Nascar Releases 33-Race, 2012 Nationwide Series Schedule

NASCAR released its 2012 Nationwide Series race schedule this week, and in celebration of the Series’ 30^th season, 33 races will be on tap next season.

Kentucky Motor Speedway will feature two Nationwide Series events for the first time in 2012, and teams will return to the Circuit Gilles Villenueve road course in Montreal for a fifth consecutive year as one of three road course events on the schedule.

The season will of course kick off the drive to the championship at the Daytona International Speedway on Saturday afternoon, February 25, a week later than in past years. Action will continue for the next four weekends with races at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Bristol, TN and California’s Auto Club Speedway in Fontana before teams take their first break of the season.

The Nationwide Series will continue running two races at Daytona, Phoenix, Bristol, Texas, Richmond, Iowa, Charlotte, Dover International and Chicagoland Speedways and will also make its debut at the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway during Brickyard 400 weekend in July. That race, on the historic, 2.5-mile IMS oval, ends the Series’ long relationship with the Lucas Oil Motorsports Park in nearby Claremont, Indiana and removes one of the few remaining short track events on the NNS circuit.

The Northeastern Supply’s promotional events at Dover, DE and possibly Richmond, VA will be held during races scheduled at those facilities on June 2, September 7 and September 29.

The 2012 NASCAR Nationwide Series Schedule

2/25      Daytona Beach, FL                    7/14      Loudon, NH

3/3        Phoenix, AZ                              7/22      Joliet, IL

3/10      Las Vegas, NV                          7/28      Indianapolis, IN

3/17      Bristol, TN                                 8/4        Newton, IA

3/24      Fontana, CA                              8/11      Watkins Glen, NY

4/13      Ft. Worth, TX                            8/18      Montreal, Quebec, Canada

4/27      Richmond, VA                           8/24      Bristol, TN

5/5        Talladega, AL                            9/1        Atlanta, GA

5/11      Darlington, SC                          9/7        Richmond, VA

5/20      Newton, IA                                9/15      Joliet, IL

5/26      Charlotte, NC                            9/22      Sparta, KY

6/2        Dover, DE                                9/29      Dover, DE

6/16      Brooklyn, MI                              10/12    Charlotte, NC

6/23      Elkhart Lake, IN                         10/20    Kansas City, KS

6/29      Sparta, KY                                11/3      Ft. Worth, TX

7/6        Daytona Beach, FL                    11/10    Phoenix, AZ

                                                            11/17    Homestead, FL