August features 2 at Daytona

NASCAR has announced the latest installment of its redesigned schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it includes a Cup Series race on Daytona International Speedway’s road course and back-to-back doubleheaders for the Cup and Xfinity Series at Dover International Speedway.

Since the pandemic led to a 10-week hiatus for NASCAR this spring, the governing body has had to rework its schedule almost entirely to follow state-specific coronavirus guidelines and limit teams’ travel time while still working to have a full 36-race Cup season. Because of that, some tracks have lost races.

Originally, the Cup Series was scheduled to have race weekends in August at Michigan International Speedway, Watkins Glen International, Dover and Daytona.

But Watkins Glen is absent from the newly released version of the schedule.

The Cup Series’ first race ever on Daytona’s road course is replacing the annual visit to Watkins Glen in New York. The road course is most famous for hosting the 24 Hours of Daytona – a sports car endurance race officially known as the Rolex 24 at Daytona – every January.

Dover and Michigan typically host two Cup Series races per season with the first ones being in May and June, respectively, and their second ones in August. However, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the tracks’ first races of the season needed to be rescheduled.

The Aug. 29 race at Daytona was not impacted by this schedule redesign, and it will still serve as the regularseason finale.

The 10-race, 16-driver Cup Series playoffs are still scheduled to begin with the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway on Sept. 6. But because of earlier schedule changes, this will be the series’ third race of the season at the South Carolina track when it’s usually the first and only.