History of NASCAR schedule realignments refers to changes in the schedule of the NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.
First Cup schedule in 1949 The first season in 1949 consists of 8 races, exclusively on dirt tracks. The season began on June, 19 at Charlotte Speedway, a 3/4-mile short track in the Charlotte area in North Carolina The second race took place on the first Sunday after Independence Day (July 10) at Daytona Beach, Florida. The third race was run at Occoneechee Speedway (Hillsboro, North Carolina) on the first Sunday in August. In September, there were three races, first at Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania, second at Hamburg Speedway in New York and third at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia. The last two races, one at Heidelberg Raceway near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and one at North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina, was run in October, with the last race run at Sunday the 16th.1949 season overview on racing-reference.info
1972 Changes 1972 was the first year of NASCAR's 'modern era'. All races for the Cup Series at ovals under 0.5 miles in length (and under 250 miles in distance), and dirt ovals, were removed from the schedule, that included popular tracks like Greenville-Pickens Speedway, Hickory Motor Speedway, and Columbia Speedway. Some of these venues were still used for races in NASCAR's second national series.
This resulted in the Cup schedule being reduced from 48 races, to 31, with all races now being run on the weekends to reduce exhausting travel for the teams and drivers, and to maximize attendance/viewership (with the exception of the Southern 500, which ran on Labor Day).
2003–2010
2003 announcement In a January 2003 press conference, NASCAR's chairman of the board, Bill France Jr., caused a stir when he interrupted the conference to announce big changes for 2004. France said that many tracks were under fire and being looked at as having race dates taken from them, and given to other facilities. Among the scenarios being looked at by France were how tracks did with ticket sales, and how the weather affected those races. Two tracks immediately looked at by the media were the North Carolina Speedway and Darlington Raceway. Both tracks' events at the time almost never sold out, and the weather, especially at the North Carolina Speedway, had been a major problem, as rain forced many races to be postponed until the next day, typically Monday, which caused attendance to be even worse.
Realignment 2004 "Realignment 2004" was announced in June 2003 at the Winston Cup race weekend at the Michigan International Speedway. While there were only a few changes, they were major. In June 1997, Auto Club Speedway began hosting a Winston Cup race. The track is located in Fontana, California, just outside Los Angeles, and so many fans flocked to the first race, and very quickly, the Los Angeles area became NASCAR's largest market. So, it was announced that Darlington's Southern 500, held on Labor Day weekend for 54 years, would be moved to November for 2004, alienating the fan base of long time NASCAR fans. In the process, Rockingham's November date, the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400, would move to Fontana, become the Pop Secret 500, and be run from the late evening into the night on the West Coast on the day before Labor Day, while also being shown live on NBC in primetime. The move of the race to September left Rockingham with just one race to run in 2004: its February date, the Subway 400.
Realignment 2005 "Realignment 2004" was unpopular with many, but unlike "realignment 2005", the previous realignment in the schedule was not tied in with a lawsuit. In April 1997 the Winston Cup Series began racing at the newly built Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (which also oversees operations of tracks in Bristol, Tennessee, Hampton, Georgia, Loudon, New Hampshire, and Concord, North Carolina, all of which have two race dates a year) thought that the first race at Texas was popular enough to warrant another date. Soon, the company began pressing NASCAR to give them another date, but NASCAR refused to grant the track a second race.
Early in the 2000s, SMI shareholder Francis Ferko filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, saying that it failed to come through on a promise to give Texas a second date. NASCAR denied making any promise of any kind. (Ferko filed the suit on his own; Smith did not want any part of the it.)
In May 2004, NASCAR announced that they and Texas Speedway had reached a settlement. As part of the settlement ISC sold North Carolina Speedway to SMI, who in turn gave the race to Texas. This not only cost Rockingham its Nextel Cup date, but left it with no dates in any of NASCAR's national racing series in 2005 (the track's remaining Busch Series date was removed, and at the time the track had never had a Truck series date). However, the loss of a NASCAR presence would ultimately prove a blessing in disguise for Rockingham; it is now one of the most heavily used venues for testing by NASCAR teams now that testing is prohibited at any track that hosts races in any NASCAR touring series.
The second track to lose a race was Darlington, whose slot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup was given to Texas. Darlington was then left with its spring date, which was moved to Mother's Day weekend (a traditional off-weekend for the Cup Series) and lengthened to 500 miles.
In addition to Texas gaining a second race, for the first time since its debut on the Cup schedule in 1988 Phoenix was granted a second date, this one in an early season slot following the spring race at Texas.
NASCAR also moved the Auto Club 500, the spring race at Fontana, into Rockingham's slot on the schedule (the race immediately following the Daytona 500.)
Realignment 2006–2007 After its Cup Series realignment plans, NASCAR turned to its second national series, the Busch Series, for realignment in 2006. ISC purchased Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado and immediately took its race from the Busch schedule, replacing it with an event at Martinsville Speedway.
As quickly as the race at Martinsville was added to the schedule, it was removed in favor of a race in Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, adding a third road course to the series schedule.
The Nextel Cup Series schedule was left untouched during this time.
Reasons for Rockingham and Darlington losing their races NASCAR has stated that Rockingham and Darlington lost their dates because they were not selling all the tickets for those events, and that giving Darlington only one date would make a sellout more likely since it would be the only race taking place there the following year.
Also, races at both tracks had been affected by rain many times over the past few years. Even if there was no rain, it was usually overcast. Darlington's only race taking place in May also put the scheduling of the race in the peak tornado season in the Southeast.
However, Darlington's future seems secure, with a total sellout for the lone race from 2005 through 2008, and with many major projects being planned or done at the speedway. Due to the sellouts the track owners have considered adding more seats.
Realignment 2009–10 The 2009 season, announced on August 19, 2008, went under a realignment once again after a long break. The fall race at Talladega Superspeedway was moved to a later date on the schedule around Halloween (the first Sunday in November or the final Sunday in October), one previously occupied by Atlanta Motor Speedway's fall event. That race was moved to Labor Day weekend, where California Speedway's inherited autumn event from Darlington had been, and that date was switched to Talladega's old date on the first weekend of October. In addition, the Nationwide Series dropped Mexico City's road course race for a new race in August at the Iowa Speedway, and moved the Montreal event to an open weekend on the Sprint Cup schedule (August 30) with their lone Atlanta race moving to the Labor Day weekend from March. The Camping World Truck Series replaced the spring Milwaukee Mile race with a race at Iowa Speedway to be run on August 26, and also replaced the Memorial Day weekend race at Mansfield Motorsports Park with a race later in the season at Pocono Raceway for the first time in the series' history. In 2010, the NCWTS also got rid of its second race at Auto Club Speedway. This moved all races back one weekend in the season until the first weekend of August, where a race was added at Darlington Raceway, which was put in place after an absence on the series' schedule in the previous season. Other changes included a race at Kentucky Speedway being moved from the summer to the fall.
2011–2019
Realignment 2011 Major schedule changes were announced to combat poor attendance and poor television ratings, both of which had dropped considerably since the introduction of the Generation-5 car and for other reasons.
Cup Series Atlanta Motor Speedway's spring date was discontinued in favor of the Labor Day weekend date. Kentucky Speedway hosted its first Sprint Cup Series race, the Quaker State 400, with room being made for it by dropping the spring Atlanta race. The formal announcement was made on August 10, 2010, and the race took the LifeLock.com 400 slot held by Chicagoland Speedway. Chicagoland became the opening race to the 2011 Chase for the Sprint Cup. New Hampshire Motor Speedway hosted the second race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, as the Sylvania 300 was moved back one week due to Chicagoland gaining the opening Chase race. Kansas Speedway gained a spring race date. The race was run in early June immediately following the Coca-Cola 600. Auto Club Speedway lost its fall race and Chase for the Sprint Cup date, the Pepsi Max 400. The spring race, the Auto Club 500, was moved from February to March and shortened to 400 miles/200 laps. The spring race at Texas Motor Speedway was run on Saturday night, after having been a Sunday afternoon race. The Subway Fresh Fit 600 at Phoenix International Raceway was moved to the second week of the season and returned to its previous distance, and is run during the day for the first time (the awarding of the second race date to Phoenix coincided with the installation of lights at the track and resulted in the race being run at night from its debut). Dover International Speedway maintained both of its Sprint Cup weekends and with the move of Chicagoland to the Chase, Dover's Chase race moved back one week.
In addition to these developments, Las Vegas Motor Speedway bid for a second date for its track and failed to get it. Track management and ownership want to move the final races of the year from Homestead–Miami Speedway (NASCAR Championship Weekend) to Las Vegas as all three of the major series now hold their end-of-season awards banquets there.
Nationwide Series Nashville Superspeedway's second date moved to late July and replaced the date held by Gateway International Raceway, which was closed by track owner Dover Motorsports following the 2010 racing season. Chicagoland Speedway gained a second Nationwide Series date, run on June 4. Iowa Speedway gained a second Nationwide Series date, run on May 22. Michigan International Speedway's date moved to the weekend of the June Sprint Cup race. Circuit Gilles Villeneuve's date moved to the weekend of the August Sprint Cup race at Michigan. Auto Club Speedway's fall date was removed from the schedule and not replaced by another track, condensing the schedule from 35 races in 2010 to 34 races in 2011.
Truck Series Phoenix International Raceway's truck series date, which had been run near the end of the season for years, moved to February as part of the realignment of the Cup Series race. Darlington Raceway's truck series date, which was run in August in 2010, moved to March.