NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
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CUP: Charting Schedule Changes
Chicagoland Speedway will start next year’s Chase.
Tom Jensen  |  Posted August 08, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Chicagoland Speedway will host the 2011 Chase opener. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Last month, NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France promised "impactful changes" in the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule and indeed the new race lineup that will be released Aug. 18 will represent a significant shift.

Among the key changes, which were first reported Friday on SPEED.com:

• Chicagoland Speedway will host the first race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

• New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which has been the opening race since the Chase began in 2004, will move to the second Chase weekend.

• Auto Club Speedway will lose its Chase date and its spring race will move later in the season, likely to March or April.

• Phoenix International Raceway will host the second race of the year, immediately after the season-opening Daytona 500.

• Kentucky Speedway will get its long-awaited inaugural Sprint Cup race, which will take place in July.

• Kansas Speedway will get a second race date in the spring.

• Atlanta Motor Speedway will lose its spring date.

• At least one of Texas Motor Speedway’s two Cup races will be on a Saturday night. Texas will announce its 2011 plans on Aug. 17, one day before NASCAR releases its full schedule.

Almost as important were two things that didn’t happen: Las Vegas Motor Speedway apparently is not getting a second date, and Martinsville Speedway, long-rumored to be on the chopping block keeps both races for next season.

Add it all up and it’s a very different schedule, one that should bring some excitement back to the calendar.

“They all have lots of effects, as you can imagine,” France said of the schedule changes prior to the Brickyard 400. “When anything moves around of significance on the Cup schedule, it has consequences for the second part, whatever part of the schedule you want to look at. ... We'll have some pretty impactful changes to the schedule that I think will be good for NASCAR fans.”

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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