the plug on Road America despite the track pulling in good crowds.

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Joshua Lipowski

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