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NASCAR's 2012 Sprint Cup tour: the calendar is now official
Trevor Bayne and the Woods scored the Daytona 500 surprise in this season's Sprint Cup tour opener. What surprises might lay ahead for the 2012 NASCAR tour? The official Sprint Cup calendar has just been announced. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
By Mike Mulhern
mikemulhern.net
-- Kansas Speedway on April 22, much earlier than before, and again in the fall playoffs Oct. 21, much later. The changes are to give that track time for a major repave.
-- Talladega, in effect, is giving its two dates to Kansas and moving its own Cup events to May 6th and Oct. 7th.
-- Dover moves back to June, after the May date yielded smaller crowds than typical.
-- With the Daytona 500 having been moved a week later, to Feb. 26, the tour's following two events, at Phoenix and Las Vegas likewise move a week later.
-- Taking Easter into account, Texas' spring race is moving to April 14th.
-- Kentucky Speedway's summer event will move to June 30th.
Specific race times were not announced. Nor is it clear when the Nationwide and Truck tour schedules will be released. Negotiations are apparently still on-going for NASCAR to return to Montreal with the Nationwide tour. And there is speculation that the Nationwide tour, which is losing events at Nashville Speedway, may add events at Rockingham (N.C.) Speedway.
The 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup tour schedule
(official, as of September 28, 2011)
Feb 16 Daytona Media Day, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL
Feb 18 Bud Shootout, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL Sat. Night
Feb 19 Daytona 500 qualifying, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL
Feb 23 Gatorade Duels, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL
Feb 26 Daytona 500, Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL
Mar 4 Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale AZ
Mar 11 Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Las Vegas NV
Mar 18 Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol TN
Mar 25 California Auto Club Speedway, Fontana CA
Apr 1 Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville VA
Apr 8 Off-Weekend - Easter
Apr 14 Texas Motor Speedway, Ft. Worth TX Sat. Night
Apr 22 Kansas Speedway, Kansas City, KN
Apr 28 Richmond International Raceway, Richmond VA Sat. Night
May 6 Talladega SuperSpeedway, Talladega AL
May 12 Darlington Raceway, Darlington SC (Mother's Day weekend) Sat. Night
May 19 NASCAR All-Star Challenge, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte NC Sat. Night
May 27 Coca-Cola 600, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte NC Sun.Night
June 3 Dover International Speedway, Dover DE
June 10 Pocono Raceway, Pocono, PA
June 17 Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn MI
June 24 Infineon Raceway, Sonoma CA
June 30 Kentucky Speedway, Sparta KY Sat. Night
July 7 Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach FL Sat. Night
July 15 New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon NH
July 22 Off-weekend
July 29 Brickyard 400, Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis IN
Aug. 5 Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, PA
Aug. 12 Watkins Glen International, Watkins Glen NY
Aug. 19 Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn MI
Aug. 25 Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol TN Sat. Night
Sept. 2 Atlanta Motor Speedway, Atlanta
Sept. 8 Richmond Int'l Raceway, Richmond VA Sat. Night
Sept. 16 Chicagoland Speedway, Joliet IL
Sept. 23 New Hampshire Motor Speedway, Loudon NH
Sept. 30 Dover International Speedway, Dover DE
Oct. 7 Talladega SuperSpeedway, Talladega AL
Oct. 13 Charlotte Motor Speedway, Charlotte NC Sat. Night
Oct. 21 Kansas Speedway, Kansas City KN
Oct. 28 Martinsville Speedway, Martinsville VA
Nov. 4 Texas Motor Speedway, Ft. Worth TX
Nov. 11 Phoenix International Raceway, Avondale AZ
Nov. 18 Homestead-Miami Speedway, Homestead FL
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Another boring start to the
Another boring start to the Chase is coming in 2012. Chicago and New Hampshire make you want to take a nap, or keep the channel on the NFL game of choice. As you've preached before, Mike, we need some better tracks to get things going in the Chase and get people interested. Those two tracks don't do that.
- NASCAR needs to swap the Bristol and Texas dates in the spring. Mid-March is too early to be going to Bristol. It's cold, and usually rainy. Swap those two dates and I think the crowd at Bristol would improve.
- If NASCAR wanted to really shake things up, then begin and END the season at Daytona. I know there is supposedly some deal in place with the town to have the race there in July, but they need something better than Homestead for the finale, and what better track to have the season ender at.
- The Cup Series needs to add an Iowa date soon. Would still like to see Gateway and Nashville have Cup races someday if Bruton will buy those tracks and resurrect them. They are just as worthy as Kansas and Chicago as far as racabilty. Would also like to see Rockingham get at least one date back, too. It's a unique track, and NASCAR needs more of these types of tracks rather than more Charlotte clones (Texas, Chicago, Kansas) on the Cup schedule.
- I read that the truck series may also go to Gresham Motorsports Park (formally Peach State Speedway) in Gresham, Georgia. I would love to see it. Hopefully NASCAR will get back to the Nationwide and Truck series being their own series instead of running them as companion events with the Cup races every week. The points system change was good for these series, but they now need to take it one step further and have more separate races so that the Cup guys aren't stealing the wins each week.
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