NASCAR makes several changes in 2022 Cup Series schedule

The NASCAR Cup Series announced its 2022 schedule on Wednesday, detailing a plethora of changes for next season.

Most notably, NASCAR is moving one Cup Series date to WWT Raceway from Pocono Raceway. WWT Raceway has never held a Cup Series event but has previously hosted the Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series. WWT Raceway will host the Cup Series on June 5 while Pocono will host its lone race on July 24.

An early-season change NASCAR made is moving the COTA race to March. With the Cup Series headed back to Auto Club on February 27, it leaves the series without an early road course. NASCAR raced the Daytona Road Course as the second race this season instead of Auto Club, but will not race the road course at all in 2022.

NASCAR also shook up the playoffs a bit. Richmond Raceway’s “fall” race is now on August 14, outside of the playoffs. Homestead-Miami is again a playoff race after a two-year absence, but as a race in the Round of 8. The fall Kansas race moves from the Round of 8 to the Round of 16, scheduled for September 11.

Dover’s lone 2022 race is set for May 1, two weeks earlier than this season. Watkins Glen and Michigan switch dates in 2022, Michigan racing on August 7 and Watkins Glen on August 21 as the penultimate race of the regular season. Bristol returns as a dirt race in 2022 on April 17, a primetime race on Easter Sunday.

The Cup Series has just one off-week on the 2022 calendar, that coming the week of June 19.

NASCAR’s Clash exhibition race is on February 6 inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, a kick-off to Super Bowl week in California. The All-Star race goes to Texas Motor Speedway for the second-straight year, scheduled for May 22.

Start times and network schedules are TBD. The Xfinity Series and Camping World Truck Series schedules will release in the coming weeks.

The full Cup Series schedule is below:

**Boldface denotes playoff race**