INDIANAPOLIS — NASCAR appears ready to give its 2011 Sprint Cup schedule a face-lift.
CEO Brian France said before Sunday’s race at Indianapolis that stock car’s top series is in the “final throes” of completing next year’s Cup slate and that it will have a considerably different look.
“There will be some changes as they look now,” France said. “That could not quite materialize, but I sense it will and we’ll have some pretty impactful changes to the schedule that I think will be good for NASCAR fans.”
International Speedway Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc., the top two track operators in the series, have petitioned NASCAR to alter the 36-race Cup schedule to accommodate date or track changes.
ISC is hoping Kansas will receive a second Cup date, while SMI could juggle its lineup to bring a second race to the popular Las Vegas venue and give its 1.5-mile track in northern Kentucky the Cup race its former ownership group has long coveted.
The schedule isn’t the only major adjustment the series could see in 2011. NASCAR is mulling a significant overhaul to its championship Chase, which has lacked much drama during Jimmie Johnson’s four-year title run.
Reaction from the drivers has been lukewarm, but with television ratings stalled and attendance sagging, France believes the series must adapt.
“It’s what you do when you’re sort of going through things and there’s a head wind,” he said. “Things aren’t as easy as they have been in the past.”
