While the official NASCAR 2024 season schedule has yet to be released, there have a few announcements recently that are shedding some light on how things will look.
There is no change on where and how the season will officially begin – Daytona International Speedway with the Daytona 500. But only after the drivers have had a little fun in the California sun with a return of the. Us h Light Clash at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles.
Gone are the dirt race at Bristol and the road course race at Road America.
And the Brickyard 400 makes a return when NASCAR abandons the road course race at Indianapolis for a return to the two and a half mile oval. Next year marks 30 years since the Brickyard debut where Jeff Gordon crossed the finish line first.
Also coming back is the annual All Star Race to North Wilkesboro after the successful debut this year.
Helping NASCAR celebrate its 75th anniversary this year, the return to North Wilkesboro was the first time a race was held since 1996. The track is among the oldest in the NASCAR circuit; with the first race being held in 1949.
For the past few years, NASCAR has run on the mile and a half oval for the annual Coca-Cola 600 in May and the combination road course-oval — the Roval — for the playoffs in the fall at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Next year both races will be run on the oval track only.
Unless NASCAR makes some major changes elsewhere, the new schedule will eliminate three of the current non-oval tracks in the NASCAR schedule; leaving only COTA, Sonoma, and Watkins Glen as road course races in the Cup Series. While there has been no official word, NASCAR has a three year deal to race on the streets of Chicago.
The end of the 2023 racing season is just over a month away, but the 2024 season will be upon us in short order.