2024 NASCAR Cup Series schedule revealed

The year will begin with the pre-season exhibition race at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum for the third consecutive year, which will be 4 February at 8pm EST.

The NASCAR Mexico Series will join the event, competing just before the Cup Series race.

There are some changes to the schedule beyond the Daytona 500. There will be two drafting tracks back-to-back to open the 2024 championship with Atlanta Motor Speedway slated as the second race of the year. Auto Club Speedway has officially been removed, as expected.

As previously announced, Bristol Dirt is gone and the spring race has returned to the concrete.

However, it will no longer take place on Easter Sunday — that date will now go to Richmond Raceway.

Texas Motor Speedway has been removed from the playoffs. It previously opened the Round of 12 but in 2024, it will be the ninth race of the season on 14 April.

North Wilkesboro Speedway will get a repave before it hosts the All-Star Race for a second consecutive year on 19 May.

Iowa Speedway is the only new track joining the schedule. As announced earlier this week, the first Cup Series race in the state of Iowa since 1953 will take place on 16 June.

The Chicago Street Course will be back for the second consecutive year, taking place on 7 July.

NASCAR’s highly anticipated return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval marks the final race before the summer break.

Following the Brickyard 400 on 21 July, NASCAR will take two weeks off due to the Olympics and return with another primetime Richmond race on 11 August.

The next batch of races is where some of the biggest changes occur. Daytona International Speedway will not be hosting the regular season finale.

The Southern 500 at Darlington, which had previously been the first race in the playoffs, will now serve as the regular season finale. The 1 September race will have its usual time slot of 6pm EST with.

Daytona hasn’t moved far, now the week before Darlington.

The opening round of the playoffs will have a very different look, with the addition of Atlanta as the very first race. There will be two drafting tracks in the playoffs as it joins Talladega.

Watkins Glen International will make it two road courses as well, joining the Charlotte Roval in the playoffs for the first time and immediately following Atlanta in the Round of 16.

Kansas Speedway will take Texas’ place as the opening race of the Round of 12, with the six races that conclude the season remaining unchanged.

Phoenix Raceway will again host the Championship 4 finale, which it has done since 2020. The finale will take place on 10 November.

“NASCAR is committed to delivering an annual schedule that continues to be bold and dynamic across all three national series while maintaining the famed destinations that our fans love,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Racing Development and Strategy.

“The 2024 NASCAR National Series schedules strike a great balance between visiting many of our traditional tracks that continue to put on a great show, and newer locations like our first Cup race in Iowa and our highly anticipated return to the streets of Chicago that create ‘bucket list’ moments and attract new fans to America’s leading motorsport.”

Complete 2024 NASCAR Cup Schedule