'14 NASCAR Schedule Due Soon: Will There Be Changes?

It's that time of year again...waiting on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule for 2014.

Every year at this time, NASCAR meets to fine-tune the schedule, and every year, hotel/motel owners in the areas that have current tracks wait with bated breath. So do NASCAR fans, for the same reason.

According to published reports, NASCAR hadn't been planning on making revisions to the schedule, or at least just minor tweaks to the existing slate. Now that the Richmond kerfuffle is behind us and the TV deal is signed, there might be a few wrinkles that nobody saw coming. Well, nobody but the intrepid Mike Mulhern, that is.

Mulhern, one of the sport's busiest scribes at mikemulhern.net, has postulated that some really bonzer moves could be in the offing. It's nothing official, just the result of some digging on his part, but here's what he came up with.

"Homestead might lose its spot as the season finale;

Phoenix might gain the final spot on the 2014 tour;

Sonoma could earn a spot in the playoffs, adding a California stop to the chase;

Road America, that picturesque road course at Elkhart Lake, Wis., an hour north of Milwaukee, could get a slot in the 2014 Cup schedule (even though NASCAR's Brian France earlier this year said he planned no new tracks on the tour next season);

Dover could lose its late spring Cup weekend (keeping its early fall Cup date, in the Chase), track boss Denis McGlynn, not unaccustomed to such speculation, would surely fight hard to keep both; and -- hold your horses -- Darlington might even get its traditional Labor Day weekend Southern 500 back; to fill that Mother's Day Saturday night slot, maybe a swap with Atlanta;

Of course after all this debate NASCAR might simply decide not to make any changes for 2014."

Also, there's been some rumbling among the folks who report the news that Chicagoland might lose the Chase kickoff race for 2014, in favor of another track away from the NFL opening weekends. One such possibility--again, this is all circumstantial and not vetted by NASCAR--is swapping Chicagoland with Bristol.

You heard me. 

At any rate, the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule is due out by the end of this month. We'll see what happens then.