Tweaks expected for 2012 NASCAR schedules

Expect NASCAR to announce its 2012 schedule in the next few weeks with a bit of juggling to its April May, June and October dates.

Kansas Speedway has announced its spring date as April 22nd, and, according to a knowledgeable source, it will be followed April 28 at Richmond and then May 6 at Talladega before the traditional Mother’s Day spot May 12 at Darlington. Talladega announced its May 6 date Tuesday.

With the Kansas spring date moved from June to April to accommodate the repaving between its 2012 events, and with Bruton Smith announcing that the Kentucky race will be June 30, the shuffling of the June schedule appears to go like this: Dover (June 3), Pocono (June 10), Michigan (June 17), Infineon Raceway (June 24) and Kentucky (June 30).

Kansas has announced its fall date as Oct. 21 – two weeks later than this year – while Talladega’s fall race will be Oct. 7.

The Sprint Cup season will begin Feb. 26 at Daytona with a similar schedule to this year, with the Easter weekend falling between the races at Martinsville and Texas.

To fill the two truck races resulting from the loss of Nashville Superspeedway, Rockingham Speedway will get a date and Iowa Speedway could get a second race.

The tracks that will replace the two Nationwide races lost by Nashville are not as clear. Montreal is still not a certainty and a return to Lucas Oil Raceway at a time other than in July, when the series will now run at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, is still uncertain as well. Scenedaily.com