Nascar Race Today

NASCAR had few changes on its 2014 schedule, but a new television contract in 2015 could produce a possible shakeup in the order of Sprint Cup Series races. With NBC doing the final 20 Cup races in 2015, it likely would want a marquee event to kick off its schedule. The way it is now, that would be Kentucky, the newest track on the schedule when it was added three years ago and probably one that NBC would prefer not be where it celebrates its return to Cup racing for the first time since 2006.

NASCAR has had eight of the same 10 tracks on its Chase schedule since its inception, and rumblings of a change just to spice up NASCAR's version of the playoffs appear to be louder. With Ford's 10-year deal to sponsor the season-ending event at Homestead-Miami Speedway expiring after 2014, NASCAR (or track owner International Speedway Corp., which is controlled by NASCAR's France family) could more easily move that race. ISC also controls the opening Chase for the Sprint Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway, where NASCAR fights significant competition in the market in mid-September.

"We're certainly going to take a look at (changing the schedule)," NASCAR senior vice president of operations Steve O'Donnell said. "I think the timing with the new TV partners makes sense.

"One thing to keep in mind, though, is with each of the tracks, if we constantly are shifting dates, it becomes more and more of a challenge for each track. Our fans like some of the familiarity. We want to balance that." NASCAR changed only two race weekends for 2014 as Darlington and Kansas swapped spring dates, giving Kansas the Mother's Day weekend in order to have optimal weather for a Saturday night race May 10. Darlington will have its Saturday night race April 12 to avoid a conflict with the final round of golf's Masters. The only other change was NASCAR moving the Texas date from Saturday night to Sunday (April 6) to avoid conflict with the NCAA men's basketball Final Four in Dallas that weekend. The move was proposed by ISC for Kansas to get the night race. O'Donnell said NASCAR did not receive any requests for realignment. ISC and rival track operator Speedway Motorsports Inc. (controlled by Sonic Automotive's Bruton Smith) can request realignment. No realignment has occurred since 2011, when ISC moved one of its California races to Kansas and SMI moved an Atlanta race to Kentucky. Smith has publicly lobbied for a second Vegas race and even threatened to move a Charlotte race to Vegas but did not make the request. NASCAR is happy with the variety of tracks where it races, O'Donnell said. With the consolidation of track ownership over the last 15 years, NASCAR is in a little bit of bind even if O'Donnell wanted to change the schedule. If NASCAR takes a race away from the publicly-traded ISC or SMI, the impact on those companies' stock prices could be significant. And while NASCAR stresses each yet in its sanction agreements that they are 1-year deals, any move of a date could result in legal challenges either from the tracks or the communities involved. "We're fairly happy with the balance on the Cup side of where we race," O'Donnell said. "Our job really is to put on the best product that we can at each of those racetracks. "That's where we're concentrating, is working on that." NASCAR also is happy with the number of races. O'Donnell didn't rule out NASCAR attempting a Cup race on a weekday rather than the weekend. "We've got a number of sponsors that are involved in our sport," O'Donnell said. "We've got millions of fans that want to have that chance to see us.

"By having 36 events, it gives them an opportunity in certain markets they might not have in other sports that we're proud of. ... There's been talks of could you ever race a Monday night or midweek-that's something that we've had dialogue about."

2014 SPRINT CUP SCHEDULE