There are big changes ahead for the NASCAR Sprint Cup series. The 2011 Sprint Cup series schedule was introduced today, and it contains a lot of changes. These has not been a schedule shake up this big since 2003. I don’t think that this will help NASCAR regain the fans that it has lost, but it has a lot of opportunity to bring in some new NASCAR fans. The first change comes in the second race of the season. No longer will the second race be in California, it will now take place in Phoenix.
So here are the really big changes; Atlanta will now only have one race per year held on Labor Day weekend. Kansas will get two dates with one coming in June and the other its traditional date in the middle of the Chase in October. The second half of the season will now start in Kentucky as that track finally gets a date on teh Cup schedule. The biggest change of all is the chase will start at ChicagoLand, instead of its traditional starting spot in New Hampshire.
Of course some tracks have to suffer. They schedule can get no bigger than what it currently 36 races. So, California lost one of its races, and will pick up a date in March as the fifth race of the season. The big problems I see with this schedule are that the Pocono races are still two close together, separated by just seven races. Also both New Hampshire races will take place in the second half of the season. I really don’t like that. Now the first New Hampshire race will be nothing more than a test session for the second chase race.
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