The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
NASCAR 2022 series includes AMS races March 20, July 10
Atlanta Motor Speedway will host NASCAR Cup Series events in March and July, according to the 2022 Cup Series schedule that was released by NASCAR on Wednesday morning.
AMS will host the Folds of Honor Quiktrip 500 on March 20, and the Quaker State 400 Presented by Walmart on July 10.
The track will release more information later about events surrounding those races.
“We’re beyond excited to start a new era of NASCAR racing in Atlanta on our all-new, 28-degree banked track,” Brandon Hutchison, the AMS executive vice president and general manager, said Wednesday in a news release. “You’ll want to circle these dates on the calendar because there’s no doubt the March and July weekends in Atlanta are going to be can’t-miss events on the NASCAR schedule.”
This year, Ryan Blaney won the March Cup Series race at AMS, and Kurt Busch won the race in July.
NASCAR’S regular season will begin Feb. 20 with the Daytona 500. Before that, NASCAR will conduct its annual exhibition race, the Clash, at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 6. This will be the first time that the Clash will be held outside Daytona International Speedway since its debut in 1979.
The season will end Nov. 6 in Phoenix.
Start times for the Cup Series events will be announced later, as will the schedules for the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series.
Homestead-miami Speedway will return to the playoff portion of the season in 2022, while St. Louis was awarded a Cup Series race and NASCAR will race on Easter Sunday for the first time in more than three decades.
Homestead hosted the season finale from 2002 through 2019 but was bumped to an early-season race date last year as NASCAR began experimenting with schedule changes. Phoenix Raceway was awarded the finale in 2020 and is slated to host it for a third consecutive season next year.
Homestead was given a second chance for 2022 with an Oct. 23 race date that makes it the middle race of the third round of the playoffs. The track located 40 miles south of Miami Beach is beloved by drivers but lost its cache after 17 years of hosting the finale.
World Wide Technology Raceway in Illinois across the Mississippi River from St. Louis will make its Cup debut on June 5. The 1.25-mile oval has held NASCAR national series races since 1997 and Indycar the past six seasons. It is the only new track added to the 2022 Cup schedule.
NASCAR will also return to the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on
April 17, its first Easter Sunday race since 1989. Bristol this year experimented by covering its 0.533-mile track in dirt as part of NASCAR changes to the 2021 schedule.
The Tennessee race moves a month later to avoid bad weather that has plagued it for years.