NASCAR Announces 1st Dirt Race in Cup Series Since 1970 as Part of 2021 Schedule

For the first time in more than 50 years, the NASCAR Cup Series schedule will include a dirt race, per the Associated Press.

East Tennessee's Bristol Motor Speedway will fill its 0.533-mile track with dirt for the first such race since Sept. 30, 1970. The event is scheduled for March 28. 

Richard Petty was the last driver who won last Cup Series dirt race at State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh, North Carolina.

The addition of a dirt track to next year's slate is one of several adjustments made to the 2021 calendar. 

NASCAR will no longer race at Kentucky Speedway or Chicagoland Speedway; both are 1.5-mile intermediate tracks that are the most common in the series.

Several courses that previously hosted two races have lost a date: Michigan International Speedway, Dover International Speedway in Delaware and Texas Motor Speedway. However, the All-Star Race will move from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Texas. In turn, Atlanta Motor Speedway and Darlington Speedway in South Carolina added a second race. 

The race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway will switch to the road course after being on the famed oval for nearly three decades. The Cup Series will head to Road America in Wisconsin and the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, pushing the number of road courses on the schedule to six. 

Changes to the Cup schedule were considered long overdue and stem from the end of a five-year contract NASCAR signed with tracks in 2015. In addition, there will be no midweek races next year after low television ratings this season; several races were rescheduled to a weekday after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement and cancellation of myriad races.