CUP: 2011 Schedule Finally Official

Sprint Cup

CUP: 2011 Schedule Finally Official

Chicagoland Speedway will open next year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup...

Tom Jensen | Posted August 18, 2010 Charlotte, NC

Chicagoland Speedway will host the 2011 Chase opener. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

NASCAR formally released its 2011 Sprint Cup schedule Wednesday morning, after two weeks of piecemeal announcements from individual tracks.

The big changes include adding races at Kentucky and Kansas Speedways, eliminating the spring race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and the fall race at Auto Club Speedway, and starting the Chase for the Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway.

Next year, there will be just three off-weekends, after having four the last two seasons.

It is expected that NASCAR will go to knock-out rounds in the Chase next season, starting with a field of 15 drivers and cutting down to three to five contending for the championship, but details of that format have not been released by the sanctioning body.

Feb. 12‚ Budweiser Shootout
Feb. 20, Daytona International Speedway
Feb. 27, Phoenix International Raceway
March 6, Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 13, Off
March 20, Bristol Motor Speedway
March 27, Auto Club Speedway
April 3, Martinsville Speedway
April 9, Texas Motor Speedway
April 17, Talladega Superspeedway
April 24, Off
April 30, Richmond International Raceway
May 7, Darlington Raceway
May 15, Dover International Speedway
May 21, Sprint All-Star Race
May 29 Charlotte Motor Speedway
June 5, Kansas Speedway
June 12, Pocono Raceway
June 19, Michigan International Speedway
June 16, Infineon Raceway
July 2, Daytona International Speedway
July 9, Kentucky Motor Speedway
July 17, New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 24, Off
July 31, Indianapolis
Aug. 7, Pocono Raceway
Aug. 14, Watkins Glen International
Aug. 21, Michigan International Speedway
Aug. 27, Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 4, Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept. 10, Richmond International Raceway
Sept. 18, Chicagoland Speedway
Sept. 25, New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Oct. 2, Dover International Speedway
Oct. 9, Kansas Speedway
Oct. 15, Charlotte Motor Speedway
Oct. 23, Talladega Superspeedway
Oct. 30, Martinsville Speedway
Nov. 6, Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 13, Phoenix International Raceway
Nov. 20, Homestead-Miami Speedway

Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.

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Tom Jensen

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