NASCAR Draft Kit: What's New for 2024

Before we can fill out our cheat sheets or prepare our draft strategies for the upcoming 2024 NASCAR season, there are many changes that we need to take into account in order to be prepared for any fantasy racing league. We're going to take an in-depth look at some of these changes that we'll see and some that aren't so apparent when the engines fire up at Daytona in February.

Driver Changes

Thanks to the usual silly season movement and free agent driver signings, we have several different drivers that have moved to new teams in 2024. There are a handful of teams that are shutting down and some that are starting new. There are a few teams that have merged or contracted in order to stay competitive. Also, a handful of driver/team swaps have taken place along with a few rookie driver promotions.

2024 Schedule Changes

The schedule has quite a few changes over last season's slate. We welcome back the pre-season exhibition Busch Light Clash at the LA Coliseum for a third year. However, after three seasons of racing on dirt at Bristol in the spring, NASCAR switches back to the traditional paved surface for 2024. Also gone is the two-mile oval in Fontana, California (Auto Club Speedway). The sanctioning body has moved Atlanta Motor Speedway into that slot just after the Daytona 500. As a result, Texas Motor Speedway moves from the fourth race of the Chase playoffs into the ninth race of the regular season to fill that vacancy that Auto Club's departure created. 

Returning for the second season is the All-Star Race at the newly refurbished North Wilkesboro Speedway. Also returning to the schedule for the second year is the Chicago Street Course race in July. A changed event for 2024 is the race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The sanctioning body has decided to shift away from racing on the grand prix (road) circuit and return to the traditional oval for July 21st's Brickyard 400. 

This is an Olympics year which will create an unusual two-week break during late July and early August. There will be no NASCAR racing during those two weeks as television coverage is consumed with covering the Olympics. Other than these changes, much of the schedule remains unchanged except for a couple weekend swaps. The final race of the regular season (cutoff for the Chase) switches from Daytona to Darlington in 2024. The 10-race Chase for the Cup playoffs gets a bit of a makeover with Texas leaving and Watkins Glen filling that void, and the kickoff race for the playoffs switches from Darlington to Atlanta.

As NASCAR continues to change and evolve, so does the Cup Series schedule. The upcoming season offers some new events and some returning old events in a jam-packed 36-event calendar, plus exhibition races. Unlike 2023, there will be two consecutive off weekends during the Olympics, which will make the rest of the schedule unbroken and grueling. The ironman-type slate will prove to be very challenging for the competitors as they race nearly uninterrupted from February to November. 

Return of the Indianapolis Oval

Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced in late September of last year that the NASCAR Cup Series would return to racing on the historic oval the famous race track. In addition, the NASCAR Xfinity Series will also compete the same weekend (July 20-21, 2024) for a doubleheader event. The move comes on the 30th anniversary of NASCAR's inaugural running at the Brickyard. The Brickyard 400 returns to the oval in the upcoming season.

After three seasons of racing on the Indianapolis Grand Prix circuit, the sanctioning body and IMS have decided to return the action to the more traditional oval for 2024. The move is hoped to spur a little more competition and drama as the road course experiment appears to have come to a close. Racing on the Indianapolis oval was considered one of the crown jewel races of NASCAR prior to the road course shift. This race should resume having that same importance and feel going forward as the Brickyard 400.

New NASCAR Media Rights Deal

In November 2023 NASCAR announced a new media rights deal for the sport that expands the revenue to a record $1.1 billion per year beginning in 2025. NASCAR will maintain its relationships with long-time broadcast partners FOX Sports and NBC Sports, but will add new telecast partners Amazon Prime and TNT Sports. The top division, Cup Series, will have an even split of 26 points races between FOX and NBC. Meanwhile, new partners Amazon and TNT will evenly split the 10 remaining events in a combination of live streams and broadcast cable television. In addition, Amazon & TNT has obtained the rights to the full package of Cup Series practices and qualifying for the full season.

NASCAR's current deal with NBC and FOX will continue through the upcoming 2024 season, but the new media deal kicks in for 2025. Where fans go to tune in to action will vary throughout the season due to the additional media partners. The change will be very noticeable, but despite the varied broadcast partners, hopefully the sport can continue its forward momentum and growth.