Southern 500's future on schedule still unclear

CONCORD, N.C. -- Contrary to recent reports, the Winston Cup date currently reserved for the historic Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway has not yet been moved to California Speedway, NASCAR vice president for corporate communications Jim Hunter said Friday.

Hunter did not, however, rule out the possibility that the date could be moved for the 2004 campaign.

"It's premature right now, and the reason it's premature is that we've just now started discussing sanctions for 2004," Hunter said. "Some folks are throwing out fishing expeditions to figure out next year's schedule. We're not throwing a worm in that water."

NASCAR announced in January that moving a race date from smaller market venues such as Rockingham and Darlington to larger market venues like California was a strong possibility in 2004 and beyond.

But many were taken aback when it was the fall Darlington event, not the less prestigious spring race, that was cited for a suspected move.

"That's one of the scenarios -- if you were sitting down dreaming it up, that follows what we said in January," Hunter said. "We said that NASCAR would look at moving dates around within their companies, and (Darlington to California) would be one of those scenarios."

California Speedway has been rumored to be installing lights in an effort to secure another date.