Iconic NASCAR venues like Bristol Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway are among the tracks scheduled to host another round of races as the governing body continues rebuilding its schedule amid the global COVID-19 crisis.
NASCAR announced Thursday its plan to hold 12 races across its three national series between May 30 and June 21. Specifically, there will be five more Cup Series immediately following the first four leading the way in NASCAR’s return to the track.
In addition to races at Bristol and Talladega, NASCAR is now also scheduled to compete at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway. And like the others previously announced, fans will not be allowed to attend.
After a 10-week break because of the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR’s first race back is set for Sunday at Darlington Raceway, which will host a second race Wednesday. It will then have two races at Charlotte Motor Speedway — including the Coca-Cola 600 — and will then continue with this second slate of new events.
Following the second Charlotte race on Wednesday, May 27, the NASCAR Cup Series will continue with a race at Bristol on Sunday, May 31.
Here’s a look at the latest update to NASCAR’s revised schedule for its three national series, including five more second-tier XFINITY Series races and two more third-tier Truck Series races:
Saturday, May 30: Bristol, XFINITY Series (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
Sunday, May 31: Bristol, Cup Series (3:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
Saturday, June 6: Atlanta, Truck Series (1 p.m. ET, FS1)
Saturday, June 6: Atlanta, XFINITY Series (4:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
Sunday, June 7: Atlanta, Cup Series (3 p.m. ET, FOX)
Wednesday, June 10: Martinsville, Cup Series (7 p.m. ET, FS1)
Saturday, June 13: Homestead, Truck Series (12:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
Saturday, June 13: Homestead, XFINITY Series (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
Sunday, June 14: Homestead, XFINITY Series (Noon ET, FS1)
Sunday, June 14: Homestead, Cup Series (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
Saturday, June 20: Talladega, XFINITY Series (5:30 p.m. ET, FS1)
Sunday, June 21: Talladega, Cup Series (3 p.m. ET, FOX)
NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, Steve O’Donnell, said in a statement:
“We are eager to expand our schedule while continuing to work closely with the local governments in each of the areas we will visit. We thank the many government officials for their guidance, as we share the same goal in our return – the safety for our competitors and the communities in which we race.”
With NASCAR having to coordinate with states that will allow it to compete while trying to limit the amount of travel time, the schedule’s redesign has been complicated. And with the addition of three new races in the first installment of NASCAR’s return, Chicagoland Speedway, Sonoma Raceway and Richmond Raceway each lost a Cup event.
So along with the latest updates to the schedule, NASCAR also announced race weekends at Kansas Speedway (May 30-31) and Michigan International Speedway (June 5-7) were postponed.
After missing eight races this spring because of the COVID-19 outbreak, NASCAR makes its return Sunday at Darlington Raceway for the Real Heroes 400 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX).
[jwplayer BUpQRs0r-q2aasYxh]
[vertical-gallery id=902845]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 tag=421393221]