NASCAR released the 2011 schedules today with some important changes for all three national series. 

The season gets off to a great start with Daytona – Phoenix – Las Vegas.  This gives fans – and competitors – three distinct surfaces to start the year and will produce great racing every lap of the way. 

Fans also have a couple realigned dates to anticipate.  One of those dates takes the series to Kentucky Speedway, where NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers will compete under the lights on Saturday, July 9.  The second realigned date is at Kansas Speedway which will follow the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on the schedule and will be held on Sunday, June 5.

We start the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Chicagoland Speedway. Chicago is NASCAR’s second-biggest market and will be a great location in which to launch the 10-race playoff. 

Beyond the realigned dates, a number of races were re-jiggered on the schedule to produce optimum dates.  For example, with Phoenix getting the second race, Texas’ first race now moves up to April 9 for a Saturday night shootout in the Lone Star state; Auto Club Speedway moves to a much better date for that market on March 27; and later in the season, Talladega and Martinsville swap weekends. 

The 2011 schedule for the NASCAR Nationwide Series is highlighted by a second race at Iowa and Chicagoland Speedways.  The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series will see nine updated events including moving Phoenix to the spring from fall; Darlington to March from August; and the Kansas event to June along with the realigned NASCAR Sprint Cup date. One truck date is still TBD, to be updated in the near future.

The schedule process is very arduous and requires the input and cooperation of the entire industry.  A good sign that everyone worked well together this year is the fact that the schedules are being announced almost a month earlier than in the past three years.