NASCAR Realignment
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NASCAR Realignment refers to changes in the schedule of NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. In a January 2003 press conference, NASCAR's Chairman of the Board, Bill France, Jr., caused a stir when he interrupted the conference to announce big changes for 2004. France said that many tracks were under fire and being looked at as having race dates taken from them, and given to other facilities. Among the scenarios being looked at by France were how tracks did with ticket sales, and how the weather affected those races. Two tracks immediately looked at by the media were the North Carolina Speedway and Darlington Raceway. Both tracks' events almost never sold out, and the weather, especially at North Carolina Speedway, had been a major problem, as rain forced many races to be postponed until the next day, typically Monday, which is even worse for tracks because most people who planned to attend the race on a Sunday couldn't be there on a Monday because they had to work.
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[edit] Realignment 2004
"Realignment 2004" was announced in June 2003 at the Winston Cup race weekend at the Michigan International Speedway. While there weren't very many changes, those changes were still big. In June 1997, the California Speedway began hosting a Winston Cup race. Since the track's host city, Fontana, is located just outside Los Angeles, many fans flocked to the first race, and very quickly, the Los Angeles area became NASCAR's largest market. So, it was announced that Darlington's Mountain Dew Southern 500, held on Labor Day weekend for many, many years, would be moved to November for 2004. In the process, the North Carolina Speedway's November date, the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400, would move to Fontana, become the Pop Secret 500, and be run from the late evening into the night on the West Coast on the day before Labor Day, while also being shown live on NBC in primetime. The move of the race to September left the Rockingham, North Carolina-based track with just one race to run in 2004—its February date, the Subway 400.
[edit] Realignment 2005
"Realignment 2004" was unpopular with many, but unlike "Realignment 2005", the previous realignment in the schedule wasn't tied in with a lawsuit. In April 1997 the Winston Cup Series began racing at the newly-built Texas Motor Speedway in Justin, Texas, near Fort Worth. Bruton Smith's Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (which also oversees operations of tracks in Bristol, Tennessee, Hampton, Georgia Loudon, New Hampshire, and Concord, North Carolina, all of which have two race dates a year) thought that the first race at Texas was popular enough to warrant another date. Soon, the company began pressing NASCAR to give them another date, but NASCAR refused to grant the track a second race.
Early in the 2000s, SMI shareholder Francis Ferko filed a lawsuit against NASCAR, saying that it failed to come through on a "promise" to give Texas a second date. NASCAR denied making any promise of any kind. (Ferko filed the suit on his own; Bruton Smith did not want any part of the suit.)
In May 2004, NASCAR announced that they and Texas had reached a settlement. As part of said settlement ISC sold North Carolina Speedway to SMI, who in turn gave the race to Texas. This not only cost Rockingham its Nextel Cup date, but left it with no dates in any of NASCAR's national racing series in 2005 (the track's remaining Busch Series date was removed; the Truck Series' date was removed in 2004 with the loss of the Pop Secret 400).
The second track to lose a race was Darlington, whose slot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup was given to Texas. Darlington was then left with its spring date, which was moved to Mother's Day weekend (a traditional off-weekend for the Cup Series) and lengthened to 500 miles.
In addition to Texas gaining a second race, for the first time since its debut on the Cup schedule in 1988 Phoenix was granted a second date, this one in an early season slot following the spring race at Texas.
NASCAR also moved the Auto Club 500, the spring race at Fontana, into Rockingham's slot on the schedule (the race immediately following the Daytona 500.)
[edit] Realignment 2006-2007
After its Cup series realignment plans, NASCAR turned to its second tier series, the Busch Series, for realignment in 2006. ISC purchased Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado and immediately took its race from the Busch schedule, replacing it with an event at Martinsville Speedway.
As quickly as the race at Martinsville was added to the schedule, it was removed in favor of a race in Canada at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, adding a third road course to the series schedule.
The Nextel Cup series schedule was left untouched during this time.
[edit] Reasons for Rockingham and Darlington losing their races
NASCAR has said Rockingham and Darlington lost their dates because they didn't sell all their tickets for those events, and that giving Darlington only one date would make a sellout more possible since it would be the only race taking place there the following year.
Also, races at both tracks had been affected by rain many times over the past few years. Even if there was no rain, it was usually overcast, and any sunshine was very welcomed. Darlington's only race taking place in May also puts the scheduling of the race in the peak tornado season in the Southeast.
However, Darlington's future seems secure, with a total sellout for the lone race from 2005 through 2008, and many major projects being planned or done at the speedway. Due to the sellouts the track owners have considered adding even more seats.
[edit] Realignment 2009
The 2009 season, announced on August 19, 2008, went under a realignment once again after a long break. The fall race at Talladega Superspeedway was moved to a later date on the schedule around Halloween (the first Sunday in November or the final Sunday in October), one previously occupied by Atlanta Motor Speedway's fall event. That race was moved to Labor Day weekend, where California Speedway's inherited autumn event from Darlington had been, and that date was switched to Talladega's old date on the first weekend of October. In addition, the Nationwide Series dropped Mexico City's road course race for a new race in August at the .875 miles (1.408 km) Iowa Speedway, and moved the Montreal event to an open weekend on the Sprint Cup schedule (August 30) with their lone Atlanta race moving to the Labor Day weekend from March. The Camping World Truck Series replaced the spring Atlanta race with a midweek nighttime race at Chicagoland Speedway to be run on August 26 as part of the Indy Racing League event there, and also replaced the Memorial Day weekend race at Mansfield Motorsports Park with a Labor Day weekend race at Iowa.
