NASCAR’s new schedule doubles up on Michigan International Speedway runs

Marlowe Alter

NASCAR announced more of its redesigned schedule Wednesday because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it includes Cup Series races at Michigan International Speedway on consecutive days.

Over the course of three days from Aug. 7-9, the track in Brooklyn, Michigan, will host four races — all without fans — across three different series. This includes June’s postponed FireKeepers Casino 400, which will run at 4 pm. Aug. 8, as well as the scheduled NASCAR Cup Series Consumers Energy 400 at 4:30 p.m. Aug. 9.

“The return of NASCAR racing at Michigan International Speedway is an important step in the reemergence of professional sports to our state,” MIS president Rick Brenner said. “The opportunity to host four races over the course of one weekend, including a pair of Cup events on successive days, is something that we look forward to and that we feel a tremendous amount of responsibility. We appreciate the patience and support from all of our fans, and we look forward to seeing them back in 2021.”

The weekend schedule includes a Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series race on Friday, Aug. 7 at 6 p.m., and the ARCA Menards Series VizCom 200 at 1 p.m. on Aug. 9.

All three NASCAR races will air on national TV, with NBC Sports Network airing the Cup Series races and Fox Sports 1 airing the Truck Series event.

MIS was also supposed to host an Xfinity Series race in June, but that will be moved to an alternate date and location on NASCAR’s 2020 schedule.

MIS says ticketholders for its 2020 NASCAR races will automatically receive a credit for the full amount of their purchase, “plus an additional 20% of the total amount paid in their account within the next 7-10 days.” The credit can be applied to a race event in 2020 or 2021 at a

NASCAR-owned track, subject to availability. For more, go tomispeedway.com/assistance. The 10-race, 16-driver Cup Series playoffs are scheduled to begin with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 6.

USA TODAY’s For The Win contributed to this report.