(Motorsport-Total.com) – The 2022 season of the NASCAR Cup Series will be the first with the new generation of cars (Gen7 or Next-Gen). The racing calendar for this first season of the new NASCAR era was unveiled on Wednesday. It has two new tracks, with only one of these two being driven for points.
© Motorsport Images
–
The Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis will appear on the Cup calendar for the first time in 2022
Zoom
–
For example, the NASCAR top league is visiting the Gateway Motorsports Park in St. Louis for the first time. The 1.25-mile oval (whose current name is officially World Wide Technology Raceway for sponsorship reasons) will take place on June 5, 2022.
St. Louis is new to the cup calendar. In the calendar of the second NASCAR league (currently the Xfinity series), however, the short oval appeared between 1997 and 2010. And it has been an integral part of the calendar of the third NASCAR league (truck series) since 1998. The Xfinity and Truck series 2022 calendars will be announced at a later date.
In the 2022 Cup calendar, the Gateway Oval in St. Louis is not the only new addition, but the only one on which there will be a points race.
The beginning of the NASCAR year 2022: Los Angeles instead of Daytona
Because the second new entry in the calendar concerns the invitation race, which is not only counting championship, known as the Clash. This will no longer take place in Daytona in 2022, but in a stadium in Los Angeles. As rumored, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum has been awarded the contract. Inside this stadium, a 0.25-mile oval with asphalt paving is being temporarily built.
© NASCAR Media
– –
The NASCAR year 2022 and with it the Gen7 era begins at the Olympic Stadium in Los Angeles Zoom
–
In its current configuration, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in downtown Los Angeles has 77,500 seats. It is the Olympic Stadium for the Summer Games in 2028. This will be the third Olympic Games in this stadium (after 1932 and 1984). The first NASCAR race at this stadium will take place on February 6, 2022.
And: Contrary to previous rumors, the racing debut of the Gen7 or next-gen cars will de facto already take place at the pointless clash in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum – not only at the official start of the NASCAR Cup season 2022, the Daytona 500 on February 20 . It is now clear: The last race with the currently still current Gen6 cars will be the 2021 season finale on November 7th in Phoenix.
Less circuit racing
In total, the NASCAR Cup calendar in 2022 will again include 36 points races. This includes the second dirt track race in Bristol (April 17th). The season finale is again scheduled for November 6th on the one-mile oval in Phoenix. After 2020 and 2021, it will be the third time that the decision will be made in the playoff format with four remaining title candidates in Phoenix.
36 points races, although St. Louis is a new addition? Exactly! Because in 2022 there will only be one race instead of two at the Pocono Raceway. The date is July 24th. Another change: In Fontana, after a corona-related cancellation (2021), driving again. The race on February 27 marks the start of the West Coast Swing 2022 and will be the last race on the two-mile oval that has existed since 1997. For the NASCAR season 2023, Fontana will be converted into a short track.
© Motorsport Images
– –
Fontana returns to the calendar – to say goodbye to the two-mile layout Zoom
–
And because Fontana is returning to the calendar for 2022, the Daytona circuit has to give way. There will be neither the pointless start to the year (clash) nor a points race in 2022. Thus, in the first year of the Gen7 era, there are “only” six instead of seven points races on circuits.
In addition to the 36 points races, the second invitation race next to the Clash in Los Angeles will be the All-Star Race in NASCAR 2022. This will take place for the second time (after 2021) at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth. The date is May 22nd.
Various new dates
The other changes in the NASCAR Cup calendar 2022 compared to that of the 2021 season only concern dates. The Circuit of The Americas in Austin moves from May to March. The autumn race at Richmond Raceway moves from September to August, with the 0.75-mile oval losing its playoff race.
In return, the Homestead-Miami Speedway moves from February to October and thus (again) into the playoffs. And within the playoffs there are new dates for Kansas Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway (September instead of October) and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (October instead of September).
There is currently no information on how many races will be held in the NASCAR Cup 2022 season for training and qualifying.
The NASCAR Cup Calendar 2022:
06.02. Clash in Los Angeles *
20.02. Daytona 500
27.02. Fontana
06.03. Las Vegas
13.03. Phoenix
20.03. Atlanta
27.03. Austin (circuit)
03.04. Richmond
09.04. Martinsville
17.04. Bristol (Dirt-Track)
24.04. Talladega
01.05. Dover
08.05. Darlington
15.05. Kansas City
22.05. All-Star-Race in Fort Worth *
29.05. Charlotte
05.06. St. Louis
06/12 Sonoma (circuit)
26.06. Nashville
03.07. Elkhart Lake (circuit)
10.07. Atlanta
17.07. Loudon
24.07. Pocono
07/31 Indianapolis (circuit)
07.08. Brooklyn
14.08. Richmond
08/21 Watkins Glen (circuit)
27.08. Daytona
Playoffs:
04.09. Darlington
11.09. Kansas City
17.09. Bristol
25.09. Fort Worth
02.10. Talladega
09.10. Charlotte (circuit)
16.10. Las Vegas
23.10. Homestead
30.10. Martinsville
06.11. Phoenix
* Invitation race without points for the championship
–
