NASCAR to publish ’09 schedule soon

NASCAR officials hope to announce the 2009 Cup schedule by the end of this month [August]. Don't look for any new venues, and don't expect to see any track lose one of its races. But it's possible we'll see some trades made with speedway dates, including the Labor Day weekend race going from Auto Club Speedway (ACS) in Fontana, Calif., to Atlanta. Speedway Motorsports Inc., International Speedway Corp. and NASCAR still are trying to work out all the logistics of moving fall dates among Atlanta, Talladega and ACS. SMI, which owns Atlanta Motor Speedway, would get the Labor Day weekend race, and ACS would get a race inside the Chase. Talladega would take Atlanta's late October event, and ACS would take Talladega's early October race. Both ACS and Talladega are owned by ISC. A triple-swap like this is difficult because it has a ripple effect on other events, schedules and sponsors. But most of the teams are in favor of this because it's a more reasonable travel schedule with cooler weather conditions at Fontana. ESPN.com