The NASCAR Cup Series 2025 schedule isn’t out just yet. Although it is presumed to be official this month, there has been growing concern among the community regarding dates and venues. 2025 is going to be a different year, with big changes coming into play by NASCAR. The first is the new TV and media partners splitting up the schedule, and the second is the addition of an international race to the race calendar.

Leaked schedules have been making the rounds on social media platforms recently. And although this was just a leak, not a confirmed schedule, it got people talking. As rumored, NASCAR would make an international trip to Mexico City, but fans were soon concerned about the clash between two big racing events: the return of Iowa Speedway on the schedule going up against the Sprint Car event, Knoxville Nationals.

Hendrick Motorsports star driver Kyle Larson is a regular when it comes to competing in Sprint car races. On August 10, he clinched the 63rd running of the NOS Energy Drink Knoxville Speedway, where he led all 50 laps around the half-mile track for the third consecutive year and took home $190,000. Larson sounded elated as he took the podium and said, “It doesn’t get any bigger than the Knoxville Nationals. It feels great to lead back-to-back 50 lappers from start to finish because the best Sprint Car drivers in the world are lined up behind me. They don’t make it easy. It was a tricky race there.”

The Knoxville National is the Grandaddy of all Sprint Car racing events. Every year, the prestigious Sprint Car event is held in the second week of August and attended by some 25,000 fans. With the highest purse of the season, this event also attracts around 100 entries to compete for the trophy and lucrative prize money—all the more reason for more NASCAR drivers to enter. For 2025, it’s set to take place on August 3, per a post shared on Reddit.

However, NASCAR’s tentative Cup Series schedule, which sees the return of Iowa Speedway, has put race fans in a dilemma. The tentative schedule is as follows: –

Both the racetracks – the Iowa Speedway and the Knoxville Raceway – are in the state of Iowa, and thus, a potential clash of dates would force fans into ditching one race event for another. Soon, many of them took to the Reddit post thread to share their displeasure with NASCAR.

If NASCAR is trying to overshadow regional racing, fans aren’t staying calm

Just like NASCAR, the Knoxville Nationals have a group of ardent supporters. Therefore, a potential move to clash the NASCAR races with the Grandaddy Sprint Car race would backfire, according to this fan. “I think this will hurt the NASCAR race more than Knoxville. People that attend the Cappy and the 360 Nationals aren’t casual sprint car fans. They are die hards and will give up NASCAR tickets before Knoxville ones.”

That was precisely what a fan even claimed to do as they shared their plan. They threatened not to renew their tickets for the Iowa Cup race after its inaugural run in 2024. “This really upsets me. Going up against the 360 Nationals and the Capitani Classic and being the Sunday for the Knoxville Nationals sucks. I can’t drive up back-to-back weekends. Won’t be renewing my tickets now, unfortunately.”

Agreeing with this, another user wrote, “Dang, I didn’t realize it was that close to the Nationals. I know a lot of people are gonna be in the same boat.” Speaking of being close to (or rather, clashing with) events at the Knoxville Raceway, a Redditor expressed frustration: “Why would they schedule this against the Capitani Classic? Makes no sense unless it was an oversight.”

This year, NASCAR went to the Iowa Speedway in June, but the repave on the racing surface made news for all the wrong reasons. Despite everything going well in the Goodyear Tire Test just three weeks before the race, five drivers had flat tires in the 50-minute-turned-1-hour-4-minute practice session. However, with the tentative schedule indicating that NASCAR will return to Iowa deeper into the season, perhaps that would allow the organizers to repave the entirety of the racetrack: “Maybe getting pushed back to August is to give the track time to finish/do a full repave before IndyCar in July? 🤔”

Before NASCAR’s visit, only the bottom two lanes of the track were resurfaced in the corners, making the higher ones almost unusable for both NASCAR and IndyCar in July. Because of this, racing and getting past others was close to impossible, making it a boring affair for the drivers. In fact, two-time IndyCar champion Alex Palou even called it “the most boring thing I’ve ever done,” and Iowa winner Will Power said, “We certainly have to do something for next year.” So, it looks like pushing the Cup Series race to August will allow organizers to make changes before racing resumes in 2025.

Meanwhile, Iowa’s return clashing with the Knoxville Nationals allowed NASCAR fans to also put the missing piece of the puzzle together on which track would lose the date, with Iowa retaining its spot. “Now that we know Iowa is going nowhere, is it just Richmond that loses a date, and who else would drop a race if the rumor of both Mexico City and Montreal are on the docket?”

Adding to this conversation, a user believed that the Darlington spring race should make way for new events on the Cup Series schedule. “People might not like this answer but Darlington? The racing is good but that still doesn’t mean the place sells well. I think attendance has gone down since they went back to two races again actually. The eye test shows that.”

While the fans are livid about this potential clash of two big events, nothing can be certain without the official announcement on NASCAR’s part.