St. Louis area lands NASCAR race in 2022

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — HomesteadMiami Speedway will return to the playoff portion of the season in 2022, while downstate Illinois was awarded a Cup Series race and NASCAR will race on Easter Sunday for the first time in more than three decades in schedule changes released Wednesday.

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 long overdue schedule changes.

World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, 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.

“I set some ambitious goals when I took over the racetrack and to see them come to fruition is a dream come true,” said Curtis Francois, who purchased shuttered Gateway Motorsports Park in 2012 and reopened the facility. “I am proud to welcome the NASCAR Cup Series to the St. Louis region. I can’t wait to celebrate this incredible victory with our fans.”

NASCAR will race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course for the second year in a row as part of a shared weekend with the IndyCar Series on July 31. But NASCAR wants the race back on the oval and IMS officials said Wednesday it will consider moving the race — potentially on a rotating basis with the road course — as fans and drivers are attracted to the prestige of the famous speedway.

Other Midwest stops will be July 3 at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, and Aug. 7 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.

The 2022 season will officially open Feb. 20 with the Daytona 500, but NASCAR on Tuesday said its exhibition, made-for-television Clash that typically opens Speedweeks in Daytona will instead be held Feb. 6 on a temporary quarter-mile oval inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

NASCAR will also return to the dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 17, its first Easter Sunday race since 1989.