NASCAR's schedule changes for 2022 show an effort to keep things fresh
By Bob Pockrass
FOX Sports NASCAR Writer
NASCAR didn’t make as many bold moves for its 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule as it did for 2021, but the moves it made will focus on the goal of keeping the schedule fresh and a new onus on racing primarily on Sundays.
The biggest change comes in the previously announced preseason event, with the Busch Clash being moved from the Daytona International Speedway road course to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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Here are the main changes for the 2022 regular season:
– NASCAR has added a race in the St. Louis market at the World Wide Technology Raceway, commonly known as Gateway. It is a 1.25-mile asphalt track across the river in Madison, Illinois.
– The Gateway race comes from Pocono Raceway, which had two Cup races in one weekend for each of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. It now will have one Cup race. The Gateway event will be on June 5.
– NASCAR has only three Saturday night races (there were four scheduled in 2021) while the rest of the Cup events will be Sundays. Richmond’s fall race, which was in the playoffs, will be a Sunday afternoon race in August.
– Among those Sunday races will be an event on Easter Sunday, with the Bristol dirt race running in prime time.
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The move to Easter Sunday could be the most controversial of the moves, as NASCAR has typically avoided the solemn holiday weekend. Racing at night should allow for potentially better track conditions, but why not Saturday night instead of Sunday?
"[It] will be something really special to get a lot of families that are home, hanging out with each other, the ability for them to get together and tune into a NASCAR race or come out to Bristol for Easter Sunday – I think will really make for a special event," NASCAR Vice President Ben Kennedy said.
Kennedy said NASCAR feels that Sundays are the best for NASCAR events. Having experimented with some midweek races in 2020 and the Pocono doubleheaders of Cup races on back-to-back days in 2020 and 2021, NASCAR did not see a rating boost for the non-Sunday events.
That was part of the decision to take a Cup race from the Pocono doubleheader weekend.
"Our fans and myself are accustomed to turning on the TV Sunday afternoon and expecting NASCAR racing," Kennedy said. "And they like to go out to the track, get to see their truck series, Xfinity Series leading into their Cup Series as that main, big event on Sunday.
"We felt like it was important for us to really get back Sundays where we could, and I don’t think that was the entire reason behind our decision, but it was certainly something that went into our calculus as we thought about Pocono [and] just doubleheaders in general as well."
NASCAR also has juggled some of the playoff rounds:
First round: Darlington-Kansas-Bristol. Kansas moves from the third round to the first round, replacing Richmond, which moves to the regular season.
Second round: Texas-Talladega-Charlotte road course. Texas moves from the third round to the second round, replacing Vegas in that round.
Third round: Las Vegas-Homestead-Martinsville. Vegas moves from the second round to the third round, replacing Texas in that round; Homestead moves from the regular season to the third round, replacing Kansas in that round.
The championship remains at Phoenix.
"We felt like it was an opportunity to refresh the playoff schedule, but we didn’t want to change the landscape entirely," Kennedy said. "With that said, with Miami being a great racing product for us, the Miami market is a big market for us. ... [The cutoff races] were all performing really well and getting a lot of positive feedback from the fan base and industry.
"We wanted to keep those intact but also continue to refresh and keep the schedule new."
The move to Gateway comes amid NASCAR having closed Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., and no longer having national stock-car series events at its Iowa Speedway – so going to St. Louis helps with the Midwest market.
"How strong the fan base in that Midwest area is, ... we want to continue to keep entertaining them and giving them racing action that they can get to," Kennedy said. "That was certainly part of the calculus and the decision that we had. We’re really excited to go there."
The race at Gateway comes from Pocono and for the first time in decades, NASCAR moved a sanction agreement to a new venue without it being part of a deal with the track that lost a race. Next year, a Cup race is worth approximately $13-15 million in television revenue for a race track (except the Daytona 500, which would be higher).
Gateway owner Curtis Francois bought the facility that typically had Xfinity and truck races from Dover Motorsports about 10 years ago and has overhauled the complex, including a repave and SAFER Barriers to the asphalt oval. It has had a NASCAR truck race for the last eight years. It also has played host to the top IndyCar Series at the track as well as the top NHRA series at its dragstrip, showing that it can put on top-level racing events in a market that also is home to one of NASCAR’s biggest sponsors, Anheuser-Busch.
"We will invest every new dollar that comes into the facility," Francois said. "This is about making St. Louis proud to host the Cup race and making sure the fans’ experiences here are the best they can be at the race track.
"We’re certainly very proud of what we’ve done here, but we’ve gotten here by making investments in the track and will continue to do so."
Kennedy said taking a race from the Poconos was a product of NASCAR wanting to go to additional markets.
"Ultimately some of these new tracks we’re going to, the dates have to come from somewhere," he said. "In this case, it was Pocono."
NASCAR might try to compensate for taking a Pocono race by adding a New York race in future seasons. It did explore racing at the Meadowlands to give the New York City market an event. But that deal didn’t come to fruition, and neither has NASCAR’s efforts to have an event on the streets of Chicago. Those both would be part of NASCAR’s vision to expand its reach as well as race in new venues.
"We’ve had a few conversations there [with the Meadowlands]," Kennedy said. "Very preliminary and I’m not sure what, if anything, could happen there. But really I think it goes to us continuing to think about some of these new markets and think Los Angeles is a great example of that – a really strong market for us and one we want to be in.
"The New York market is really strong as well. And Chicago on top of that. We’re going to continue to explore really all of our options that are out there and ultimately see what comes to fruition."
Some other notable elements in the schedule:
– There is only one off-week, which comes between the FOX and NBC portions of the schedule in mid-June. The FOX season opens with the preseason event at the L.A. Coliseum and ends with the race at Sonoma. The NBC portion begins with Nashville in late June and runs through the finale at Phoenix.
– The Circuit of the Americas race moves from late May to late March.
– The All-Star Race remains at Texas but moves back to its traditional weekend, the week prior to Memorial Day weekend.
NASCAR will announce its truck and Xfinity schedule in a few weeks, Kennedy said.
2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule
Feb. 6: Clash at LA Coliseum
Feb. 20: Daytona 500
Feb. 27: California (Fontana)
Mar. 6: Las Vegas
Mar. 13: Phoenix
Mar. 20: Atlanta
Mar. 27: Circuit of the Americas
Apr. 3: Richmond
Apr. 9: Martinsville
Apr. 17: Bristol dirt
Apr. 24: Talladega
May 1: Dover
May 8: Darlington
May 15: Kansas
May 22: All-Star at Texas
May 29: Charlotte
June 5: Gateway
June 12: Sonoma
June 26: Nashville
July 3: Road America
July 10: Atlanta
July 17: New Hampshire
July 24: Pocono
July 31: Indianapolis road course
Aug. 7: Michigan
Aug. 14: Richmond
Aug. 21: Watkins Glen
Aug. 27: Daytona
Sept. 4: Darlington
Sept. 11: Kansas
Sept. 17: Bristol
Sept. 25: Texas
Oct. 2: Talladega
Oct. 9 Charlotte road course
Oct. 16: Las Vegas
Oct. 23: Homestead
Oct. 30: Martinsville
Nov. 6: Phoenix
Bob Pockrass has spent decades covering motorsports, including the past 30 Daytona 500s. He joined FOX Sports in 2019 following stints at ESPN, Sporting News, NASCAR Scene magazine and The (Daytona Beach) News-Journal. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram @bobpockrass. Looking for more NASCAR content? Sign up for the FOX Sports NASCAR Newsletter with Bob Pockrass!