Rockingham returns as North Carolina dominates 2025 NASCAR schedules (2024)

JUSTIN EPLEYSports editor

CHARLOTTE — North Carolina long has been considered the home of NASCAR, and there’s no doubt that the state has reasserted its position on top of the stock car racing world as 2025 schedules for the top three series were finally unveiled on Thursday.

Between the NASCAR Cup Series, the NASCAR Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, there are 11 race dates for 2025 across four different racetracks and five different track configurations, including a long-awaited return to Rockingham Speedway.

As previously announced, it will start on Sunday, Feb. 2, with the Cup Series’ Busch Light Clash exhibition race at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem. A flat quarter-mile track at the stadium that is home to Winston-Salem State University football and rambunctious weekly racing series, the Clash will open the 2025 NASCAR season at Bowman Gray after being held at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum the past three years and at Daytona International Speedway each season from 1979 to 2021, with the 2021 race being held on the facility’s road course.

NASCAR will return to Rockingham Speedway for the first time in more than a decade when the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series race there on Easter weekend. The Craftsman Truck Series, which previously ran at the track from 2012-13, will kick off the weekend’s action on Friday, April 18. The Xfinity Series will race at the track on Saturday, April 19, for the first time since Feb. 21, 2004 after holding 42 races at the 1.017-mile oval from 1982 to 2004.

The next NASCAR weekend in North Carolina will come in mid-May as both the Craftsman Truck Series and Cup Series return to North Wilkesboro for the third season in a row. The Craftsman Truck Series will race at the 0.625-mile track on Saturday, May 17, before the Cup Series again runs the NASCAR All-Star Race on Sunday, May 18. The track previously had been abandoned by NASCAR after 1996 before significant efforts led to a racing return in 2023.

The traditional Memorial Day weekend flurry of activity at Charlotte Motor Speedway also returns in 2025 as the Craftsman Truck Series hits the 1.5-mile quad-oval on Friday, May 23, followed by the Xfinity Series on Saturday, May 24, and the Cup Series for the Coca-Cola 600, the longest race of the year, on Sunday, May 25. It has not yet been announced if the ARCA Menards Series’ May race at Charlotte will return in 2025.

The Charlotte Motor Speedway Road Course, better known as the “Roval,” will host the facility’s second tripleheader weekend of the season in October with the Craftsman Truck Series on Friday, Oct. 3, the Xfinity Series on Saturday, Oct. 4, and the Cup Series on Sunday, Oct. 5.

Another previously announced change for the 2025 Cup Series schedule includes a June 15 race at Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, replacing one of Richmond Raceway’s dates. Darlington Raceway (Aug. 31), Gateway Motorsports Park (Sept. 7) and New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sept. 21) slot into the playoffs while Homestead-Miami Speedway (March 23), Atlanta Motor Speedway (June 28) and Watkins Glen International (Aug. 10) slide back into the regular season. Additionally, Talladega Superspeedway’s playoff race moves from the second round to the third round on Oct. 19.

As for the Xfinity Series, in addition to Rockingham, Mexico City (June 14), Gateway (Sept. 6) and a second race at Bristol Motor Speedway (Sept. 12) have been added while Richmond, New Hampshire and Michigan International Speedway exit the schedule and Darlington loses one of its two race dates.

The Craftsman Truck Series schedule expands from 23 races to 25 in 2025, adding Rockingham and the Charlotte Roval, Michigan (June 7), Lime Rock Park (June 28), Watkins Glen (Aug. 8) and New Hampshire (Sept. 20) in lieu of Gateway, the Milwaukee Mile, Circuit of The Americas and one of Kansas Speedway’s two race dates.