What does the ideal NASCAR Cup Series schedule look like? We asked the drivers

Not too long ago, the NASCAR Cup Series schedule felt stagnant. Year after year, NASCAR visited the same tracks in roughly the same order. For the most part, we knew what the schedule would look like well before it was announced.

How predictable was the schedule going back a decade or so? When Kentucky Speedway was added in 2011, it marked the first time in 10 years NASCAR went somewhere it had not raced at previously. But Kentucky didn’t usher in a new era awash with first-time visits to new venues that excited fans and drivers alike; it wasn’t until 2018 that another new track (the Charlotte Roval) was added.

That was then, though, and this is now.

Modern-day NASCAR is all about keeping things fresh and different. While the league has a host of core tracks that are entrenched on the schedule, the current philosophy is to continually seek ways to add new venues in untapped or underserved markets. That’s apparent when you look at what NASCAR has done since 2021 by adding new races in downtown Los Angeles, downtown Chicago, St. Louis, Texas and Nashville, plus Bristol Motor Speedway experimenting with a dirt race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway switching off its famed oval to its less heralded road course, and a return to historic North Wilkesboro Speedway.

“When I came into the sport full-time in 2010, the schedule had pretty much looked the same for a while,” RFK Racing owner-driver Brad Keselowski said. “Up until 2017, 2018, it was the same schedule every year and that was really unhealthy for us as a sport. So, to see the movement that we have now is really positive.”

The only guarantees about the schedule now are that the Daytona 500 begins the season, the Coca-Cola 600 is on Memorial Day weekend and the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend. Everything else feels kind of open-ended.

Such fluidity, combined with a sanctioning body willing to take big swings at staging events in unique settings, naturally raises questions about what NASCAR’s ideal schedule looks like. Who better to answer this question then the drivers themselves?

The Athletic spoke with 20 Cup Series drivers to get their impressions of NASCAR schedule. Their varied answers illustrate the challenges for NASCAR to find the right mix.

How long should the season be?

The Cup schedule has consisted of 38 races — 36 points races plus two special events, the Clash and the All-Star Race — since the 2001 season. Although there is no momentum to add additional races due to the grind placed on team personnel, nor a likelihood that NASCAR would ever shrink its calendar due to the lost revenue that would result, plenty of drivers expressed their opinion at either expanding the schedule or downsizing it to a more manageable number.

Tyler Reddick: I’m the crazy one, I’d like to see more races. I get bored during the week; I’d rather race more and prep less. We race more, we wouldn’t be able to prep as much.

Christopher Bell: It doesn’t matter to me….