Analysis: Examining changes to 2024 NASCAR Cup schedule

While the 2024 NASCAR Cup schedule only has one new track on the schedule, there are several significant changes for next season.

Here’s a look at those changes and the impact they could have:

WHAT ABOUT THE CHANGE TO THE START OF THE SEASON?

Teams won’t appreciate starting the season with the Daytona 500 and then going to Atlanta, another drafting style track the next week.

That’s a recipe to tear up a number of cars before teams head West the following two weeks for Las Vegas and Phoenix.

This year’s Daytona 500 saw 29 of the 40 cars collected in accidents. In the Atlanta spring race, 16 of the 36 cars were involved in an accident.

Good chance that multiple teams could have a pair of wrecked cars to replace or repair after the first two races of the season. That could provide an early strain to those organizations. The key will be to not let that affect performance in following races.

WHEN ARE THE OFF WEEKENDS?

There will be 38 races in a 41-weekend stretch.

After the Feb. 4 Busch Light Clash at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, teams will have a weekend off Feb. 10.

The Feb. 18 Daytona 500 begins a stretch of 23 consecutive weekends of racing before teams have July 28 and Aug. 4 off. That coincides with the Olympics on NBC.

Teams return to action Aug. 11 at Richmond and finish the season with 14 consecutive weekends of racing.

In the 2023 season, teams had 17 consecutive weekends of racing after the Daytona 500 before a break in June. The series will finish this season with 20 consecutive weekends of racing.

WHY IS DARLINGTON THE REGULAR-SEASON FINALE?

That’s how the schedule fell. With the two-week break in late July and early August for the Olympics, NASCAR would have needed to create a doubleheader weekend afterward to put the schedule back in line. A doubleheader weekend was not created, so the 26th race of the season — the regular-season finale — fell on Labor Day weekend.

NASCAR learned long ago the consequences from the fan base about taking the Southern 500 off that date. That wasn’t going to happen again.

So, Darlington is the regular-season finale.

Daytona, which had been the regular-season finale, will be the week before the Southern 500.

HOW ABOUT THOSE PLAYOFF CHANGES?

Texas and the Southern 500 are out of the playoffs. Texas moves to the spring. The Southern 500 becomes the regular-season finale.

New to the playoffs will be Atlanta and Watkins Glen.

Atlanta will open the playoffs on Sept. 8. Watkins Glen will be the following weekend. Bristol will remain the elimination race in the Round of 16.

Kansas, which moves from the Round of 16, will begin the Round of 12.

With these changes, the playoffs will have two drafting style races — Atlanta in the opening round and Talladega in the second round.

Having 20% of the playoffs at those type of tracks makes the postseason more random. At least with the Southern 500 as the playoff opener, if there was an issue that led to a poor finish, it often was the team’s fault or driver’s fault. At Atlanta, being a victim of an accident could be enough to eliminate someone.

Also, Watkins Glen’s addition, means there are two road courses in the playoffs, joining the Charlotte Roval. There are only three road course/street course races in the regular season in 2024: Circuit of the Americas, Chicago and Sonoma.

Road and street courses comprise 11.5% of the regular-season schedule. Such courses will comprise 20% of the playoffs.

SO WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF THE CHANGES TO THE PLAYOFFS?

The pressure to score playoff points will increase. Just look at how much winning the regular-season championship (and those 15 extra playoff points) has meant to Martin Truex Jr. this year.

He entered the first round with 36 playoff points and avoided becoming the first regular-season champion to be eliminated so early in the postseason by five points.

With the first round having Atlanta in it, along with Bristol, and the second round including Talladega and the Charlotte Roval, playoff points are vital. They’re needed to provide a cushion should a driver be collected in a crash at Atlanta and/or Talladega.

That will make the race for those stage victories even more hectic next year.

OTHER NOTABLE CHANGES

The Cup Series again will race on Easter (March 31) but it will be at Richmond in 2024.

The spring Atlanta date moves to Feb. 25, the second race of the season.

Cup will race for the first time at Iowa Speedway, as that facility takes the place of the track in Fontana, California, on the schedule.

The lone Cup race at Texas Motor Speedway will be April 14. This will mark only the second time since 2005 that the track has not hosted a playoff race. The only other time came during the 2020 season when the schedule changed dramatically because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The five road courses on the schedule are the fewest in a season since there were only two in 2020. This year has six road courses. There were seven road course races on the 2021 schedule.

The Bristol Dirt race is gone. The series will race twice on the concrete there. The track’s spring date moves to March 17. The series is moving from the road course back to the oval at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That race will be July 21, the final race before the two-week break.

HOLIDAY RACES

Cup races on a holiday in 2024 are:

Easter (March 31) — Richmond 

Mother’s Day (May 12) — Darlington

Memorial Day Weekend (May 26) — Coca-Cola 600

Father’s Day (June 16) — Iowa

July 4 Weekend (July 7) — Chicago street course

Labor Day Weekend (Sept 1) — Southern 500

RACES WITH A SIGNIFICANT START TIME CHANGE IN 2024

Nashville was a night race this season but moves to a day race in 2024. The track’s June 30 Cup race is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. ET and the be the first of 10 Cup races on NBC.

Atlanta’s summer race this season was a night race but moves to a day race to start the playoffs in 2024. The Sept. 8 race will begin at 3 p.m. ET.

Both of Richmond’s dates will have time changes.

The spring race’s move to Easter makes it a night race after it was a day event this year. The Easter race will begin at 7 p.m. ET.

Richmond’s summer race was held during the day this year, but the Aug. 11 race next season will start at 6 p.m. ET.

The Bristol spring race goes from a night event to a day race with moving of Easter. The March 17 race there will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET