Schedule seems set, but in fact is always changing

NASCAR chairman Brian France recently acknowledged that there are requests to change the Cup Series schedule for 2011, which may include a race at Kentucky and a second date at Kansas.

"There are obviously now new requests from SMI and ISC," France said during a news conference at Daytona earlier this month. "They've followed the policy that we have laid out on realignment. We'll have to see how it all fits into the greater schedule as we go in the next couple weeks."

Snow made an appearance at Bristol for the March 2006 race.

Major realignment to the Cup schedule has been bandied about for years. But in looking back at how the schedule for NASCAR's premier series has grown and evolved since 1949, the order of races has significantly changed over time, even though the current slate seems somewhat set in stone.

With the notable exceptions of some of the newer tracks on the circuit, most venues have seen their traditional dates move up and down the calendar since well before NASCAR's modern era.

Martinsville hosted a late September race in the inaugural 1949 season, then went to May and October dates the following year. The track's spring race alternated between April and May for much of the '50s, with the fall race returning to September. In 1970, rain forced Martinsville to be run on the last day of May, one week after the traditional Memorial Day event at Charlotte.

While Martinsville's spring race eventually moved earlier -- being held on March 29 this season -- the fall race gradually wound up later in the schedule, being pushed back to Oct. 17 by 1982 and a week later this year.

Darlington's traditional Labor Day event first hit the schedule in 1950 with the running of the inaugural Southern 500. Two years later, the track hosted two races, with a spring event in mid-May. By 1972, that race had been pushed up to April, and by 2004, it was being run in late March.

The Southern 500 was actually run in late August in 1999, and when the Labor Day date was transferred to Auto Club Speedway, Darlington's fall race was pushed deep into November. However, when the race was eliminated, that break with tradition allowed the Lady in Black to regain some long-lost history. In switching to the Mother's Day weekend, the spring race returned to a spot in the schedule where it had begun more than a half-century earlier. (Continued)