Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography

Playoff changes headline 2025 NASCAR Cup schedule


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NASCAR has officially released the 2025 Cup Series schedule, which features a variety of changes. Chief among them is a new 10-race playoff.

This season's opening round features new tracks in Atlanta and Watkins Glen. Neither will be in the playoffs next season. Instead, World Wide Technology Raceway joins Darlington and Bristol in the opening round.

New Hampshire moves from the regular season to the second round of the playoffs as a replacement for Talladega. The Alabama superspeedway replaces Homestead in the third round of the playoffs.

2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule

Date Track
Feb. 2 Bowman Gray Stadium (Clash)
Feb. 16 Daytona 500
Feb. 23 Atlanta Motor Speedway
March 2 Circuit of the Americas
March 9 Phoenix Raceway
March 16 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 23 Homestead-Miami Speedway
March 30 Martinsville Speedway
April 6 Darlington Raceway
April 13 Bristol Motor Speedway
April 20 Off-week
April 27 Talladega Superspeedway
May 4 Texas Motor Speedway
May 11 Kansas Speedway
May 18 North Wilkesboro Speedway (All-Star Race)
May 25 Charlotte Motor Speedway (Coca-Cola 600)
June 1 Nashville Superspeedway
June 8 Michigan International Speedway
June 15 Mexico City
June 22 Pocono Raceway
June 28 Atlanta Motor Speedway
July 6 Chicago Street Race
July 13 Sonoma Raceway
July 20 Dover Motor Speedway
July 27 Indianapolis Motor Speedway (oval)
Aug. 3 Iowa Speedway
Aug. 10 Watkins Glen International
Aug. 16 Richmond Raceway
Aug. 23 Daytona International Speedway
Playoffs
Aug. 31 Darlington Raceway
Sept. 7 World Wide Technology Raceway
Sept. 13 Bristol Motor Speedway
Sept. 21 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sept. 28 Kansas Speedway
Oct. 5 Charlotte Roval
Oct. 12 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Oct. 19 Talladega Superspeedway
Oct. 26 Martinsville Speedway
Nov. 2 Phoenix Raceway

The schedule features new tracks in the playoffs. It also has some fan favorites returning to their normal spots. This includes Daytona serving as the regular-season finale once again. Darlington will kick off the Round of 16 once again after hosting the regular-season finale this season.

The 2025 season will only feature one off-week. The teams will be idle on Easter Sunday for the first time since 2021. The teams will then compete for 28 straight weeks to close out the season.

As the schedule shows, the road course race in Mexico City is a new addition. It replaces the spring Richmond race as the Virginia track scales back to one race.

"I think we need to applaud NASCAR for putting our sport on an international stage," Josh Berry said. "This is the first step for our sport to see what we can do to grow and showcase what NASCAR is to new fans, and I am excited to be a part of the group of drivers that gets the opportunity to build the sport that I love.

"Hopefully, I can keep learning how to race at road courses so I can be competitive when we go there next June."