NASCAR opts for largely-unchanged 2014 Sprint Cup calendar

NASCAR has unveiled an almost unchanged schedule for its 2014 Sprint Cup season, with only a handful of minor tweaks to the dates that form the current calendar. As was the case this year, the 36-race calendar will begin at Daytona and finish at Homestead, with the 10-event Chase retaining the same events in the same order.

The only modifications are a date swap between Kansas and Darlington in the spring, and the move of the Texas race from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon. In addition to confirming the schedule, NASCAR also announced that its Air Titan track drying system will be available at every race during 2014.

NASCAR's senior vice-president of racing operations Steve O'Donnell said this would allow the series to minimise the time lost to rain delays. "Having the Air Titan at each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series weekend allows us to meet a very important goal set by our chairman and CEO, Brian France: to drastically decrease track-drying time to the best of our ability and ensure our fans in the stands and those watching on TV get to see each race on its scheduled day," O'Donnell said.

2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule
Feb 15 Daytona International Speedway (Sprint Unlimited)
Feb 16 Daytona International Speedway (Daytona 500 qualifying)
Feb 20 Daytona International Speedway (Duels)
Feb 23 Daytona International Speedway (Daytona 500)
March 2 Phoenix International Raceway
March 9 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 16 Bristol Motor Speedway
March 23 Auto Club Speedway
March 30 Martinsville Speedway
April 6 Texas Motor Speedway
April 12 Darlington Raceway
April 26 Richmond International Raceway
May 4 Talladega Superspeedway
May 10 Kansas Speedway
May 17 Charlotte Motor Speedway (NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race)
May 25 Charlotte Motor Speedway
June 1 Dover International Speedway
June 8 Pocono Raceway
June 15 Michigan International Speedway
June 22 Sonoma Raceway
June 28 Kentucky Speedway
July 5 Daytona International Speedway
July 13 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 27 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug 3 Pocono Raceway
Aug 10 Watkins Glen International
Aug 17 Michigan International Speedway
Aug 23 Bristol Motor Speedway
Aug 31 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept 6 Richmond International Raceway
Sept 14 Chicagoland Speedway
Sept 21 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
Sept 28 Dover International Speedway
Oct 5 Kansas Speedway
Oct 11 Charlotte Motor Speedway
Oct 19 Talladega Superspeedway
Oct 26 Martinsville Speedway
Nov 2 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov 9 Phoenix International Raceway
Nov 16 Homestead-Miami Speedway

Mark Glendenning, Autosport