Official 2009 Cup Schedule

[tstran17_88]

02/07/09 Budweiser Shootout @ Daytona
02/15/09 Daytona 500
02/22/09 California
03/01/09 Las Vegas
03/08/09 Atlanta
03/22/09 Bristol
03/29/09 Martinsville
04/05/09 Texas
04/18/09 Phoenix
04/26/09 Talladega
05/02/09 Richmond
05/09/09 Darlington
05/16/09 Sprint All-Star Race @ Charlotte
05/24/09 Charlotte
05/31/09 Dover
06/07/09 Pocono
06/14/09 Michigan
06/21/09 Sonoma
06/28/09 Loudon
07/04/09 Daytona
07/11/09 Chicagoland
07/26/09 Indianapolis
08/02/09 Pocono
08/09/09 Watkins Glen
08/16/09 Michigan
08/22/09 Bristol
09/06/09 Atlanta
09/12/09 Richmond
09/20/09 Loudon
09/27/09 Dover
10/04/09 Kansas
10/11/09 California
10/17/09 Charlotte
10/25/09 Martinsville
11/01/09 Talladega
11/08/09 Texas
11/15/09 Phoenix
11/22/09 Homestead-Miami

http://www.nascar.com/races/cup/2009/data/schedule.html

[tstran17_88]

Cup realignment highlights touring schedule changes
Iowa added to Nationwide; Chicago lands night Truck race
By Official Release
August 19, 2008
12:16 PM EDT

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR announced on Tuesday its 2009 national series schedules, which features realigned dates for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series.

Cup Series
There will be a three-way date swap between Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

The 2009 schedules feature realigned dates. Starting times and television information will be announced at a later date.

* Cup Series
* Nationwide Series
* Truck Series

• Atlanta's second 2009 race will be held on Sunday, Sept. 6, taking the Labor Day weekend slot now held by Auto Club Speedway.

• Auto Club Speedway's second race will be Sunday, Oct. 11 -- the fourth week of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a slot formerly held by Talladega.

• Talladega's second event will move to Sunday, Nov. 1, making it the seventh Chase event -- the slot formerly held by Atlanta.

The season begins with a tripleheader weekend at Daytona International Speedway capped by the running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15.

In addition to that season-opening event for the Cup Series, the Truck Series starts its season on Friday night, Feb. 13, followed the next afternoon by the Nationwide Series opener.

There also will be an additional off-week for the Cup Series, prior to the Labor Day weekend event, giving teams a final break before a 12-week stretch that will end the season. Because of the way the calendar falls, Cup teams will have four off-weeks during the 2009 season.

Nationwide Series
The series will have a 35-race schedule. Changes include:

• A new event at Iowa Speedway on Aug. 1, replacing Mexico City;

• A switch of the Atlanta Motor Speedway event from March to September;

• Moving the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve event in Montreal to Sunday, Aug. 30.

Truck Series
The series again will have 25 races, with one realigned date:

• The series' late-season race at Atlanta will be replaced by a night event at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday, Aug. 28.

For all three series, the season will conclude with another tripleheader weekend, at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20-22.


http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/official/08/19/2009.schedules/index.html

[carracing]

That Halloween-weekend Talladega race looks like a LOT of fun! I might have to tag along with hubby this year!

That being said, while I'm glad to see California won't be having a 110-degree summer race next year (we'd already decided NOT to renew for MANY other reasons), I think it sucks that they took a Chase Race away from another track. There's already a lot of bad feelings against California for other races "stolen" over the years - this will probably just seal it.

Instead of multiple races at the same tracks (with the exception of Daytona) it would be cool to see them at NEW tracks or return to OLD tracks. Kentucky is one that I personally think is being overlooked - the track was improved with adding a Cup race in mind, but for some reason the powers-that-be won't give them a date. What a shame - it's a really nice track.

[RaceFanStan]

With a season (2008) of learning the COT, the 2009 Cup season should be awesome ! http://www.motorsportforum.com/forums/images/icons/spin2.gif

[Oli_M]

This is the first year I've really got into NASCAR (difficult as it is since I'm in the UK!)........ And I have to say I have found the year to be really exciting.

I'm looking forward to 2009, and hopefully given the similar schedule and the COT continuing, teams will be getting "used" to it and provide even better races in 09!