NASCAR adds schedule variety with ’21 changes

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — After two decades of the same left turns at the same tracks, NASCAR upended its stagnant calendar with a 2021 schedule that is as radical as the sport has ever seen.

Three new venues. A dirt race for the first time in more than 50 years. And a whopping six road courses for the elite Cup Series in an overhaul unveiled Wednesday that dumped some of the cookie-cutter oval tracks.

It is a true shakeup after a lack of imagination created the most predictable schedule in sports, one that favored new speedways — 1.5-mile ovals that not only all looked the same, but raced the same, too. Not since Indianapolis Motor Speedway was added in 1994 had a Cup race been awarded to a track that was not part of an ownership group for an active speedway.

“We said back in 2019 ... 2021, you were going to see some really bold changes from NASCAR,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s executive vice president. “We believe we’ve delivered on that. We are excited for our fans, it’s an historic schedule, the most changes since 1969.”

NASCAR will visit three new venues: Road America in rural Wisconsin, which will host the Cup Series for the first time since 1956; the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas; and Nashville Superspeedway, a visit that was previously announced.

Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee will fill its 0.533-mile bullring with soil for the first Cup race on a dirt track since Richard Petty won at State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh in 1970.

Next year’s schedule was the first time NASCAR could make big changes since 2016, when it entered into a five-year sanctioning agreements with race promoters. That meant no changes, even as fans begged for something new.