CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR added Atlanta Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen International to the 10-race playoffs as part of the 2024 Cup Series schedule released Wednesday.
Many of the most significant changes to the schedule had already been announced: Tennessee’s Bristol Motor Speedway will not continue to add temporary dirt on top of its concrete bullring for its spring race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway is returning NASCAR to its historic oval, and Iowa Speedway will finally host a Cup Series race.
The remainder of the schedule release showed that the season again begins with the exhibition Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (Feb. 4), with the regular season opening on Feb. 18 in Florida with the Daytona 500 and the year’s finale once again at Phoenix Raceway, where the Cup Series champion will be crowned on Nov. 10.
The notable changes to the schedule are the additions of playoff races of Atlanta and Watkins Glen, as well as the regular-season finale moving one week later and from Daytona International Speedway to South Carolina’s Darlington Raceway. Daytona’s second date on the schedule had most recently been the regular-season finale and Darlington’s Southern 500 the playoff opener.
Now the playoffs will begin at Atlanta, which remains a two-race venue in 2024. In addition to its playoff race, the 1.54-mile oval in Hampton, Georgia, will also host the second race of the regular season on Feb. 25.
Watkins Glen, the road course in upstate New York, has the second race of the playoffs.
Texas Motor Speedway lost the playoff race it has hosted since 2004, and its lone Cup Series race will be on April 14. Kansas Speedway, meanwhile, had its playoff race moved from the middle date in the round of 16 to the opening date in the round of 12.
At Virginia’s Richmond Raceway, its annual spring race will be on Easter, a shift to the date most recently held by Bristol. The Tennessee short track is not only removing the temporary dirt that had given its spring race a unique angle the last three years, it’s going back to a March date after nearly a decade of battling inclement weather at that time of the year.
One surprise is the return of the hybrid oval/road course at Charlotte Motor Speedway, which hosts this Sunday’s playoff elimination race in the round of 12. Last week, multiple drivers said they wanted the Roval off the schedule with a return to the regular oval at CMS in Concord, North Carolina, but the track’s parent company is hanging on to the idea that began as a novelty.
Iowa Speedway, located in Newton and about a 40-minute drive east of Des Moines, will host a Cup Series race on June 16. The 0.875-mile oval designed by NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Rusty Wallace has previously hosted races for the second-tier Xfinity Series and the third-tier Truck Series, though it has not had any NASCAR national series events since 2019.
The venue, which has a listed capacity of 30,000, has hosted IndyCar races since it opened in 2006.
The storied Brickyard race at Indianapolis will celebrate its 30th anniversary next year, and the July 21 event will be on the 2.5-mile oval after being held on the same venue’s 2.439-mile road course the past three seasons as part of a shared weekend with the IndyCar Series. Now, instead of IndyCar, the Cup Series will share the weekend with the Xfinity Series.
Another announcement that came last week was that North Carolina’s historic North Wilkesboro Speedway would host the NASCAR All-Star Race in 2024 for the second straight season. This past May, NASCAR’s top circuit returned to the .625-mile oval for the first time in 27 years, doing so as part of NASCAR’s 75th anniversary season.
The May 19 race, which does not award points for the regular-season standings but has come with a $1 million prize for the winner, will again be held the weekend before the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
NASCAR, like IndyCar, will have a two-week break in late July and early August during the 2024 Paris Olympics to accommodate broadcast partner NBC Sports.
AP photo by Brynn Anderson / Drivers start a NASCAR Cup Series race on July 9 at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, Ga.Here’s the complete 2024 Cup Series schedule, including TV network information:
EXHIBITION
Sunday, Feb. 4 — Clash at L.A. Memorial Coliseum, Fox
Thursday, Feb. 15 — Daytona 500 qualifying duels, FS1
REGULAR SEASON
Sunday, Feb. 18 — Daytona, Fox
Sunday, Feb. 25 — Atlanta, Fox
Sunday, March 3 — Las Vegas, Fox
Sunday, March 10 — Phoenix, Fox
Sunday, March 17 — Bristol, Fox
Sunday, March 24 — Circuit of the Americas, Fox
Sunday, March 31 — Richmond, Fox
Sunday, April 7 — Martinsville, FS1
Sunday, April 14 — Texas, FS1
Sunday, April 21 — Talladega, Fox
Sunday, April 28 — Dover, FS1
Sunday, May 5 — Kansas, FS1
Sunday, May 12 — Darlington, FS1
Sunday, May 19 —North Wilkesboro, FS1
Sinday, May 26 — Charlotte, Fox
Sunday, June 2 — World Wide Technology Raceway, FS1
Sunday, June 9 — Sonoma, Fox
Sunday, June 16 — Iowa, USA
Sunday, June 23 — New Hampshire, USA
Sunday, June 30 — Nashville, NBC
Sunday, July 7 — Chicago, NBC
Sunday, July 14 — Pocono, USA
Sunday, July 21 — Indianapolis, NBC
Sunday, Aug. 11 — Richmond, USA
Sunday, Aug. 18 — Michigan, USA
Saturday, Aug. 24 — Daytona, NBC
Sunday, Sept. 1 — Darlington, USA
PLAYOFFS
Sunday, Sept. 8 — Atlanta, USA
Sunday, Sept. 15 — Watkins Glen, USA
Saturday, Sept. 21 — Bristol, USA
Sunday, Sept. 29 — Kansas, USA
Sunday, Oct. 6 — Talladega, NBC
Sunday, Oct. 13 —Charlotte Roval, NBC
Sunday, Oct. 20 — Las Vegas, NBC
Sunday, Oct. 27 — Homestead-Miami, NBC
Sunday, Nov. 3 —Martinsville, NBC
Sunday, Nov. 10 — Phoenix, NBC