Pocono adding Truck race as series' schedules shuffle

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- NASCAR's 2010 schedules for the three national series will open at Daytona International Speedway on the weekend of Feb. 12-14 and conclude at Homestead-Miami Speedway on the weekend of Nov. 19-21.

The Sprint Cup Series will again have a 36-race schedule, starting with the Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, plus two "non-point" events -- the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona on Feb. 6 and the All-Star Race at Charlotte on May 22.

The Nationwide Series will again race 35 times, while the Camping World Truck Series will again have 25 events, including one of the most intriguing additions to the schedule in the series' 15-year history: a new event at Pocono Raceway's 2.5-mile triangle-shaped track on July 31, as a companion to one of the two traditional Cup Series weekends there.

The Truck Series race at Pocono will be the only new event on any of the three series' schedules. It replaces the series' previous February event at Fontana.

There will be some significant shuffling of events in 2010, compared to the current season's schedules.

In the Cup Series:

• Qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be held on Feb. 6, the same day as the Budweiser Shootout. Previously, qualifying was held the day after the Shootout.

• The season's first Dover race will be on May 16, before the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte. Dover traditionally has followed that consecutive two-week stop in Charlotte.

• Phoenix's first race will be April 10, with Texas' first event April 18. Previously, Texas went first in April.

• Also, the Cup Series will have four off weeks, including the traditional Easter holiday on April 4.

In the Nationwide Series:

• A Nashville-Phoenix-Texas run on April 3, April 9 and April 17 will replace a Texas-Nashville-Phoenix spring lineup.

• The first Dover race will be run earlier than usual, on May 15, in companion to the Cup Series.

In the Truck Series:

• The Kansas race will be May 2, one week later.

• The series' race at Dover, as in the other two national series, will be held two weeks earlier, on May 14, kicking off a national series tripleheader weekend.

• The Iowa and Gateway events will be two months earlier, on July 11 and 16.

• Nashville's date moves a week later, to Aug. 7.

• Kentucky's date moves from July to Sept. 3.