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NASCAR’s 2021 schedule is out. Here are all of the changes you’ll see.

NASCAR is following up its pandemic era scheduling overhauls with more massive changes. The 2021 Cup schedule was released Wednesday afternoon, following early reports of drastic updates.

The changes include multiple road course races, a dirt track race at Bristol and the All-Star Race moving to Texas Motor Speedway, according to a first report of the full schedule by Motorsport.com, which has since confirmed by the individual tracks.

“I’m proud of the collaborative effort amongst our team at Speedway Motorsports and NASCAR, along with FOX, NBC and the race teams, to produce something spectacular for NASCAR fans whether they are watching from the grandstands or on television,” a statement from Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith said. “We made some bold changes with new markets and new speedways, and we’ve also stayed true to our legendary speedways across the country.”

To make room for the changes, Chicagoland and Kentucky will not be hosting Cup races next season. On Tuesday, both speedways confirmed that the series will not be visiting either track. Chicagoland Speedway president Scott Paddock said in a statement that the move was intended to “incorporate new markets and new courses into the schedule, and expand the variety of competition.”

Those new markets will come in the form of a race at Nashville Superspeedway, a 1.33-mile track which last hosted a NASCAR event in 2011, as parent company Dover Motorsports relinquishes a race date at its one mile intermediate track at Dover International Speedway, allowing the sport to push into the Nashville market, which includes nearby Fairgrounds Speedway — a short track closer to the city center.

The addition of Nashville also likely accounts in part for the move away from Kentucky, which hosted its first Cup race in 2011, as the region will be getting another race. Despite a thrilling finish at the track in July, in which rookie Cole Custer took the checkered flag off a four-wide pass, there is speculation that the Speedway Motorsports ownership group is looking to divert development to Atlanta Motor Speedway with plans in place to build out a $1 billion entertainment casino.

The intermediate Atlanta track will have an additional event next season, with races in March and July, the speedway announced Wednesday morning. The track will maintain its usual spring race, the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500, which was moved to June this year due to the pandemic. That race will be on March 21, followed by the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart, which previously was the entitlement sponsor for Kentucky, on July 11 at Atlanta. The speedway said it plans to host fans for the Cup races in a “socially distanced, limited capacity,” with seating and camping location availability determined based on health and safety guidelines.

In addition to Atlanta, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina will get two 2021 events, in May (Mother’s Day) and September (Southern 500 on Labor Day), as Kentucky and Chicagoland are removed. Texas, Michigan and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval also account for the tracks losing a race, per the report. The series will move to the Indianapolis road course on August 15 in place of an oval race at the track, IMS announced Wednesday. The Brickyard Weekend will also feature an IndyCar Race the day before.

“Of course, we’re disappointed the Bluegrass State is not on NASCAR’s schedule for 2021, as the past two decades have been filled with memorable moments that will last a lifetime” Kentucky Speedway executive vice president Mark Simendinger said in a statement. “This has been a tough year for so many, but there are still wild adventures ahead.”

Kentucky Speedway will evolve into a “multi-use rental complex and also seek additional entrepreneurial prospects,” according to the statement. It will also include hosting “special events, commercial television production, music festivals, other racing series and stand-alone RV rallies and camping events.”

Meanwhile, NASCAR is balancing its business interests alongside a push for more road course and short track racing. A first report by The Athletic indicated that NASCAR intended to add a Cup race at Circuit of the Americas, a 3.426-mile road course in Austin, Texas, to the 2021 schedule. That report was expanded on Wednesday evening by Motorsport, which revealed six total road course races in the new schedule, including races at Road America, Sonoma, Watkins Glen, the Indy Road Course and the Charlotte Roval, in addition to a race at Circuit of the Americas.

Circuit of the Americas confirmed Wednesday that the series will run for the first time at the Austin, Texas course on May 23. Road America in Plymouth, Wis. also announced Wednesday its July 4 race on the Cup schedule, marking the first time in over six decades that NASCAR’s top series will run at the track. Road America held its first Xfinity race in 2010.

“Everything is bigger in Texas, including our passion for NASCAR, and NASCAR will be even bigger and better in Texas in 2021 with the addition of this race in Austin,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a statement. “Along with the races at Texas Motor Speedway, this will be a great experience for NASCAR fans in Texas, while also boosting the Texas economy.”

This year, there were only two road course races on the schedule — one at Daytona (in a pandemic-era pivot) and the series’ regularly featured Charlotte Roval, which is still two weeks out. The sanctioning body has publicly expressed interest in trying different racetracks and formats, which will likely include a shift to more short-tracks in future schedules.

For example, a report from The Athletic earlier this month indicates that NASCAR plans to convert Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. from a two-mile intermediate track to a half-mile short track, and those plans could be finished as early as 2023 to better align with the release of the Next Gen car model, which was pushed to 2022 due to the testing limitations brought on by the pandemic.

The major news affecting the Charlotte-area, however, will be the All-Star Race shifting to Texas. The non-points race moved from Charlotte Motor Speedway to Bristol Motor Speedway this year as North Carolina experienced rising rates of COVID-19, marking the first year since 1986 that Charlotte did not host the mid-season event. The move to Texas is reportedly intended to make up for the points race TMS is losing to a road course, specifically, Circuit of the Americas, which is roughly three and a half hours south of the Fort Worth-based track, but the change also reflects NASCAR’s sweeping “try it” mentality within the schedule.

“The reason the All-Star Race is here is because this track does it right,” NASCAR executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said at the announcement press conference. “They put on big events. They make it fun.”

The All-Star event will be preceded by an Xfinity and Trucks race at Texas Motor Speedway that weekend. The track will also maintain a playoff race in October.

Texas Motor Speedway president Eddie Gossage called it, “The single best schedule in the history of Texas Motor Speedway.”

Texas, Bristol and Charlotte, along with Atlanta, Kentucky, Las Vegas, New Hampshire and Sonoma, are all subsidiaries of the Speedway Motorsports portfolio, which gives the ownership group a degree of control in interchanging those race locations. In 2011, following SMI’s purchase of Kentucky from its original investors years earlier, the group moved its Atlanta race to the northern Kentucky-based track to host its first Cup Series event, so it’s not impossible to think the race could eventually move back to Charlotte, or even to an entirely new location in 2022 depending on how next year goes.

In addition to juggling speedway interests, emerging markets and the “more short tracks” movement, NASCAR is also working with broadcast partners FOX Sports and NBC Sports Network to craft its schedule, which factored into the sport’s decision to host a dirt track race at Bristol, according to the Bristol Herald Courier.

While the All-Star Race shifting locations is the change closest to home, the dirt track race at Bristol is probably the most shocking. The Food City event on March 28 will be a new venture for the World’s Fastest Half-Mile, which is a concrete oval. The last Cup Series race on a dirt track occurred in 1970 at the State Fairgrounds Speedway, and Bristol will need to be converted to dirt for the event, which would be a massive undertaking.

Bristol Motor Speedway president Jerry Caldwell officially announced Wednesday afternoon the ‘21 conversion to dirt, saying that the decision was in response to fan feedback and marked a “return to our roots in racing.”

“The short-track-focused dirt racing,” Caldwell said. “It’s been talked about for a while here through all of the different parties.”

The track was previously transformed to dirt for World of Outlaws races in 2000 and 2001, which required “a lot” of dirt, Caldwell said. Roughly 14,000 truckloads were brought in for those races, according to NBCSports.com, and while Caldwell did not offer logistical details, he said the speedway feels confident it will be able to pull off the undertaking.

“Having done it before allowed us to know that we could do it again,” Caldwell said. “And we can do it better than we did, so we look forward to that.”

The Night Race at Bristol will also remain in the schedule as the Round of 16 cutoff race during the playoffs on Sept. 18.

And it’s finally confirmed: Barring the first and final races, the 2021 NASCAR schedule is, in fact, dynamic and different.

2021 NASCAR Cup Schedule (official):

Tuesday, February 9

Clash (Daytona Road Course)

Thursday, February 11

Duel at Daytona

Sunday, February 14

DAYTONA 500

Sunday, February 21

Homestead-Miami

Sunday, February 28

Auto Club

Sunday, March 7

Las Vegas

Sunday, March 14

Phoenix

Sunday, March 21

Atlanta

Sunday, March 28

Bristol Dirt

Saturday, April 10

Martinsville

Sunday, April 18

Richmond

Sunday, April 25

Talladega

Sunday, May 2

Kansas

Sunday, May 9

Darlington

Sunday, May 16

Dover

Sunday, May 23

COTA

Sunday, May 30

Charlotte

Sunday, June 6

Sonoma

Sunday, June 13

All-Star (Texas)

Sunday, June 20

Nashville Superspeedway

Saturday & Sunday, June 26-27

Pocono Doubleheader

Sunday, July 4

Road America

Sunday, July 11

Atlanta

Sunday, July 18

New Hampshire

Sunday, August 8

Watkins Glen

Sunday, August 15

Indianapolis Road Course

Sunday, August 22

Michigan

Saturday, August 28

Daytona

Sunday, September 5

Darlington*

Saturday, September 11

Richmond*

Saturday, September 18

Bristol*

Sunday, September 26

Las Vegas*

Sunday, October 3

Talladega*

Sunday, October 10

Charlotte Roval*

Sunday, October 17

Texas*

Sunday, October 24

Kansas*

Sunday, October 31

Martinsville*

Sunday, November 7

Phoenix*

*Indicates playoff races