NASCAR Announces Final Batch of Races for 2020

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer

The final set of races have been confirmed by NASCAR Thursday with several changes to the playoffs and some series returning to race tracks once more or the first time in a long while.

The Cup Series was the least affected with the announcement as all 10 playoff venues remain the same despite rumors of Las Vegas and Texas swapping dates due to the the former hosting the Electric Daisy Carnival. The quest for the championship will begin at Darlington Raceway (Sept. 6) and will wrap up at Phoenix Raceway (Nov. 8).

Same can’t be said for both Xfinity and Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series as a plethora of changes were made due to a few races needed to be made up.

The regular season finale for the Xfinity Series will now be at Bristol Motor Speedway (Sept. 18) instead of the playoff opener, now being held at Las Vegas (Sept. 26). Richmond Raceway is now a doubleheader race set to commence on both September 11 and 12.

Finally, they’ll make a second trip to Talladega Superspeedway that’ll be the second race of the playoff opening round (Oct. 3). Talladega will represent as the replacement race for the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course while the second Richmond race makes up a date from Michigan International Speedway.

The Truck Series had four races to make up to fulfill the 22-race quota and those will be a third race at Kansas Speedway (Oct. 16), a second for Texas Motor Speedway (Oct. 25) and the returns to both Darlington Raceway (Sept. 6, first visit since 2011) and Richmond (Sept. 10, first since 2005).

Darlington and Kansas have been realigned from Canadian Tire Motorsports Park and Eldora Speedway respectively. Richmond and Texas were originally on the calendar with their races taking place on April 18 and June 5 respectively, but were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rather than World Wide Technology at Gateway (Aug. 30), Richmond will now be the regular season finale while Bristol (Sept. 17) kicks off the playoffs for the Truck Series.

As far as whether or not fans can attend those remaining NASCAR races beginning in September, it’ll be on a market-by-market basis.

One of the tracks that are intending of having fans will be Texas, a venue that’s already had crowds for last month’s Cup race and one of only five events that done so since the hiatus ended in May.

While the Xfinity Series race (Oct. 24) won’t have fans, both Trucks and Cup (Oct. 25) will have crowds which brings some delight to TMS President and General Manager Eddie Gossage.

“We’re honored to be able to provide our race fans with two NASCAR playoff races for just one ticket price,” said Gossage. “Texas Motor Speedway is always a critical stop on the NASCAR playoffs schedule because a win here punches a team’s ticket into the championship race just two weeks later. The Texas 500/SpeedyCash.com 400 doubleheader gives us a great opportunity to show our appreciation to our dedicated race fans as well as our commitment to again providing them with a safe environment to enjoy a great day of racing.”

This weekend, the Cup Series are running a doubleheader at Michigan (Saturday at 4:00 p.m. EST and Sunday at 4:30 p.m. EST – both races on NBCSN) with the Truck Series also running the 2-mile oval (Friday at 6:00 p.m. EST on FS1). The Xfinity Series will head to Road America Saturday (Noon EST on NBCSN).

Remaining 2020 NASCAR Schedule (All Times are Eastern)

September

• Sat., Sept. 5: Xfinity Series – Darlington – 200 mi – NBC – 12:30 p.m.
• Sun., Sept. 6: Truck Series – Darlington – 200 mi – FS1 – 2:00 p.m.
• Sun., Sept. 6: Cup Series – Darlington – 501 mi – NBCSN – 6:00 p.m.
• Thu., Sept. 10: Truck Series – Richmond – 187 mi – FS1 – 8:00 p.m.
• Fri., Sept. 11: Xfinity Series – Richmond – 187 mi – NBCSN – 7:00 p.m.
• Sat., Sept. 12: Xfinity Series – Richmond – 187 mi – NBCSN – 2:30 p.m.
• Sat., Sept. 12: Cup Series – Richmond – 300 mi – NBCSN – 7:30 p.m.
• Thu., Sept. 17: Truck Series – Bristol – 107 mi – FS1 – 7:30 p.m.
• Thu., Sept. 17: ARCA Menards Series – Bristol – 107 mi – FS1 – 9:30 p.m.
• Fri., Sept. 18: Xfinity Series – Bristol – 160 mi – NBCSN – 7:00 p.m.
• Sat., Sept. 19: Cup Series – Bristol – 266 mi – NBCSN – 7:30 p.m.
• Fri., Sept. 25: Truck Series – Las Vegas – 201 mi – FS1 – 9:00 p.m.
• Sat, Sept. 26: Xfinity Series – Las Vegas – 300 mi – NBCSN – 7:30 p.m.
• Sun., Sept. 27: Cup Series – Las Vegas – 400 mi – NBCSN – 7:00 p.m.

October

• Sat., Oct. 3: Truck Series – Talladega – 250 mi – FS1 – 1:00 p.m.
• Sat., Oct. 3: Xfinity Series – Talladega – 300 mi – NBCSN – 4:30 p.m.
• Sun., Oct. 4: Cup Series – Talladega – 500 mi – NBC – 2:00 p.m.
• Sat., Oct. 10: Xfinity Series – Charlotte Roval – 155 mi – NBC – 3:30 p.m.
• Sun., Oct. 11: Cup Series – Charlotte Roval – 253 mi – NBC – 2:30 p.m.
• Fri., Oct. 16: Truck Series – Kansas – 200 mi – FS1 – 7:00 p.m.
• Fri., Oct. 16: ARCA Menards Series – Kansas – 150 mi – FS2 – 10:00 p.m.
• Sat., Oct. 17: Xfinity Series – Kansas – 300 mi – NBCSN – 3:00 p.m.
• Sun,. Oct. 18: Cup Series – Kansas – 400 mi – NBC – 2:30 p.m.
• Sat., Oct. 24: Xfinity Series – Texas – 300 mi – NBCSN – 4:30 p.m.
• Sun., Oct. 25: Truck Series – Texas – 220 mi – FS1 – Noon
• Sun., Oct. 25: Cup Series – Texas – 501 mi – NBCSN – 3:30 p.m.
• Fri., Oct. 30: Truck Series – Martinsville – 105 mi – FS1 – 8:00 p.m.
• Sat., Oct. 31: Xfinity Series – Martinsville – 131 mi – NBC – 4:30 p.m.

November

• Sun., Nov. 1: Cup Series – Martinsville – 263 mi – NBC – 2:00 p.m.
• Fri., Nov. 6: Truck Series – Phoenix – 150 mi – FS1 – 8:00 p.m.
• Sat., Nov. 7: ARCA Menards Series West – Phoenix – 100 mi – Trackpass – 2:00 p.m.
• Sat., Nov. 7: Xfinity Series – Phoenix – 200 mi – NBCSN – 5:00 p.m.
• Sun., Nov. 8: Cup Series – Phoenix – 312 mi – NBC – 3:00 p.m.