For years NASCAR’s No. 2 series, the NASCAR Nationwide Series, has provided a nice melting pot of veteran drivers and up-and-coming talent on their way toward stardom in NASCAR. Likewise, the drivers competing in the second-most popular motorsports series in the United States have been able to test their talents at a variety of tracks.
With NASCAR’s announcement of the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series schedule Friday, the 33rd season of competition promises once again to deliver the same type of action-packed racing the series has always been known to produce.
“As it continues to provide our fans with great racing, the NASCAR Nationwide Series is also a launching pad for our rising talent,” said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR senior vice president of racing operations. “It’s exciting to watch the growth of current and former series drivers Kyle Larson, Austin Dillon and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. among others in their progression to challenge NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars like Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick.”
The schedule will consist of 33 races visiting tracks of varying shapes and sizes: superspeedways, intermediate tracks, short tracks and road courses. After its successful inaugural visit in 2013, the series will return Mid-Ohio (Aug. 16), a road course located near Nationwide Insurance’s Columbus, Ohio headquarters. The series will also visit two other road courses in 2014: Road America (June 21) and Watkins Glen International (Aug. 16).
The NASCAR Nationwide season officially kicks off on Feb. 22, the day before the Daytona 500, and runs until the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Nov. 15. Texas Motor Speedway’s date is now slated for April 4, one week earlier than last season. The Darlington Raceway date moved up a month to April 11, while the first Iowa Speedway date jumped a couple weeks to May 18. The Texas and Darlington date changes coincide with the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule released earlier this week.
The 2014 schedule includes six “standalone” dates: Iowa (May 18, Aug. 2), Chicagoland Speedway which returns to night racing on July 19, Kentucky Speedway (Sept. 20), Road America and Mid-Ohio. Additionally, NASCAR and Nationwide Insurance will bring back the “Dash 4 Cash” bonus program during the summer months that will allow drivers and fans to compete for large cash bonuses. More details on the 2014 program will be released at a later date.
2014 NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES SCHEDULE
Date Site
Feb. 22 Daytona International Speedway
March 1 Phoenix International Raceway
March 8 Las Vegas Motor Speedway
March 15 Bristol Motor Speedway
March 22 Auto Club Speedway
April 4 Texas Motor Speedway
April 11 Darlington Raceway
April 25 Richmond International Raceway
May 3 Talladega Superspeedway
May 18 Iowa Speedway
May 24 Charlotte Motor Speedway
May 31 Dover International Speedway
June 14 Michigan International Speedway
June 21 Road America
June 27 Kentucky Speedway
July 4 Daytona International Speedway
July 12 New Hampshire Motor Speedway
July 19 Chicagoland Speedway
July 26 Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Aug. 2 Iowa Speedway
Aug. 9 Watkins Glen International
Aug. 16 Mid-Ohio
Aug. 22 Bristol Motor Speedway
Aug. 30 Atlanta Motor Speedway
Sept. 5 Richmond International Raceway
Sept. 13 Chicagoland Speedway
Sept. 20 Kentucky Speedway
Sept. 27 Dover International Speedway
Oct. 4 Kansas Speedway
Oct. 10 Charlotte Motor Speedway
Nov. 1 Texas Motor Speedway
Nov. 8 Phoenix International Raceway
Nov. 15 Homestead-Miami Speedway
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
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