Five Changes that COULD happen in the ’22 NASCAR Cup Schedule

2021 was a year of many changes to what NASCAR fans would be used to seeing. For the first time in half a century, the Cup Series went racing on dirt, converting the spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway into a dirt track. We also saw new tracks added on like Circuit of the Americas, Nashville Super Speedway, and Road America. There are more road courses than ever before, running seven this season that included the Brickyard 400 becoming a road course race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. At that cost, some tracks did not see racing at all in 2021 that include Chicagoland Speedway and Kentucky Speedway.

We have seen almost all of this happen, but now we look ahead towards 2022 and beyond. What other changes could we see? In this article, I will list five things that we COULD see on the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series schedule.

1. A Street Course Race

NASCAR has reportedly looked at doing a street course race in the near future. Earlier this year, iRacing released a Chicago Street Circuit that NASCAR, iRacing, and the City of Chicago worked on to take a look at what a NASCAR street course race would look like. It debuted in early June during the Pro Invitation Series with the NextGen car. From the way things look, it’s possible a street course race could appear on the Cup Series schedule by next year or 2023. It will certainly bring a new challenge to the drivers and plus with heavy stock cars, unlike what you see with the lighter open-wheel cars. In the past, the NASCAR Southwest Tour ran an LA Street Race that took place around the Los Angeles Coliseum in the late 90s and early 2000s. Notable drivers that ran this course are Matt Crafton, Kurt Busch, and Boris Said.

Thoughts: I could see this as doing one special street course race a year. Perhaps one year you do Chicago, maybe the next year you go to Los Angeles and so on. It’ll be interesting to see how NASCAR Stock Cars compete with the narrow courses and tight turns. It’ll bring a challenge that many Cup stars haven’t seen before.

2. The Daytona 500 may NOT be the Season Opener

Recently on Corey Lajoie’s podcast, a rumor went around that the Daytona 500 may not be the first points race of the season. There was a time in the late 70s and early 80s when Riverside, a former road course out in California, was the first race of the season, followed by the Daytona 500.

Thoughts: Not much else is currently known about this rumor. A way I could see this work is possibly opening with the Daytona Road Course, then the Daytona 500. Then again, this season the Busch Clash was held on the road course for the first time. Many people probably want to see the Great American Race open the season and for now, it can be assumed that the Daytona 500 will open the 2022 Cup Season.

3. More Doubleheaders?

Last season, NASCAR introduced the idea of hosting a doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway. Well, that was until the pandemic caused some schedule changes that involved a few more doubleheaders along with Pocono. Some fans and even drivers brought up the idea of bringing a doubleheader to Indianapolis. Where one day a race would be on the road course, and another on the Oval.

Thoughts: I think two doubleheaders in a season is a good maximum for the cup schedule. Another track that could work for a weekend like this could be New Hampshire. The Pocono Doubleheader has turned out well in the two times it has done it. Michigan and Dover held doubleheaders in 2020 as part of rescheduling from the pandemic. Darlington and Charlotte held back-to-back races on Sundays and Wednesdays when NASCAR returned to racing in 2020, but that wasn’t a Doubleheader.

4. Gateway could be added to the Cup Schedule

Recent reports from Adam Stern have said that NASCAR has been in discussions in the past few months about awarding World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway a Cup Series date for 2022. The track currently hosts the Camping World Truck Series and NTT IndyCar Series. There is another track that has been discussed and that will be talked about for the fifth part of this article. The 1.25-mile track is located in Madison, Illinois, just right across the river from downtown St. Louis. The current status of discussions remains unclear with the 2022 schedule release looming. The Xfinity Series ran there several times in the past as well.

Thoughts: St. Louis is a great sports market and would be very supportive of the Cup Series coming in. Not to mention, companies that heavily invest in motorsports such as World Wide Technology and Anheuser-Busch are based in St. Louis. Perhaps Kevin Harvick could drive a St. Louis Cardinals-themed Busch Ford for that race. I think a Cup Series race would work well at Gateway.

5. A short track at the… Los Angeles Coliseum?

I feel like the movie Cars is coming to reality with this one, as the Los Angeles International Speedway in the movies is based on the LA Coliseum. During the recent Gateway news, it was briefly mentioned that a short track inside of the stadium is in play as well for 2022. It remains unseen if it’ll be for Cup/Xfinity/Truck/etc, but this will give off Bowman Gray vibes for sure. There will be damaged race cars, not to mention this is a relatively large market to do this in. the LA Coliseum has done it all in its long history from hosting the NFL, MLB, Soccer, and even the Olympic Games. The stadium recently hosted the LA Rams until SoFi Stadium opened in 2020. In terms of racing, supercross and Stadium Super Trucks have raced here in the past.

Thoughts: I would say that if Texas wasn’t going to host the 2022 All-Star Race again, they could put the All-Star Race here. Perhaps this could be added to the West Coast sweep early on in the season, but I’m quite intrigued how this would work if NASCAR goes through with this. This has the potential of a Saturday Night race at Bowman Gray Stadium on steroids.

Those my five things I could see happen in the 2022 Schedule, as this is all hypothetical and maybe only half of these may actually happen. NASCAR is about to look a lot different heading into the coming years. What would you like to see in future NASCAR schedules?