All the speculative talk about big changes to the NASCAR schedule or next year turned out to be just that, as the race slate revealed today is almost exactly the same as this year’s.
After tinkering with the schedule for 2018, shifting races around for the playoffs and giving Las Vegas a second race weekend, NASCAR apparently decided to stand pat for the time being.
That much is clear from the 2019 schedule revealed today, which is essentially the same one currently in progress for 2018. The order of races and the 10 tracks hosting dates during the playoffs are all the same, with no big shakeups of any kind.
The main difference from this year to next is the date of the first off weekend in April. Because Easter is later next year by several weeks, we’ll get eight straight Cup Series races to kick off the 2019 season, with the break coming between Richmond and Talladega instead of right after Martinsville.
There had been some school of thought that with attendance and TV ratings continuing to trend down, NASCAR might look to shuffle the deck again. Clearly, that’s not the case — perhaps because of a desire to keep things stable for at least two consecutive seasons — and anyone hoping for some more significant changes to business as usual will have to wait until 2020 or beyond.
Next: Stewart-Haas Racing expects Kurt Busch back for 2019 season
2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series schedule
- Sunday, Feb. 10 – Daytona 500 qualifying, The Clash (non-points)
- Thursday, Feb. 14 – Duels at Daytona (non-points)
- Sunday, Feb. 17 – Daytona 500
- Sunday, Feb. 24 – Atlanta
- Sunday, March 3 – Las Vegas
- Sunday, March 10 – ISM Raceway (Phoenix)
- Sunday, March 17 – Auto Club (California)
- Sunday, March 24 – Martinsville
- Sunday, March 31 – Texas
- Sunday, April 7 – Bristol
- Saturday, April 13 – Richmond
- Sunday, April 28 – Talladega
- Sunday, May 5 – Dover
- Saturday, May 11 – Kansas
- Saturday, May 18 – All-Star Open, All-Star Race (Charlotte, non-points)
- Sunday, May 26 – Charlotte
- Sunday, June 2 – Pocono
- Sunday, June 9 – Michigan
- Sunday, June 23 – Sonoma
- Sunday, June 30 – Chicago
- Saturday, July 6 – Daytona
- Saturday, July 13 – Kentucky
- Sunday, July 21 – New Hampshire
- Sunday, July 28 – Pocono
- Sunday, Aug. 4 – Watkins Glen
- Sunday, Aug. 11 – Michigan
- Saturday, Aug. 17 – Bristol
- Sunday, Sept. 1 – Darlington
- Sunday, Sept. 8 – Indianapolis (final regular season race)
- Sunday, Sept. 15 – Las Vegas (first playoff race)
- Saturday, Sept. 21 – Richmond
- Sunday, Sept. 29 – Charlotte
- Sunday, Oct. 6 – Dover
- Sunday, Oct. 13 – Talladega
- Sunday, Oct. 20 – Kansas
- Sunday, Oct. 27 – Martinsville
- Sunday, Nov. 3 – Texas
- Sunday, Nov. 10 – ISM Raceway
- Sunday, Nov. 17 – Miami