NASCAR moving regular-season finale from Richmond to Indy

ByBOB POCKRASS
May 23, 2017, 4:35 PM

— -- Indianapolis Motor Speedway will replace Richmond International Raceway as the site of the NASCAR Cup regular-season finale starting in 2018 as part of several changes to the schedule announced Tuesday.

NASCAR also will change the opening race of its playoffs, with Las Vegas Motor Speedway taking the spot formerly held by Chicagoland Speedway. It also will move the playoff race from Charlotte in the second round to the final race of the first round -- and use the "roval" course that includes part of the track oval and infield road course. That will give NASCAR an entirely new opening round of Vegas, Richmond and Charlotte.

The Indianapolis race, called the Brickyard 400, has traditionally been at the end of July as part of the regular season. The September date should provide cooler temperatures in addition to the added drama of being the regular-season finale.

Richmond had been the regular-season finale since the inception of NASCAR's playoff system in 2004.?That race will move to April as a Saturday night event, as will its playoff race.

NASCAR announced it March that it would allow Speedway Motorsports Inc. to move one of its two Cup races from New Hampshire Motor Speedway to Las Vegas for a second race at the destination-city track. That is the only change as far as number of races per track on the schedule.

Chicagoland, which has been the first race in the playoffs since 2011, will move to July 1 next year.

The Indianapolis change is the biggest as NASCAR tries to breathe some life into what used to be one of its biggest events. The Indianapolis race will be on Sunday, Sept. 9, which could potentially conflict with NFL's opening day.

Eight of the 10 tracks in the playoffs remain the same, with Las Vegas replacing New Hampshire and Richmond replacing Chicagoland. The second round will be Dover, Talladega and Kansas; the third round remains the same with Martinsville, Texas and Phoenix and the championship race at Homestead.

NASCAR also announced it would run its preseason Clash and Daytona 500 single-car pole qualifying round on Feb. 11, instead of having the Clash the day prior to qualifying as it has been in the past.