The month of May is generally the time of year when NASCAR meets with its track partners to discuss the following season’s schedule.
That didn’t happen at Charlotte Motor Speedway this year, which seemed unusual at the time, but NASCAR Chairman Brian France said not to read anything into it.
“I’m not anticipating any significant changes (to the schedule),” France said. “There are always requests and always tweaks — but nothing like we’ve done in the last couple of years, when we made some significant changes, so I don’t anticipate that.”
It’s already been announced that Dover Downs will move its spring race dates from May to June 1-3. And there's a distinct possibility that the Nationwide Series race that is currently being held at Lucas Oil Raceway will join the Cup event at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2012. An announcement could come in the next few weeks.
And with the 2012 Daytona 500 moving one week later to Feb. 26, it’s quite possible that next year’s Sprint Cup schedule could run from February through Palm Sunday on April 1 without a break.
“Obviously, it’s more likely that that’s going to happen,” France said. “That’s something we’re going to have to work out. We’re just now having those discussions with sanctions. As you know, they run year-to-year. We try to keep historically important events close to where they are, but things around us sometimes make us look at that differently.”
France added that NASCAR is “having a lot of discussions right now” regarding the future of the TV packages. While there have been no decisions, France feels it’s important “to make sure that all of our interests get met."
On the performance side, France is pleased with the progress the teams are making with the fuel-injection project. Teams will test fuel-injection packages during an open test at Kentucky Speedway on July 7, before the inaugural Sprint Cup race at the track.
“Obviously, we’re putting a fair amount of emphasis on that, and I think it’s going to go well,” France said. “You see that all the technology companies are out here (at Infineon Raceway) this weekend, as a matter of fact—an innovation group mini-summit, if you will. That’s just another step in the right direction.”
