NASCAR 2025 Schedule: Dates Announced for Daytona 500, Playoff Races, More

NASCAR has announced its schedule for the 2025 season, which includes some notable changes to the playoff races.

The Daytona 500 will kick off the Cup Series season on Feb. 16. Darlington Raceway will host the first playoff race on Aug. 31, with the Championship Race taking place at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 2.

NASCAR will also hold its first-ever international points event for the Cup Series on June 15 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City.

TNT Sports will air five consecutive races from June 28-July 27 starting with the Atlanta race before going to Chicago for the street race, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis.

Darlington is returning as host of the playoff opener after Atlanta Motor Speedway was given the honors this year. World Wide Technology Raceway in St. Louis (Sept. 7) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 21) will host playoff races in 2025.

Other tracks hosting playoff races include Bristol, Kansas, Charlotte, Las Vegas, Talladega and Martinsville.

NASCAR will use the second race at Daytona Motor Speedway on Aug. 23 as the regular-season finale.

The Clash event that serves as the unofficial start of the season will be held on Feb. 2 at Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina. It had been held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in each of the past three years.

Los Angeles is not on NASCAR's 2025 schedule. Richmond Raceway will only host one event on Aug. 16. This marks the first time since 1958—excluding the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic—that Richmond won't have two Cup Series races in a season.

Once the Cup Series season begins, the only break until the Championship Race will be the weekend of April 20 for Easter.