RELATED: NASCAR reveals race start times for 2016 season
PRINTABLE SCHEDULES: Cup | NXS | NCWTS
NASCAR released the start times and TV/radio schedule for the 2016 season in all three national series on Tuesday, the culmination of a large-scale cooperative effort between the sanctioning body and its broadcast partners.
The release comes with relatively few alterations from 2015. The NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series schedules remain split between FOX and its family of networks from February through June, with NBC and its affiliates taking over from July to season's end. The Camping World Truck Series will be broadcast almost exclusively on FOX Sports 1, with the annual race at Talladega Superspeedway again airing on FOX.
The broadcast schedule deviates in August because of NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Watkins Glen's Sprint Cup race Aug. 7 is set to shift to USA Network, with the previous day's XFINITY event moving to CNBC. Two other XFINITY races (Mid-Ohio, Bristol) will also transfer to USA Network.
Among the other highlights:
-- The season-opening Daytona 500 (Feb. 21, 1 p.m. ET, FOX, MRN, SiriusXM) keeps the same start time as last year for The Great American Race.
-- The season-ending Ford Ecoboost 400 Sprint Cup finale on Nov. 20 will move its start time up a half-hour to 2:30 p.m. ET. The 300-mile XFINITY finale the previous day will start 45 minutes later, at 3:30 p.m. ET.
-- Richmond International Raceway will switch to a daytime event for its April 23-24 race weekend. The Saturday XFINITY event will start at 12:30 p.m. ET, and the Sunday Sprint Cup race will start at 1 p.m. ET.
-- The Oct. 1 race for the Camping World Truck Series at Las Vegas Motor Speedway moves up 90 minutes from last year to 8:30 p.m. ET.
-- Atlanta Motor Speedway has rearranged the start times for its Feb. 27 XFINITY/Truck doubleheader. The XFINITY race is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. ET, a half-hour earlier than 2015. The Camping World Truck Series event at the 1.54-mile track will follow at 4:30 p.m. ET, an hour earlier than last year's start.
RELATED: See full slate of schedule times for 2016 season