NASCAR has "reached five-year agreements with each of the racetracks on the Sprint Cup Series circuit, meaning there will be no new venues on the calendar" until at least '21, according to Jeff Gluck of USA TODAY. NASCAR wanted to "give its tracks some stability and help fans plan time off around race dates further in advance." Though the races "will not change, the dates of those races still will be determined on a year-to-year basis." The "biggest adjustment" on the '16 schedule is the August race at Michigan Int'l Speedway -- which "moves two weeks later to Aug. 28 due to NASCAR television partner NBC’s broadcast" of the Rio Games. Also, the April race at Richmond Int'l Raceway -- "traditionally held on a Saturday night -- will be run on a Sunday afternoon (April 24)." NASCAR’s 10-week Chase for the Sprint Cup in '16 "will be identical to this year’s version" (USA TODAY, 10/27).
FRANCHISE TAG: NASCAR Vice Chair Mike Helton said of franchising possibly coming to the sport, "NASCAR's interest has always been to have healthy stakeholders, we got to have racetracks and we got to have race teams to do what we do." Helton added the statement NASCAR "put out after the team meeting a few weeks ago puts us in the current position." He said, "Yes, we had a conversation with the team owners. Yes, it's going to take some work to put all the parts and pieces together. When we get far enough down the road to where we can talk about that, we will." Helton: "In the meantime, the team owners, NASCAR, the France family has always been about making modifications to make the sport healthy. Not just for today, but for many years to come. Ownership, the current ownership, new ownership is very critical to that health" ("NASCAR America Sunday," NBCSN, 10/25).
