2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule to shake up playoff tracks and more: Sources

The 2025 NASCAR Cup Series will see the addition of two new venues, notable changes to the 10 tracks that determine the championship and multiple date changes within its regular season, according to a copy of the final version of the schedule obtained by The Athletic and verified by multiple sources briefed on the matter.

The two new tracks, both of which have already been revealed, are Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., and a road course in Mexico City. Bowman Gray, a historic quarter-mile short track, is hosting the annual season-opening Clash exhibition race, while the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit is a stop during the regular season.

Bowman Gray last hosted a Cup race in 1971; Mexico City’s inclusion represents the first international Cup points race in 67 years.

“This is a historic moment for our sport, and specifically for the NASCAR Cup Series, in being able to expand our footprint to Mexico,” NASCAR executive vice president Ben Kennedy said. “We’ve been bold about our intentions to grow on a global scale.”

To make room for its two new additions, NASCAR won’t return to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which had hosted the Clash since 2022, and Richmond Raceway is losing one of its two dates.

A look at the final version of the 2025 schedule, which NASCAR is likely to announce Thursday, shows several other notable changes including:

• Homestead, Watkins Glen and Atlanta’s second date shift to the regular season after holding playoff races in 2024.
• In a widely expected move, Daytona’s summer race returns to hosting the regular-season finale. Darlington’s second of two races is serving as the 2024 finale due to the Summer Olympics that necessitated NASCAR taking a two-week hiatus to accommodate television partner NBC Sports.
• Darlington’s second race returns to hosting the opening playoff race, as it did from 2020-2023.
• Races at World Wide Technology Raceway (Gateway) and New Hampshire also shift from the regular season to the playoffs.
• Talladega’s playoff race goes from Round 2 to the middle race in Round 3 in the semifinal bracket.
• Easter weekend is Cup’s only off weekend. Next year will be the first time since 2021 that the Cup Series won’t race on Easter Sunday.

This will mark the sixth consecutive year in which NASCAR added at least one new track to the Cup Series schedule.

“For NASCAR to branch out, I’ll give them a lot of credit, they’ve been really trying to switch it up over the last few years,” Chase Elliott said on Tuesday after NASCAR announced the Mexico City race. “I don’t think all of it’s gone great, and that’s totally OK, but they’ve been willing to try.”

(Photo of Christopher Bell taking the checkered flag at Homestead-Miami Speedway, which is expected to move out of the playoff rotation, in 2023: Sean Gardner / Getty Images)