NASCAR Cup Series
Parker Retzlaff’s Addresses Chevrolet Criticism of Last Lap Daytona Push
Aug 28, 2024
After several months of rampant speculation and impatient waiting, NASCAR has finally released its 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Unchanged for next season is the schedule length, keeping with the same 38-week format that NASCAR's premier division has utilized since 2001.
The season begins on February 2 -- 84 days after the season-finale at Phoenix -- with the Busch Light Clash at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The first points-paying event of the year, though, remains the Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 16.
Several tracks will see shifts in their race dates during the FOX portion of the schedule, including Circuit of The Americas which jumps ahead three weeks (March 2), Las Vegas moving back two weeks (March 16), and Darlington shifting more than a month forward (April 6).
Homestead-Miami Speedway, which has spent multiple stints inside the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, has been flipped to the front end of the schedule, with the popular 1.5-mile facility giving another attempt to a Spring date (March 23).
The NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway will conclude the 25th season of NASCAR Cup Series coverage for FOX Sports.
Prime Video (Amazon) will get its first taste of NASCAR Cup Series action on Memorial Day Weekend, broadcasting the crown jewel event of the Coca-Cola 600 as the first premier series event to be exclusively on a streaming platform.
Amazon will also get the benefit of broadcasting NASCAR's first points-paying event outside of the United States in nearly seven decades, with the NASCAR Cup Series heading to Mexico City on June 15 to run at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway both make significant jumps forward on the schedule, and will be part of Prime Video's five-race schedule for the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025.
Warner Brothers Discovery (via TNT and Bleacher Report/HBO Max) will make its NASCAR debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway (June 28), with the first in a five-race in-season bracket-style tournament that includes events at Chicago (July 6), Sonoma (July 13), Dover (July 20), and Indianapolis (July 27).
NBC Sports will begin its bookend coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series with a return to Iowa Speedway (August 3), taking on the final four events of the regular season, before providing exclusive coverage of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
The post-season has gotten a facelift this season for the NASCAR Cup Series.
Darlington Raceway (August 31) will return to open the Playoffs for the NASCAR Cup Series, with World Wide Technology Raceway shifting its race date to the Fall, marking the first time the 1.25-mile facility will occupy a spot in the postseason.
New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been shifted from mid-Summer to the Fall once again, returning the 1.058-mile oval to the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff spot that it had previously occupied when the track had two dates.
The most notable change for the post-season though has to be Talladega Superspeedway, which moves from a Round of 12 event to the middle race in the Round of 8 and will now have a direct influence on who competes for a championship at Phoenix Raceway, which once again will finish off the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign (November 2).
Race No. | Date | Track | TV Partner |
-- | Feb. 2 | (The Clash) Bowman Gray Stadium | FOX Sports |
-- | Feb. 13 | (Duel 1) Daytona International Speedway | FOX Sports |
-- | Feb. 13 | (Duel 2) Daytona International Speedway | FOX Sports |
1 | Feb. 16 | (Daytona 500) Daytona International Speedway | FOX Sports |
2 | Feb. 23 | Atlanta Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
3 | Mar. 2 | Circuit of the Americas | FOX Sports |
4 | Mar. 9 | Phoenix Raceway | FOX Sports |
5 | Mar. 16 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
6 | Mar. 23 | Homestead-Miami Speedway | FOX Sports |
7 | Mar. 30 | Martinsville Speedway | FOX Sports |
8 | Apr. 6 | Darlington Raceway | FOX Sports |
9 | Apr. 13 | Bristol Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
10 | Apr. 27 | Talladega Superspeedway | FOX Sports |
11 | May 4 | Texas Motor Speedway | FOX Sports |
12 | May 11 | Kansas Speedway | FOX Sports |
-- | May 18 | (All-Star) North Wilkesboro Speedway | FOX Sports |
13 | May 25 | (Coca-Cola 600) Charlotte Motor Speedway | Prime Video |
14 | June 1 | Nashville Superspeedway | Prime Video |
15 | June 8 | Michigan International Speedway | Prime Video |
16 | June 15 | Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (Mexico City) | Prime Video |
17 | June 22 | Pocono Raceway | Prime Video |
18 | June 28 | Atlanta Motor Speedway | TNT Sports |
19 | July 6 | Chicago Street Race | TNT Sports |
20 | July 13 | Sonoma Raceway | TNT Sports |
21 | July 20 | Dover Motor Speedway | TNT Sports |
22 | July 27 | (Brickyard 400) Indianapolis Motor Speedway | TNT Sports |
23 | Aug. 3 | Iowa Speedway | NBC Sports |
24 | Aug. 10 | Watkins Glen International | NBC Sports |
25 | Aug. 16 | Richmond Raceway | NBC Sports |
26 | Aug. 23 | Daytona International Speedway | NBC Sports |
NASCAR Playoffs Round of 16 | |||
27 | Aug. 31 | (Southern 500) Darlington Raceway | NBC Sports |
28 | Sept. 7 | World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) | NBC Sports |
29 | Sept. 13 | Bristol Motor Speedway | NBC Sports |
NASCAR Playoffs Round of 12 | |||
30 | Sept. 21 | New Hampshire Motor Speedway | NBC Sports |
31 | Sept. 28 | Kansas Speedway | NBC Sports |
32 | Oct. 5 | Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL | NBC Sports |
NASCAR Playoffs Round of 8 | |||
33 | Oct. 12 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | NBC Sports |
34 | Oct. 19 | Talladega Superspeedway | NBC Sports |
35 | Oct. 26 | Martinsville Speedway | NBC Sports |
Championship 4 | |||
36 | Nov. 2 | (NASCAR Cup Championship Race) Phoenix Raceway | NBC Sports |
Photo Credit: Jared Bokanoski, TobyChristie.com