NASCAR announces 2007 Cup schedule

Schedule's order has changes, but locations remain same

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- The 2007 Nextel Cup Series schedule was announced Thursday, a 36-race slate starting with the 49th annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 18 at Daytona International Speedway. On Sunday, Nov. 18, Homestead-Miami Speedway will again host the season finale.

	NASCAR CEO Brian France
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Other key dates:

• On Sunday, July 1, New Hampshire International Speedway will host the first event in the Race to the Chase, the 10-race prelude to the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

• On Sunday, July 29, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

• On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 8, Richmond International Raceway will be the final event in the Race to the Chase.

• The week after Richmond, on Sunday, Sept. 16, New Hampshire again will have the kickoff event in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, which covers the season's last 10 races and determines the series champion.

In addition to the 36-race regular schedule, the series' two traditional non-points events are again slated both for Saturday nights. The 29th annual Budweiser Shootout at Daytona will be held on Feb. 10, while the Nextel All-Star Challenge is set for May 19 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.

There are no changes from the 2006 schedule, in terms of sites. There are, however, several adjustments to the schedule's order.

• In July, the schedule will go from New Hampshire (July 1), to Daytona (July 7) and then Chicagoland Speedway (July 15). Previously, the order was Daytona-Chicago-New Hampshire.

• Also, Indianapolis' event will close out July (July 29), followed the next week (Aug. 5) by Pocono Raceway. Previously, Pocono preceded Indianapolis. Those two races will follow the season's final open week.

Starting times and television information will be announced at a later date.