NASCAR announces huge 2027 schedule tweak | Sports News

The NASCAR schedule could have a notable change in 2027.

This weekend, NASCAR’s stars, together with street course maestro Shane van Gisbergen, traveled to Watkins Glen in New York, although it’s a lot earlier than regular, with races on the observe usually going down later within the sports activities’s calendar yr. That mentioned, the famed observe will revert to its spot later within the season in 2027, being one of the sooner races within the 10-race Chase.

Speaking of the change, Watkins Glen observe president Dawn Burlew defined what went into the choice to have the observe be half of The Chase subsequent season. “People actually really liked that recognition for The Glen as well as all our fans that come here,” Burlew mentioned to a choose group, in line with NASCAR.com.

“So being in [The Chase] going forward, I think they’re going to be thrilled that we’re at the first part of that and really kind of set the stage for the rest of the playoff season. So again, if we can be part of that and kick it off, there’s no better place than to do it at The Glen.”

With Watkins Glen moved up on the calendar, Burlew admitted that the change has induced some logistical challenges for the crew and what they will present followers as they put together to host a race a lot earlier than regular.

“I think what we’ve done is our merchandise, we’ve looked at it when we saw the date, and we said, ‘OK, we need to shift our merchandise from all T-shirts and tank tops to long sleeves’ and things like that,” the track president continued. “But then again, we did some actually cool stuff for Mother’s Day with our merchandise, so we simply took a complete completely different twist to it once we began preparing and planning for this weekend.

“We’re more celebrating just a different date, because it gave us a whole different way to plan. Instead of just doing traditional flowers, we did more mulch and tulips that my team planted last fall, which normally we wouldn’t do, but we said, ‘OK, that’s something different.’ So we just embraced it that way.”

With the change coming next year, drivers and organizers will have to worry about the weather at the track this weekend, with overcast skies and some rain in the forecast. Still, Burlew was optimistic that the races would enamor fans this year.

“One, they will race if it’s damp and if it’s rain,” she mentioned, in line with the Star Gazette. “But additionally the temperature, with it being a little chillier possibly than regular. It can even add some depth to the racing. They’ve finished some tire pit modifications and issues like that.

“I believe the racing is going to be exciting and the fans will have a good show and at the end of the weekend they’re going to be glad they came.”