NASCAR Schedule Brings Back Chicago, Adds Iowa
NASCAR announced its 2024 schedule on Wednesday, confirming the continuation of a successful Chicago street circuit race and the addition of a new race at Iowa Speedway. As expected, the calendar also drops the dirt race at Bristol and any racing at the two-mile California Speedway in Fontana.
The biggest news is the official return of the Chicago street race, an event that was under serious political pressure after previous mayor and race champion Lori Lightfoot was replaced. After months of concerns over traffic disruption and costs within the city, the event drew a large crowd and ended with a stellar Cup Series race. That made continuing it an obvious choice on NASCAR's side, so its return to the schedule is welcome news.
As the track announced earlier this week, the other major news on the schedule is a new race at Iowa Speedway. After months of rumors about racing at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, NASCAR instead filled an open date on its calendar with a belated Cup Series debut at the Iowa short track that has seen a resurgence of major interest after two successful IndyCar doubleheaders hosted by grocery store chain HyVee. Iowa joins Nashville Speedway and Gateway Motorsports Park in joining the Cup Series calendar after decades of hosting only the category's lower-level series.
Races at Fontana and the Bristol dirt track will not continue from 2023. Bristol's spring date will instead go to a track on its standard pavement, while Fontana's date disappears as the track's future remains a mystery three years after plans to reconfigure the circuit as a short track were announced. Work on that rebuild still has not actually begun.
Other major changes include shuffled dates early in the playoffs and a two-week intermission to make room on NBC's broadcast schedule for the 2024 Paris Olympics. That break is right before the playoffs, so the regular season finale is on the opposite side of it and the ten-race playoff follows afterward without a break. Moved dates at Atlanta and Watkins Glen mean that the first two rounds of the playoffs now include both a drafting track and a road course, a recipe for absolute chaos.
The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series gets started with the third year of non-championship racing inside the Los Angeles Coliseum on February 4. Points-paying races start with the Daytona 500, two weeks later.
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