FOX announces 2012 Broadcast Schedule: FOX Sports gears up for its 12th season of NASCAR coverage by unveiling the 2012 NASCAR on FOX broadcast schedule featuring 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup points races and 15 events total, highlighted by the 54th running of the Daytona 500, live on Sunday, Feb. 26 (1:00-5:30 pm/et) from Daytona International Speedway. Coverage of the “Great American Race” begins that day with a special one-hour pre-race program (12:00-1:00 pm/et) from the DIS infield and a completely remodeled Hollywood Hotel. The flag officially drops on FOX Sports’ 2012 Speedweeks coverage with the Budweiser Shootout, live on Saturday, Feb. 18 in prime time (8:00-10:00 pm/et), followed by live coverage of Daytona 500 Qualifying on Sunday, Feb. 19 (1:00-4:00 pm/et).
Michael Waltrip, driver, owner and pitch-man extraordinaire, joins the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY prerace team, taking a seat in the famed Hollywood Hotel alongside big brother Darrell Waltrip and host Chris Myers. Darrell and former champion crew chief Larry McReynolds return to provide race analysis for all NASCAR on FOX Sprint Cup events, and Mike Joy returns as race announcer. Veteran analyst Jeff Hammond takes his extensive experience as a former championship-winning crew chief to the action in the garages and on pit road. Dick Berggren, Steve Byrnes, Matt Yocum and Krista Voda also return to cover pit road. NASCAR on FOX “storm scout” and meteorologist Rick Dickert of FOX-owned KTTV in Los Angeles rejoins the crew to provide weather updates to viewers on the FOX NASCAR SUNDAY prerace show as well as during race coverage.(FOX)(2-7-2012)

NASCAR releases race start times: Darlington Raceway has the only change in start time in the 2012 Sprint Cup Series schedule as its race will start at 7 p.m. Eastern instead of 7:30 p.m. as it did in 2011. The 7 p.m. start time is a departure from NASCAR's attempt at consistent start times but one Darlington asked for so its race - the second-longest on the schedule at 501.322 miles - will end earlier. The race took 3 hours, 53 minutes to complete last year and 3 hours, 57 minutes in 2010. "We were able to move it 30 minutes, which is good," Darlington Raceway President Chris Browning said. "We're pleased about that. I think it will help our fans to get out of here a little bit quicker. That's really good for us. The remainder of the Sprint Cup races remains the same. Daytime races will start at 1 p.m. or 3 p.m. Eastern depending on the location, except during the Chase For The Sprint Cup when races will start at 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. Eastern. Night races will start at 7:30 p.m. Eastern with the exception of the Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m.) and now Darlington (7 p.m.).(Scene Daily), see the start times for all three series on the Sprint Cup, Nationwide Series, and Camping World Truck Series schedule pages.(2-5-2012)

NASCAR Releases 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule: NASCAR announced the 2012 schedule for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, with a lineup featuring a number of adjustments from the 2011 edition.
“We believe the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule will once again provide fans with what they’ve come to expect every season – the world’s most exciting and competitive form of motorsports,” said Brian France, NASCAR chairman and CEO. “Next year’s schedule has a few adjustments that we think will be good for the fans and good for the overall flow of the season. One thing will remain constant, however, and that’s the intense competition we see week in and week out from our drivers and race teams.”
One of those adjustments takes place during NASCAR’s playoffs – the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – and could affect the strategy during the championship run. Talladega Superspeedway’s Chase event moves up two weeks to Oct. 7, becoming the fourth race in the Chase. Often labeled as the wild-card track in the Chase, Talladega’s grueling test is now staged during the first half of the Chase.
Talladega swaps its Chase date with Kansas Speedway (Oct. 21) to accommodate Kansas’ repave, scheduled for after the track’s spring event. As such, Kansas’ spring date has also been moved. Kansas now will be the eighth race of the season on April 22. Talladega’s spring event moves to May 6, and Dover International Speedway’s spring event returns to its traditional spot on June 3.
As previously announced, the season-opening Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway will start one week later with the running of the preseason “non-points” Shootout at Daytona on Feb. 18. The 54th annual Daytona 500 will run on Feb. 26. The race dates for Phoenix International Raceway and Las Vegas Motor Speedway have likewise been moved a week later, to March 4 and March 11, respectively.
Two other featured adjustments to the 2012 schedule: Texas Motor Speedway’s spring date will be moved to April 14, to accommodate the traditional open week for the Easter holiday. Daytona’s summer event and Kentucky Speedway’s race will swap weekends in 2012, as the July 4th holiday falls mid-week next year. Kentucky’s race will be June 30; Daytona will run on July 7. As in past years, FOX will broadcast the first 13 races of next year’s schedule. TNT will follow, broadcasting the next six. ESPN/ABC will broadcast the final 17 events. Race start times will be announced at a later date. NASCAR will also release the 2012 schedules for the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at a later date.
See the schedule on my 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Schedule page(9-28-2011)

OFF weekends (2): (no Sprint Cup races scheduled)
4/8
7/22

Night Races (11): (all but noted scheduled to start approx 7:45pm/et)
Texas - 4/14
Richmond - 4/28
Darlington - 5/12, 7:00pm/et
All-Star Race - 5/19, 7:00pm/et
Charlotte - 5/27 - 6:15pm/et
Kentucky - 6/30
Daytona - 7/7
Bristol - 8/25
Atlanta - 9/2
Richmond - 9/8
Charlotte - 10/13

see info for each track news and rumors on my 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Schedule & News page