NASCAR announced on Tuesday evening sweeping changes for its 2020 Cup Series season — changes that include a night race at Martinsville Speedway, a new home for the season finale and a doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway, among several other nuances.
The 2020 regular season will both begin and end at Daytona International Speedway, as the traditional Independence Day weekend date goes to Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 and the second Daytona race of the year moves to Aug. 29. Also, the, overall, season finale will move from Homestead-Miami Speedway to ISM Raceway, the former Phoenix International Raceway.
"Quite fittingly, the birthplace of NASCAR will host the bookend races to the 2020 regular season,” NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said. "Racing in Daytona – particularly in the summer under the lights – never fails in delivering intense and unpredictable action. There’s no question this venue will create some incredible drama as drivers make one last push for a playoff spot."
Homestead, meanwhile, moves closer to the start of the season, taking the sixth slot on the 36-race schedule, one week after the new Atlanta Motor Speedway date. Atlanta will move from the second race weekend of the season to the fifth, shuffled back as the three-race West Coast Swing moves up a week to begin the week after the season-opening Daytona 500.
Cup activity at Pocono Raceway will be consolidated from two weekends to one with a two-Cup-race weekend in June.
Next season, all three short tracks on the Cup Series schedule will host playoff races. After Darlington Raceway plays host to the playoff opener, the first three-race round also feature races at Richmond Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway, as the Bristol night race moves from August to September to be a playoff elimination race.
Martinsville Speedway will be the race at which the Championship Four will be determined, as it takes the former ISC Raceway fall date. While that Martinsville weekend will culminate in a traditional Sunday race, the first race of the year at NASCAR's oldest track on May 9 will be the first scheduled night race there for the series.
"The fans and the industry, as a whole, have been vocal about the desire for sweeping changes to the schedule, and the 2020 slate is a reflection of our efforts to execute against that feedback,” O’Donnell said. "These changes are a result of unprecedented consensus-building with our race tracks and broadcast partners, something we look to continue into 2021 and beyond.”
