Cup realignment highlights touring schedule changes

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR announced on Tuesday its 2009 national series schedules, which features realigned dates for the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Truck series.

Cup Series
There will be a three-way date swap between Atlanta Motor Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway.

The 2009 schedules feature realigned dates. Starting times and television information will be announced at a later date.

• Cup Series
• Nationwide Series
• Truck Series

• Atlanta's second 2009 race will be held on Sunday, Sept. 6, taking the Labor Day weekend slot now held by Auto Club Speedway.

• Auto Club Speedway's second race will be Sunday, Oct. 11 -- the fourth week of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a slot formerly held by Talladega.

• Talladega's second event will move to Sunday, Nov. 1, making it the seventh Chase event -- the slot formerly held by Atlanta.

The season begins with a tripleheader weekend at Daytona International Speedway capped by the running of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 15.

In addition to that season-opening event for the Cup Series, the Truck Series starts its season on Friday night, Feb. 13, followed the next afternoon by the Nationwide Series opener.

There also will be an additional off-week for the Cup Series, prior to the Labor Day weekend event, giving teams a final break before a 12-week stretch that will end the season. Because of the way the calendar falls, Cup teams will have four off-weeks during the 2009 season.

Nationwide Series
The series will have a 35-race schedule. Changes include:

• A new event at Iowa Speedway on Aug. 1, replacing Mexico City;

• A switch of the Atlanta Motor Speedway event from March to September;

• Moving the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve event in Montreal to Sunday, Aug. 30.

Truck Series
The series again will have 25 races, with one realigned date:

• The series' late-season race at Atlanta will be replaced by a night event at Chicagoland Speedway on Friday, Aug. 28.

For all three series, the season will conclude with another tripleheader weekend, at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 20-22.