2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

The 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will be the sixty-first season of professional stock car racing in the United States, which will begin at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida with the 2009 Budweiser Shootout, a race for the top six teams of the four brands in the 2008 season on February 7th, with the first points race being the 2009 Daytona 500 to be held on February 15th. The 2009 Chase for the Sprint Cup will start on September 20th with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire, and ending November 22nd with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway in Homestead, Florida.

chedule

The biggest changes for 2009 in a NASCAR schedule realignment adds the Pepsi 500 at Auto Club Speedway to the 2009 Chase, the shifting of the AMP Energy 500 at Talladega Superspeedway to a later autumn date, and the placement of the Pep Boys Auto 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway to Labor Day weekend as a night race. Additionally, there will be a fourth bye week between the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Pep Boys 500. The schedule changes are listed in boldface on the chart below.

"NOTE: All race dates, names, distances, television and radio stations and start times are subject to change."

(R) — Rookie of the year candidate. × — This car ran as the #66 in 2008. ° — This car ran as the #70 in 2008.

TV and Radio

In their third year of the current NASCAR television agreement, FOX will carry the Bud Shootout, the Daytona 500 and the first 13 races through Dover's June race. Fox-owned SPEED Channel will air the Gatorade Duels and Sprint All Star Race XXV. TNT will then pick up the next six races starting at Pocono including the summer race at Daytona, the Coke Zero 400 with its' "wide open format" coverage and ending at Chicago. The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard will start ESPN/ABC's coverage, including the entire Chase for the Sprint Cup on ABC.

On radio, Sirius XM Radio will carry all races in the series. Terrestrial radio rights are being handled as follows:
* Motor Racing Network will carry races at tracks owned by their corporate sibling, International Speedway Corporation as well as the races at Dover and Pocono;
* Speedway Motorsports, Inc.-owned Performance Racing Network will carry events from those SMI tracks, and will joinly produce the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network.

ESPN and MRN will be the broadcasters at the annual Sprint Cup Banquet in New York City from The Waldorf=Astoria Hotel on December 4th.