Watkins Glen International's NASCAR weekend moved to Aug. 16, putting road course closer to playoff cut.
Watkins Glen International's NASCAR weekend will be held later on the calendar in 2020 while also growing closer to the cutoff for the series' playoffs.
The Schuyler County road course will host its annual NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on Aug. 16 next year. This year's Go Bowling at The Glen weekend will be held the first weekend in August, from Aug. 2-4.
NASCAR announced the change this week, along with several other alterations to next year's 36-race schedule.
Aug. 16 will mark the latest date at WGI since the Cup Series returned there in 1986 following races in 1957, 1964 and 1965. It has been held the first Sunday in August the last three years after it was slotted in the second weekend of the month several years prior. The latest Watkins Glen has hosted a Cup race is Aug. 15, with that happening in 1999, 2004 and 2011.
Watkins Glen will become the third-to-last race before the cutoff that determines which drivers compete in NASCAR's 10-race playoff. This year, as in recent seasons, four races will follow WGI before the 16 playoff drivers are decided.
The switch gives a mix of events over the final four races before the cutoff. Along with the 2.45-mile road course at Watkins Glen, that stretch will include a 2-mile oval (Michigan on Aug. 9), a 1-mile concrete track (Dover on Aug. 23) and a 2.5-mile superspeedway (Daytona on Aug. 29).
Indianapolis Motor Speedway will move back to Fourth of July weekend after hosting the final race before the playoff cut this year, on Sept. 8. Indianapolis' weekend had been held in late July or early August until moving to September in 2018.
Also of note on the 2020 schedule is ISM Raceway at Phoenix will host the final event, with the recently renovated 1-mile tri-oval taking over the title-deciding role previously held by Homestead-Miami Speedway, which moves to March 22 on the 2020 calendar. Julie Giese, who at one time was director of communications at WGI, was named track president at Phoenix in October.
Darlington Raceway will host the first of the 10 playoff races next year, with that event scheduled for Sept. 6. Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the site of this year's playoff opener on Sept. 15.
Pocono Raceway will still host two Cup events, but both will now be held the same weekend, with races June 27 and June 28. This is the first time in the modern era of the Cup Series a track will host a doubleheader weekend. Pocono has had two NASCAR weekends every year since 1982, with this year's races scheduled for June 2 and July 28.
With Pocono down to one weekend, NASCAR will have two weeks off next year between the July 19 race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the Aug. 9 event at Michigan International Speedway, whose second race has followed Watkins Glen's weekend for most of the last several years.